EXPERTS from the California Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Monday underscored the need to protect and conserve the country’s rich marine biodiversity against various threats.
Speaking during the Asean LeaderSpeak forum at the Asian Institute of Management on Monday, Dr. Meg Burke, Director of Science Integration and Operations of CAS, said the Philippines boasts of having the most biodiverse marine ecosystems in the planet.
Burke attributed this to the fact that the country is blessed with a vast tract of marine and coastal areas covered with coral reefs.
However, she said there are threats that need to be addressed to prevent its destruction. Among these threats are unsustainable fishing and harvesting practices, pollution, sedimentation, habitat loss and global climate change.
Fascinated by the country’s rich marine biodiversity, she said the CAS has the Philippine Living Coral Reef among its exhibits in San Francisco, to showcase its economic and aesthetic value and the need to protect it against destructive human activities and other threats.
“There are still places in the Philippines where dynamite fishing is going on, areas where cyanide fishing is going, overharvesting going on,” she said.
Burke said biodiversity provides sustainable sources of food and medicine, which provide enormous benefit to Filipinos, particularly the people living in the coastal
communities.
But more than its aesthetic value, these coral reef and mangrove forests proved to be more important in terms of providing protection against the effects of natural calamities, citing the impact of Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) wherein areas with less corals and mangroves suffered severe damages more than areas with healthy marine ecosystems.
“While these corals and mangroves did not stop the winds and storm surges, it certainly helped reduce the damage,” she said.
The Philippine Coral Reef exhibit features live corals, fishes and other marine life. She said it is currently the biggest living coral reef exhibit in the world. She said over 1,000 species of fish can be found in the tank. The CAS web site said that from the main museum floor, gaze over a shallow, sandy lagoon inhabited by sharks, rays and schools of fish.
The tank is 25 feet deep. It has thousands of fish, eels, anemones, starfish and coral.
For his part, Dr. Terry Gosliner, currently a senior curator at CAS, underscored the need to document biodiversity.
He said the Philippines is situated within the Coral Triangle, described by scientists as the center of the center of marine biodiversity in the world.
He said even in the age of technology, documenting biodiversity can help improve how it can be best protected for the benefit of people living in the communities.
For the last two years, the CAS discovered unique species in the counry’s coastal and marine areas. Gosliner has been conducting expeditions in the Philippines since 1992.
These organisms, he said, are the building blocks of life. He said it is important to study them, how they breed and evolve, so that the scientific and academic community will be able to better understand how marine ecosystem works.
According to Gosliner, the Philippines is way ahead in terms of awareness and effectiveness of legislation for the protection of its marine biodiversity.
“The Philippines has not only the richness of coral reef, but it is leading the way in terms of guiding other Asean nations in terms of protection,” he said.
He lauded the country’s effort to protect its marine biodiversity in spite of the challenges, it being an archipelago composed of 7,100 islands.
He said that its “Bantay Dagat” program is helping a lot in terms of providing law enforcement a boost to conserve biodiversity.
Dr. Richard Mooi, the director of Citizens Sciences and a full curator at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology of CAS, said there’s a need to increase awareness about the importance of biodiversity.
According to Mooi, there’s a need for community involvement to preserve and restore coastal mangroves, which is one of the solutions to the problems faced by the Philippines.
Mooi said there’s a need for collaboration among stakeholders in the Philippines to step up the campaign to protect and conserve the country’s marine biodiversity.