The Philippines has achieved significant milestones in protecting its coastal and marine ecosystems, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
A member of the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security (CTI-CFF), a six-nation partnership aimed at protecting the Coral Triangle, the Philippines made headway in effectively managing its marine protected areas (MPAs) and fisheries, Director Crisanta Marlene Rodriguez of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said.
The CTI-CFF is a multilateral partnership of six countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste and the Philippines—to sustain extraordinary marine and coastal resources in the region known as the “global center of marine biodiversity” by addressing crucial issues, such as food security and climate change.
Rodriguez said the Philippines has delivered on its commitment to creating more MPAs with the enactment of Republic Act 11038, or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-Nipas) Act, early this year.
The E-Nipas law has brought to 43 the total number of nationally managed MPAs and 1,816 locally managed MPAs, all covering 1.4 percent of the country’s total sea area. MPAs are areas in seas and oceans where human activity is regulated for conservation and protection of the natural resources within them.
“One of the milestones of the Philippines is the legislation of additional 10 [nationally managed] MPAs under the [E-Nipas Act],” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez also reported the full implementation of the Coastal and Marine Ecosystems Management Program, which covered activities, such as habitat assessment for the Nipas MPAs, MPA networking technical assistance for local government units, support to 25 MPA networks and some 200 biodiversity-friendly enterprises, and the inclusion of ocean acidification baseline study in select MPAs.
On the other hand, coastal stability assessment, mapping, impact monitoring, resiliency studies and updating of coral reef baseline data were successfully conducted in the West Philippine Sea and the Philippine Rise, formerly known as Benham Rise, she said.
Other accomplishments of the country in MPA management include the establishment of a 2-million-hectare MPA in northeast Palawan, approval of MPA management plan for Davao Gulf and the creation of five-province MPA and MPA network within the Verde Island Passage, which has been dubbed as the “center of the center of marine shorefish biodiversity in the world.” The five provinces are Batangas, Marinduque, Romblon, Oriental Mindoro and Occidental Mindoro.
Effective MPA management is one of the five targets under the country’s National Plan of Action (NPOA) for the CTI-CFF.
“Among the NPOA goals, the MPA truly mirrors how much we have achieved in terms of implementation and regional cooperation,” Rodriguez pointed out.
Other significant milestones are the adoption of the ecosystem approach to fisheries management (EAFM), another goal set by the Philippines in its NPOA.
She said the country had intensified its effort to combat illegal fishing nationwide in order to improve food security and livelihood.
To strengthen law enforcement on the country’s coastal waters, Rodriguez said a Committee on Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing was created through Executive Order 154.
Of the 24 EAFM programs initiated, Rodriguez said six have been completed, while 18 are ongoing.
The BMB chief said the Philippines also made progress on its three other NPOA goals, namely: establishment of seascapes, achieving climate change-adaptation measures and improved status of threatened species.
The Philippines has successful hosted the CTI-CFF Ministerial Meetings and Senior Officials Meeting from December 9 to 15, which served as culminating activities for the country’s two-year chairmanship of CTI-CFF.
Meanwhile, the BMB official acknowledged the important role played by the DENR’s various development projects.
“We look forward to the continued support of our development partners as we embark on the progress of the next Regional Plan of Action. This then leads us to tackle issues on marine debris, nature-based ecotourism, blue carbon and sustained financing for the CTI-CFF goals,” Rodriguez said.
Image credits: Gregg Yan and Oceana