The Philippines marked its celebration of the World Wetlands Day on February 2 with the designation of Sasmuan Pampanga Coastal Wetlands (SPCW) as the country’s 8th Wetland of International Importance, or Ramsar Site.
The designation of Sasmuan as a Ramsar Site, the first in Central Luzon, was an affirmation of the Philippines’s commitment to the Convention on Wetlands, an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
Wetlands and water
Anchored on the theme, “Wetlands and Water,” this year’s celebration of the World Wetlands Day also marked the 50th anniversary of the Convention on Wetlands, or the Ramsar Convention, to which the Philippines is a signatory.
The Convention was adopted in Ramsar City in Iran, from which it was named, in 1971 and came into force in 1975.
In a statement congratulating the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in hosting the country’s celebration of World Wetlands Day 2021, Convention Secretary-General Martha Rojas Urrego highlighted this year’s theme which draws attention to the value of wetlands for freshwater supply.
“The world is facing a growing water crisis with profound consequences and wetlands are at the heart of its resolution,” she said.
Urrego added that less than 1 percent of water on the planet is usable freshwater and is stored in wetlands—rivers, streams, lakes, marshes, estuaries and aquifers—underscoring the fact that wetlands are incredibly important source of freshwater.
“Yet nearly 90 percent of the world’s wetlands have vanished. We are losing wetlands three times faster than forests,” she said.
“It is time to value wetlands for how they contribute to sustainable development and the overall health of the planet,’ she pointed out.
Migratory bird haven
Besides supporting the livelihood of fishermen in the municipality, the Sasmuan wetlands is a 3,500-hectare coastal area straddling four barangays in the town of Sasmuan.
The area is composed of mangrove forests and mudflats—which are certified native and migratory waterbirds magnet flying across continents during migration.
In the Asian Waterbird Census held last month, around 80,000 birds comprising 63 species were counted in Sasmuan.
In a statement on February 3, DENR-Region 3 Executive Director Paquito Moreno Jr. said the designation of the Sasmuan Pampanga Coastal Wetlands as Ramsar Site brought honor to the people of Pampanga and the rest of Central Luzon.
While the area is neither a protected area nor an ecotourism site, it met four of the nine criteria to be declared a Ramsar Site.
“We met Criteria 2 and 3, which means that SPCW supports vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered species or threatened ecological communities, and play a big role in maintaining the biological diversity of a particular biogeographic region,” Moreno said.
The SPCW also met Criteria 5 and 6 indicating that it regularly supports 20,000 or more waterbirds, and supports 1 percent of the individuals in a population of 1 species or subspecies of waterbirds.
Moremo added that SPCW is a “vital component of our environment and its declaration as Ramsar Site is an integral part of our strategies in cleaning and rehabilitating our Manila Bay.”
Internationally important
Besides Sasmuan coastal wetlands, the seven other Ramsar Sites in the Philippines are Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary; Las Piñas-Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area; Naujan Lake National Park; Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary; Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park; Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park; and Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area.
The DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said the wetland areas feature astounding biodiversity and natural beauty.
“They are important livelihood areas for communities living near the sites and are home to different endemic species of flora and fauna as well as migratory birds,” DENR-BMB Acting Director Amelita D.J. Ortiz told the BusinessMirror.
Ortiz said via e-mail on February 1 that despite their importance, wetlands, which practically means waterlogged ecosystems, have been widely misunderstood and paid very little attention to by policymakers worldwide.
Unappreciated
“Its [wetland] importance and functions, albeit numerous and more than any other types of ecosystem, in terms of the biodiversity and resources it provides, the climate and disaster risks it regulates and, generally, its various services that affect human well-being and quality of life, remain largely unappreciated to the point of being regarded as wastelands,” Ortiz said.
The DENR-BMB Caves, Wetlands and other Ecosystem Division said wetlands include a variety of water bodies and its shores, whether coastal, inland and human-made.
Marshes, swamps, peatlands, lakes, floodplains, rivers, including riparian areas, are inland wetlands.
Coastal wetlands include salt marshes, coastal lagoons, mangroves, intertidal flats, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and other marine areas that are not deeper than 6 meters at low tide.
Human-made wetlands include dams, reservoir, rice paddies, fishponds, salt pans and wastewater treatment ponds.
Important ecosystem
Ortiz said the importance of preserving wetlands cannot be overemphasized.
“Wetlands provide a wide range of ecosystem services essential to human survival, such as food, freshwater and livelihood, rich biodiversity, protection from floods, droughts and other disasters, and store vast amounts of carbon more efficiently than any other natural ecosystem,” she said.
She said particularly important among wetlands are the peatlands, which store twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests.
Inadequate protection
Having no single Philippine legislation that advances wetland conservation and their wise use, the protection of these very important and unique ecosystems remain very challenging.
The Philippines, is a signatory to the Convention on Wetlands, which entered into force in the country on November 8, 1994.
As a contracting party, it is committed to work toward the adoption and legislation of a national wetland policy.
Yet, for almost 26 years since the accession of the Philippines to the Convention, no legislation has been initiated to serve as a framework to organize and harmonize all legislated laws and policies to attain the wise use of the country’s wetlands and water resources.
“With this fragmented management approach, not all wetlands are equally protected. The degree of their protection depends on the classification or kind of the wetland,” Ortiz explained.
Fragmented management approach
Wetlands are vulnerable to various threats because of fragmented management approach. Various government agencies have overlapping mandates, one way or the other, over water bodies, said Joy Navarro, chief of the Special Ecosystems Standards Section of Caves, Wetlands and other Ecosystems Division of the DENR-BMB.
“Mangroves, coral reefs and wet caves, for example, have absolute protection from destruction through the Fisheries Code, Forestry Code, or the Caves Act,” Navarro explained.
“However, water bodies that are not considered protected areas or critical habitats under the Enipas [Expanded National Integrated Protected Area Systems], or the Wildlife Act, or as marine protected areas under the Fisheries Code, or are not identified as Environmentally Critical Areas as part of the EIA [environment impact assessment] system, hardly receive legal protection,” she lamented.
Ongoing initiatives
The DENR-BMB is implementing various programs to protect and conserve the country’s wetlands.
For one, the BMB, through the DENR Regional Field Offices, is implementing the wetlands inventory and database management, profiling and designation of wetlands as national and international importance, critical habitat and as protected areas.
It also works with several nongovernment organizations and private agencies for various wetland conservation programs.
For the protection and conservation of peatlands in Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, the DENR-BMB is working with telecommunications company Philippine Long Distance Telephone.
Recently, for the Boracay rehabilitation, the DENR-BMB partnered with Aboitiz Equity Ventures, JG Summit, Boracay Tubi System Inc., Energy Development Corp. and San Miguel Corp.
Wetlands-rich PHL
In 2016, the DENR-BMB published the first edition of Atlas of Philippine Inland Wetlands and Classified Caves, accounting for a total of 314 wetlands, both inland and human-made, 2,487 rivers and river systems, and 416 classified caves all over the country.
These cover a total area of 22,370.06 square kilometers (km2).
For coastal and marine wetlands, the Philippines has a total of 18,541.99 km2, while inland wetlands are pegged at 3,667.37 km2..
At the same time, the DENR-BMB was counted a total of 160.70 km2 of man-made wetlands across the country.
LGUs‘ role
The DENR-BMB is banking on strong partnership and collaboration with various institutions, particularly local government units (LGUs) to protect wetlands within their jurisdiction.
Intensifying awareness-raising and increasing the capacity of LGUs to mainstream wetlands conservation is the main key to encourage them in protecting our wetlands, Navarro said.
“It is also important to make them realize that protecting wetlands means providing their people long-term benefits from them, such as protection from the adverse impact of typhoons, flood, drought and other natural calamities, sustainable livelihood and source of food and water,” Navarro said.
Wetland loss
The global wetland loss and degradation, according to the DENR-BMB, continues faster than other ecosystems.
Historically, throughout the world, the DENR-BMB said wetlands have often been mistakenly regarded as “wastelands” because they are wet, soggy, muddy areas that bred mosquitoes, flies, diseases and had unpleasant odors.
Because wetlands were not productive for traditional needs, such as shelter or agricultural production, they were thought of as places to avoid and, in many cases, eliminate.
These, the DENR-BMB believes, are factors why large areas of wetlands were drained and converted for other land uses, such as housing developments and farmland.
Navarro said the country’s wetland has lost so much and continues to lose some more at an alarming rate under growing pressures of land use, pollution, drainage and other reasons, aggravated by the changing climate.
Stronger protection
In a telephone interview on February 1, Navarro said the designation of wetlands of international importance is one way of highlighting their significance to promote awareness and rally support from various sectors, including policy-makers, decision-makers, LGUs, the private sector and local communities.
For instance, she said in the case of Sasmuan Pampanga Coastal Wetlands, a stronger policy regime is expected to be put in place now that it is recognized for its international importance.
“This is an international recognition that the Sasmuan Pampanga Coastal Wetlands is important internationally. If it is important internationally, it is important also for the Philippines to protect it,” she said.
The DENR-BMB, she said, will now include the newly designated Ramsar Site as a priority wetland in implementing various programs.
“Since it now has international recognition, there will be a sense of pride and, hopefully, increased awareness among local communities, but also policy-makers like lawmakers from their area—for important legislation,” she said.
Image credits: DENR-3 PAO/Don Guevarra