The 12th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) will kick off on Monday at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila.
Over 900 delegates from 124 countries are taking part in the event to come up with measures to protect and conserve endangered migratory wild animals.
A total of 35 species, all threatened with extinction, have been proposed for listing under the Appendices of the CMS, five of which are proposals coming from the Philippines.
With the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) taking the lead, Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said the Philippines will push for the inclusion of five migratory wildlife species to the CMS appendices, namely, the whale shark, Christmas frigatebird, white-spotted wedgefish, black noddy and the yellow bunting.
The event will serve as an opportunity for the country to call for more protection for migratory sites and species, particularly the whale shark (Rhincodon typus), or locally known as butanding.
“The Philippines is one of the nations visited by the whale shark. In fact, the so-called gentle giant has boosted tourism in some provinces, including Sorsogon and Cebu, where tourists have the opportunity to see and enjoy a close encounter with the world’s largest fish,” he said in a statement.
The Philippine delegation will campaign for the inclusion of the whale shark in the CMS species’ list under Appendix I while retaining its listing in Appendix II.
Appendix I covers migratory species that have been assessed as being in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of their range, thus, require national conservation actions to ensure their survival.
The whale shark has been included in the CMS Appendix II listing since 1999. Migratory species under Appendix II have unfavorable conservation status and require international agreements and commitments for their conservation and management.
“Our position is pursuant to efforts of like-minded nations to have a global ban on whale shark hunting,” Cimatu said.
Aside from the whale shark, Cimatu added that the Philippines will also push for the inclusion of four other migratory species—Christmas Frigatebird (Fregata andrewsi), also under Appendix I; white-spotted wedgefish (Rhynchbatus australiae), black noddy (Anousminutus) and yellow bunting (Emberiza sulphurata), all under Appendix II. All these species have been sighted in various parts of the country.
The Philippine delegation will also push for the Manila Declaration that would call on world leaders to take broad and coordinated action to protect the habitats of migratory species within their respective territories, and the adoption of a resolution urging member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to implement marine biodiversity-conservation initiatives through the promotion of a network of marine-protected areas (MPAs) at the local and regional levels.
“While there has been a notable increase in the number of MPAs in the region, the need to build up a regional connectivity of these areas among Asean member-nations remains a challenge,” Cimatu said.
The Philippines is the only country in the Asean that is a party to the CMS, which now has 124 contracting party-states.
Once the proposed resolution is adopted, there will soon be a framework for tighter collaboration on marine conservation by CMS party-states and “range countries,” or non-CMS member-nations that host habitats of migratory species.
The Philippine delegation has also submitted draft resolutions calling for a concerted action for the whale shark, promoting sustainable tourism involving migratory species and the need to conserve critical intertidal and other coastal habitats for migratory species.
To protect migratory species, particularly the butanding and the wedgefish, the Marine-conservation groups last Sunday called for the passage of a comprehensive law to protect all Philippine sharks species.
The whale shark was the first shark to be nationally protected, through Fisheries Administrative Order 193 in 1998.
In spite of this, whale sharks were reclassed in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List in 2016 from “vulnerable” to “endangered,” which is a step closer to “extinction,” they said.
“The Philippines has been at the frontline of protecting whale sharks for nearly two decades. At the upcoming COP, the Philippines will again lead their protection by being the proponent for uplisting from Appendix II to Appendix I. By listing them on Appendix I, parties are urged to strictly protect them throughout their migratory range,” Anna Oposa, executive director of Save Philippine Seas, said in a joint statement.