Biodiversity investment in the Philippines remains wanting despite its huge potential to contribute to the country’s growth and development, an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said.
Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) pointed this out during the BusinessMirror Coffee Club forum with members of the Aliw Media Group on Thursday. She emphasized the need for biodiversity integration in business plans and programs.
Lim said that, amid the global campaign for biodiversity protection and conservation, the DENR—being the primary government agency in charge of managing the country’s natural wealth—aims to encourage more businesses to integrate biodiversity into their business plans and programs.
Although there are some companies that are starting to invest in environmental protection, she said their advocacy for biodiversity integration is not yet broadly recognized.
“Our objective is for more businesses to integrate biodiversity into their plans and programs. Right now, I cannot say that our advocacy is broadly recognized,” she added.
Businesses that rely on natural raw materials, she noted, have more reasons to invest in biodiversity. The government has no accounting of biodiversity donation or investment from the private sector, but she said a few years ago, the DENR-BMB started to account government financing on biodiversity called BioFin, or Biodiversity Financing Initiative. The United Nations Development Programme, through its own BioFin, revealed that the implementation of the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2015-2028 will require financing of at least P24 billion annually until 2028.
The projected spending for biodiversity, however, is estimated at a measly P5 billion a year, based on the annual budget allocation by Congress. This leaves behind a financing gap of P19 billion a year. The government is encouraging public-private partnership to close the gap in biodiversity financing and is advocating biodiversity integration in business planning and programs.
During previous interviews, biodiversity integration in the business plans and programs of companies, Lim said, should go beyond one-time environmental projects or programs, like tree-planting activities or coastal cleanups. She had said biodiversity integration also involves consideration of environment-friendly practices in all aspects of business operations.
She noted that investing in biodiversity entails additional costs, but emphasized that it pays to invest in biodiversity, as it boosts business sustainability, especially in the face of climate change-triggered natural calamities, such as intensifying typhoon, flood and sea-level rise.
The BMB chief is backing the passage of the Expanded-National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-Nipas) bill, which, among others, will grant tax perks to businesses for donations made for the management of protected areas (PAs). The proposed measure will allow companies to deduct from their taxable income their donation to efforts to preserve the country’s PAs.
Lim believes that this will encourage more businesses to invest in biodiversity and boost the protection and management of the country’s PAs.
A provision in the consolidated E-Nipas bill, particularly Section 16-A, states that: “All
grants, bequest and endowments, donations and contributions made to the Integrated Protected Areas Fund (Ipaf) to be used actually, directly and exclusively by the protected area shall be exempt from donor’s tax and shall be considered as allowable deduction from the gross income of the donor for the purpose of computing the taxable income of the donor in accordance with the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended”.
The new E-Nipas bill, a consolidation of two earlier bills—House Bill (HB) 177 filed by Rep. Josephine Y. Sato-Ramirez of the Lone District of Occidental Mindoro and HB 133 of Party-list Rep. Rodel M. Batocabe of Ako Bicol—was approved by the Natural Resources, Appropriations and, lately, the Ways and Means. The Senate version of the E-Nipas, Senate Bill 144, was approved on third and final reading early this year.
The DENR-BMB is coordinating with the various committees in further refining the bill, hoping that it will encourage more investment that will boost the current level of investment from the national government, local government units and the private sector.
Asked how it plans to encourage biodiversity investment in the private sector and ensure that revenues generated will be used for the development and rehabilitation of PAs, Lim said the E-Nipas bill itself already outlines a process that was adopted under the previous law on the Integrated IPAF.
“We hope that with the outlining of the provisions under the E-Nipas, more PAs will be encouraged to earn revenues, of course, through sustainable means, through sustainable livelihoods and sustainable generating activities. We will, of course, go into details when we craft the implementing rules and regulation,” she said.
According to Lim, through the IPAF retention law, which allows the PAs to retain 75 percent of the revenue it generates, the PA managers will be encouraged to lure private-sector investment. The Philippines is one of the megadiverse countries in the world but is suffering from the rapid rate of biodiversity loss.
It is a party or signatory to various international treaties, including the Convention on Biological Diversity, Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance and Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS).
The Philippines, the only Asian country which is a party to the CMS—also called the Convention—will be hosting the 12th Conference of Parties Meeting on CMS to be held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) from October 22 to 28.
The BusinessMirror Coffee Club forum is covered by the Aliw Media Group, which includes the BusinessMirror, Pilipino Mirror, DWIZ, Philippines Graphic, CNN Philippines, Cook and Locale magazines.
Image credits: Alysa Salen