The European Union (EU) has affirmed its continued support to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in the protection and conservation of biological diversity in the region.
In an interview at the EU-Asean Ambassador’s Visit to Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) headquarters at the foot of Mount Makiling in Los Baños, Laguna, Ambassador Franz Jessen, head of EU Delegation to the Philippines, highlighted over 40 years of EU-Asean friendship through various programs and projects.
The event highlighted two important global celebrations: the International Day for Biological Diversity on May 22 and World Environment Day on June 5.
So far, the EU has poured in a €10-million grant to Asean in support of biodiversity conservation and protection.
“I am very happy that it is working and it is working well. Two and a half years ago, we have seen the construction of this building [ACB headquarters],” Jessen said.
He said EU’s support to Asean underscores its commitment to support its “brothers and sisters” within the EU structures in the Asean region.
“Helping Asean protect and conserve biodiversity is important, not only for EU but for the global society,” Jessen said, adding that Asean can learn from European countries’ experience.
Over a century ago, he said, European countries “cared less about the environment in pursuing growth and development.”
This, he said, resulted in environmental degradation. As Asean, including the Philippines, is still young and developing, he said EU can share its valuable lessons in pursuing growth and development.
He underscored the need to mainstream biodiversity in Asean through intensified information campaigns to raise awareness about its importance.
The EU is supporting the Biodiversity Conservation and Management of Protected Areas in Asean, a five-year program (2017-2022) under the Asean-EU Cooperation for biodiversity conservation and protection implemented by ACB.
The project aims to contribute to global sustainability by ensuring that the Asean’s rich biological diversity is conserved and sustainably managed toward enhancing social, economic and environmental well-being.
Incidentally, the ACB implements the Asean Heritage Programme, which has established over 40 Asean Heritage Parks in the region, including the Mount Makiling Forest Reserve, where its headquarters is situated.
Underscoring the importance of the theme of the International Day for Biological Diversity: “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health,” Assistant Secretary for Staff Bureaus Ricardo Calderon of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said there is a need to highlight the benefits of biodiversity, for food and health.
Speaking in mixed Filipino and English, Calderon, representing Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu at the event, said the Philippines is blessed with a diversity of natural food—from native fruits and plants with high medicinal value, to fish and other seafood.
However, he said the rapid rate of biological loss caused by various threats is alarming, severely affecting not only the Philippines, but the entire Asean region.
The diversity of food sources, he said, makes food consumption better, while natural health and wellness prolong life, a lot better than the medicines in capsules or tablets from drug stores.
“Biodiversity is not just about the native animals or plants, but more importantly, about the food we eat, about the health that it provides. The food we eat, the herbal medicine for health and wellness, these we need to highlight for greater appreciation of our rich biodiversity,” Calderon, the concurrent director of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), told the BusinessMirror in an interview.
In a speech read by Clarissa C. Arida, director of ACB’s Programme Development and Implementation, ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said the theme for the International Day of Biological Diversity calls for collective efforts to restore the health of biodiversity, ecosystems, and food systems for human well-being and health.
Incidentally, Lim said 2019 is also significant for the EU-Asean relations as it marks the 21st year of cooperation on biodiversity conservation, with the launching in 1998 of the EU and the government of the Philippines, on behalf of Asean, launched the Asean Regional Centre for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC).
“The project intensified biodiversity conservation through improved cooperation in a comprehensive regional context, by assisting in setting up a network for institutional links among Asean countries and between Asean and EU partner institutions,” she said.
While EU’s technical assistance to ARCBC concluded in December 2004, Lim said it paved the way for the establishment of the ACB the following year for the purpose of sustaining the gains of the ARCBC and in recognition of the need for a center that will facilitate regional cooperation on biodiversity conservation.
In her speech, Lim, a former director of the DENR-BMB underscored Asean’s rich biodiversity and endemism.
“All these biodiversity, as well as the ecosystems services that they provide, are key to the survival, development, well-being and prosperity of some 650 million inhabitants of the Asean region,” she said.
However, she said the world is faced with challenges that threaten its biodiversity. She cited the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services report that human activities result in the alarming decline of biodiversity that will eventually lead to detrimental effects on human life and will compromise the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The global scientific report emphasized that around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, she warned, which calls for the Asean and the EU to work together to stop or reduce the unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss
Besides Jessen, the diplomats who visited the ACB were Ambassador Michel Goffin of Belgium, Ambassador Jozsef Bencze of Hungary and Ambassador Win Naing of Myanmar.
The Asean-EU diplomatic delegation included Kairul Hazwan, deputy chief of mission, Brunei Darussalam Embassy; Khim Kanal, first secretary, Cambodian Embassy; Sharifah Ezneeda Wafa, minister counsellor, Malaysian Embassy; Khine Htut Hla, second secretary, Myanmar Embassy; Xavier Canton Lamousse, programme manager, Cooperation Section, Camille Lavirotte, deputy head, Contracts and Finance Section and Thomas Michel Olascoaga, from the EU Delegation; Amaya Fuentes Milani, deputy head, Spainish Embassy; Emma Briffaut, Attaché for Higher Education, French Embassy; Kathleen Ann Coballes, Climate Change and Energy attaché, United Kingdom Embassy; and Amiel Diaz, assistant to the Political Section, Czech Republic Embassy.
Besides Calderon, Sofio Quintana, director of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau, was also another DENR official present during the event.
Image credits: Jonathan L. Mayuga