The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is endorsing a proposed measure that will allow companies to deduct from their taxable income their donations to efforts to preserve the country’s protected areas (PAs).
Interviewed by the BusinessMirror, Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said this will encourage greater private-sector participation in the protection and conservation of the country’s rich biodiversity and help the government bridge the big gap in biodiversity financing.
“If it will encourage private-sector support in the management of our protected areas, it is a welcome development; as long as it will increase revenue generation for the protection of our environment,” Lim said.
She added that donation from the private sector will be a big boost to the management of PA, especially with the law allowing the retention of 75 percent of the revenue generated in the management of a particular PA, called Integrated Protected Area Fund (Ipaf).
The DENR-BMB is closely coordinating with three different committees in refining the consolidated Expanded-National Integrated Protected Areas System (E-Nipas) bill.
It was learned that the House Ways and Means Committee has introduced a provision in the consolidated E-Nipas bill, particularly Section 16-A, which states that, “All grants, bequest and endowments, donations and contributions made to the 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 Committees on Natural Resources, Appropriations and, lately, the Ways and Means.
In a statement, Sato-Ramirez said the consolidated E-Nipas will institutionalize funding support through Ipaf and the annual General Appropriations Act to 94 PAs listed under the proposed measure.
The E-Nipas also proposes to strengthen protection measures by imposing stiffer penalties and fines for violators of various environmental laws, particularly the Nipas and the Wildlife Act.
There are 240 PAs covered under Nipas, but only 13 are backed by legislation. Expanding the coverage of the law with the inclusion of 94 PAs is expected to boost the country’s efforts to protect endangered wildlife and their habitats.
The Philippines is one of the 17 mega-diverse countries in the world, but is also suffering from rapid rate of biodiversity loss, because of massive destruction of habitats due to mining and logging, illegal wildlife trade and land conversion for agriculture.
Through ecotourism, the Philippines is hoping to strengthen its biodiversity conservation and protection, which is part of its commitment as a party or signatory to international environmental treaties, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, also called the Bonn Convention, and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance or Ramsar Convention.
The Senate version of the E-Nipas, Senate Bill 144, was approved on third and final reading early this year.