THE Philippines and Germany recently forged ties to boost the protection and management of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion (SSME), considered as one of the world’s most important marine areas.
Along with Malaysia and Indonesia, the Philippines will get a €7-million funding support from the German government through the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB).
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between Environment Undersecretary Analiza R. Teh and Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific Robert Kressirer at the Bulwagan Ninoy, Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City on Wednesday for the implementation of the partnership agreement, which is in support of the joint implementation of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion-Comprehensive Action Plan (SSME-CAP) Project.
“The funding support from the German government will be a big boost to our country’s effort to protect and conserve the country’s marine biodiversity and fishery resources,” Teh told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
She said that 80 percent of the country’s coral reefs areas are already in sorry state because of destructive human activities.
The country’s coral reefs are scattered across the Philippines’s territorial waters. The Philippines boasts of 27,000 square kilometers, or 2.7 million hectares, of coral reefs. Of these, 1.3 million hectares are within declared marine-protected areas (MPAs).
“The partnership will help enhance marine protection and conservation of our marine wildlife and their natural habitats,” said Theresa Mundita Lim, director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB).
Berthold Schirm, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) principal advisor and program coordinator for SSME and the Protected Area Management Enhancement, said turtles travel across seas and do not recognize territorial boundaries.
“Imagine yourself as a marine turtle. When you swim to the seas, you go everywhere. That’s why we need to strengthen partnership for the Sulu-Sulawesi, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines,” he said.
With the MOU, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the GIZ will jointly pursue conservation programs and actions to protect the biodiversity hot spot found within the SSME.
A similar bilateral agreement was already signed by the German government with Indonesia, and a similar partnership is waiting to be formalized with Malaysia.
The project involves the protection of the country’s MPA network—to develop a network of protected areas to safeguard marine turtles in the SSME focusing on connectivity and climate-change adaptation and fisheries protection—to design and implement an ecosystem approach to fisheries management for selected marine-managed areas in the SSME.
In particular, the project for the MPAs focuses on the implementation of the BMUB-GIZ SSME Project on four sites, namely, Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, Turtle Islands Wildlife Sanctuary, El Nido Managed Resource Protected Area and Balabac Marine Conservation Area.