Local government units (LGUs) should help protect Tañon Strait, the country’s largest marine protected area (MPA), according to an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said Tañon Strait is a national protected area, but within it are smaller marine areas within the political jurisdiction of several LGUs.
According to the DENR Region 7 Office, there are 126 LGU-managed MPAs within the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS). The government is eyeing to establish more local MPAs as part of its effort to marine biodiversity-conservation effort in partnership with the LGUs.
“It is important that these LGUs recognize that they are all a part of the management regime of the entire Tañon Strait protected area,” Lim said.
She said there is interconnectivity of resources within the entire seascape of Tañon Strait, therefore, the management must be at the seascape level, as well.
“We want [LGUs] to be actively engaged as members of the Protected Area Management Board [PAMB] of the TSPS, and help national government ensure that the Tañon Strait and its resources are managed sustainably,” she said.
Lim issued the statement as LGUs in three provinces in Tañon Strait finally came together to strengthen the protection of the TSPS, the largest MPA in the country.
Local chief executives of the 17 coastal cities and municipalities from three provinces—Cebu, Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) in Cebu City on Tuesday to boost the management of local MPAs within the TSPS.
Declared as a protected seascape in 1998, Tañon Strait is home to diverse assemblage of dolphins, whales and other marine species. Despite being the country’s largest MPA, TSPS continues to suffer from various threats, particularly overfishing, pollution and other impacts of increasing human population.
The agreement strengthens the partnerships of LGUs and Rare Philippines, an ocean-conservation advocacy group, in implementing the Marine Key Biodiversity Area (MKBA) project of the DENR-BMB.
The United Nations Development Programme and the Global Environment Facility provide funding support for the project, which aims to boost conservation efforts, particularly of critical marine wildlife and their habitats, by improving the management of MPAs.
It also aims to provide link to financial sustainability and create a harmonious policy both at the national and local levels.
The project is being implemented in five sites, namely, Verde Island Passage, Tañon Strait, Southern Palawan, Lanuza Bay and Davao Gulf.
Rare Philippines, the project’s implementation partner for Tañon Strait, will also launch the Fish Forever Flex—an alternative strategy to effective sustainable fisheries management. The New York-based Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its Vibrant Oceans Initiative, supports the Fish Forever Flex project.
Through Fish Forever Flex, Rare Philippines will provide technical assistance and capacity-building support to the 17 LGUs to achieve effective and sustainable protected area and fisheries management, and the TSPS Protected Area Office, to boost delivery of services to the PAMB and its members.
“Our conservation work with our partners in Tañon Strait is even more meaningful as it is the only site under the MKBA project that is a National Integrated Protected Areas System area,” Rocky Sanchez Tirona, Rares vice president for the Philippines, said in a statement.
“Through this project, we aim to create a community of responsible fishers, protected-area managers and enforcers, communities, civil society, and local and national government officials who will all contribute to better governance and effective management of the TSPS,” he said.
The LGUs represented in the memorandum of agreement signing were Alegria, Aloguinsan, Badian, Bantayan, Ginatilan, Moalboal, Samboan, Santa Fe, San Remigio and Santander in the Province of Cebu; Amlan, Bais City, Guihulngan City, La Libertad and San Jose in Negros Oriental; and Calatrava and Toboso in Negros Occidental.
The provincial governments of Cebu, Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental, all of which straddle Tañon Strait, have also committed to provide support to the implementing LGUs.
Three LGU alliances, namely, the Northern Negros Aquatic Resources Management and Advisory Council, Bindoy, Ayungon, Tayasan, Manjuyod Marine Protected Area Council, and the Southwest Cebu Coastal Resource Management Council, will also be signing the agreement to support the project.