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WASHINGTON, D.C.—President Arroyo rallied global support
for the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) to preserve the
marine diversity in area encompassing 7.5 million square
kilometers of ocean spread over six countries, including
the Philippines.
In her
address Monday (Washington time) at a luncheon with the
CTI stakeholders at the Crystal Room of the Willard
Hotel here, the President said that the CTI is “proof
positive that a sustainable environmental model not only
is possible, it is necessary. We are going to make sure
it happens.”
The
luncheon meeting—hosted by the Philippine Embassy, the
World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Conservation
International and the Nature Conservancy— was attended
by both public and private partners in environmental
conservation. She pointed out that at a “time when so
many things seem to be going wrong in the world, this
event demonstrates what is right [with] men and women
from all walks of life and organizations, public,
private and government coming together to make the world
a better place.”
The
President stressed that she believed in the CTI and not
just because Presidential daughter Luli, who works for
the WWF, is a dedicated environmentalist, but that since
she took office, she held the conviction that the
environment cannot take a back seat to economic
development.
On a
personal note, however, she said she was “deeply proud
that Luli has sought to spend her gifts working with the
WWF and making sure she preserves God’s gifts of the
Coral Triangle a perpetual blessing for the peoples of
the region.”
She
pointed out that a clean and sound environment and job
creation can coexist.
President Arroyo added that through the CTI, a number of
objectives can be achieved at once, such as creating
jobs for the poor, ensuring sustainable economic
development, environmental protection and providing
adequate global food supply.
She
conceded that efforts like the CTI are just the
beginning. “At a time when global uncertainty is driven
by high prices of food and fuel as we are facing now, it
is all too easy to disregard the environment for the
sake of economic expediency.”
She
added that “when people go hungry, the environment
suffers. The hard, cold fact is that we must not be
tempted as a nation, a region, for the world to abandon
a balanced approach like the CTI. This is good for our
people, for jobs, for growth and for a healthy,
sustainable environment to make initiatives like CTI
work. Our people will only suffer more in the long run
if we do not invest today for our generations tomorrow.”
Aside
from the Philippines, the countries comprising the Coral
Triangle are Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea,
Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. Together, these
countries boast of the richest concentration of
iridescent corals, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and
marine plants in the world. |
