22 December 2014 – The Philippine Consulate General in Osaka welcomed Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP) Vice President Alan Cajes during the Welcome Reception for the Global Dissemination Workshop on Converting Waste Agricultural Biomass into Energy held from December 16 to 19 under the auspices of the Osaka-based United Nations Environment Programme - International Environmental Technology Centre (UNEP-IETC).

Mr. Cajes, who is also Managing Director of DAP’s Center for Sustainable Human Development, was invited by UNEP-IETC as facilitator for the workshop’s “Integration of Different Concepts in Holistic Waste Management approach” module.

Mr. Cajes has a longstanding collaboration with the UNEP-IETC, including the completion of two pilot demonstration projects; namely on:

1.         converting waste agricultural biomass into fuel in Bohol, specifically the   application of beneficial indigenous micro-organisms (BIMs) for rapid composting of rice straw and the operation and maintenance of a village scale rice-hull powered gasifier for rice milling water pumping, which was turned over to the Bohol Farmer’s Cooperative; and,

2.         waste plastic to solid fuel technology provided to the city government of Cebu and installed at the city’s decommissioned landfill.

The workshop has the overall objective of assisting national and local governments to promote conversion of waste agricultural biomass into energy through awareness-raising, capacity-building and demonstration projects and is conducted by the UNEP-IETC, having been entrusted by the Japanese Government with the task of implementing the project “Waste Agricultural Biomass for Energy: Resource Conservation and GHG Emission Reduction.” END