The bilateral conference was a very significant and important experience that my school and the school in the Philippines got. To begin with I learnt about the issue that they chose to talk about with us, this issue was called dolomite mining. The issue with dolomite mining is that the dolomite gets mined at Cebu and gets transported to Manilla which is approximately 830km away and it gets dumped on the beaches in Manilla Bay and it creates white sand. The way the government is trying to get rid of the problem is to beautify the beaches by getting rid of the mangroves which protects the lands during the many cyclones during the year. I also learnt that mangrove coverage went from 70% in 1938 down to 20% in 2007, decreasing a whopping 50%. I learnt the many effects of the white sand not only on the environment, but on people to. The white sand in Manilla Bays destroys reefs and marine life with in 500m of the land. There are a lot of repertory concerns due to the white sand as well as the use of kerosene and the air pollution of carbon. What the community decided to do to fix the issue was a petition to dig out the white sand and replace it with mangroves, so far it has approximately 771 signatures. Lastly, I learnt that the president is disregarding the climate issue.

My view of the Philippines was that they had a superior Power Point then my school and each person knew what they were doing, this including the fact that they had organised amount of speaking.

Unlike My school the school from the Philippines had to face being in lock down since March and they had to individually join the zoom meeting, where as we only stayed home for just a few weeks. Even with the lock down their school did an outstanding job at the conference. It was a pleasure meeting them.

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