ENVIRONMENTAL groups urged the House of Representatives to pass the proposed Expanded National Integrated Protected Area System (E-Nipas) Act that will strengthen the protection of 100 protected areas (PAs) in the country.
E-Nipas aims to reinforce Republic Act 7586, or the Nipas Act of 1992, which establishes unique bodies of land or water as areas for conservation by expanding the coverage of the old law and adding 100 more PAs to the 13 PAs al ready covered or backed with legislation.
The Senate has approved its version of the E-Nipas authored by Sen. Loren Legarda in July 2015, but a bill in the House of Representatives that was filed by Rep. Josephine R. Sato of Occidental Mindoro is stalled by spirited debate over the coverage of five PAs in Palawan.
The inclusion of five PAs in the E-Nipas, opponents of the law said, will overlap the existing Strategic Environmental Plan (SEP), which already covers the entire province of Palawan. Palawan is under the mandate and jurisdiction of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, which allows mining in certain areas.
Under the E-Nipas, the management of PAs is governed by Protected Area Management Boards (PAMBs) headed by an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) with representatives from other concerned agencies, local government units, academe, people’s organizations and other stakeholders as members.
All PAs covered by the law will be declared “off-limits” to mining and other destructive activities.
It also prohibits the use of destructive fishing gears or methods within marine PAs. In an interview on Thursday with the BusinessMirror, Edward Lorenzo, legal and policy director of Oceana Philippines, underscored the need for the House of Representatives to resume deliberation and settle the issue of overlapping laws and jurisdiction to pass the law.
He expressed urgency in the passing of E-Nipas before the 16th Congress ends in the middle of the year, so it could take effect as soon as possible and prevent the entry of mining and other destructive activities in PAs.
At a news conference organized by Oceana Philippines Quezon City on Wednesday, lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, the group’s vice president, said there is an urgent need to strengthen the country’s PAs system.
Besides Oceana, leaders of environmental groups, including Haribon Foundation, Pusod and Philippine Misereor Partnership, have expressed support behind the passage of the E-Nipas bill. “Aside from protecting important ecosystems and habitats, protected areas are necessary in order to feed our growing population. Scientific studies prove that marine protected areas all over the world host dramatic increases in spawning stocks, and that fish in marine protected areas live longer, grow larger and produce more eggs. Furthermore, we need protected areas for the survival of the human race in the face of climate change, as it promotes resilience and mitigate disaster risk,” Ramos said.
E-Nipas mandates the delineation of the terrestrial and marine PAs, including the existing 13 PAs that are not clearly delineated nor mapped, lawyer Maria Paz Luna of Pusod said in a news release. “This will clearly define boundaries covered by the PAs,” she said. Sato, in a news release, said the enactment of the E-Nipas into law will enable the country to fulfill its commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity, an international treaty to which the Philippines is a signatory, and position the country in terms of financing in the advent of the recent climate-change agreement in Paris.
Once put in place, E-Nipas will pave the way for the creation of the PAMBs, which will design, develop and implement programs and projects in their respective areas. According to Oceana Philippines, the 24-year old Nipas needs to be strengthened to boost protection and conservation efforts. The proposed law, the group said, will also provide local communities and stakeholders more incentive in managing the PAs.
Director Theresa Mundit a Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau said the enactment of E-Nipas will hopefully increase the annual budget allocation of the 100 PAs—from the current P4 million—to P10 million yearly that is sufficient to run the operation that will ensure the conservation of important ecosystems and protect the rich floral and faunal biodiversity that thrives within. With the E-Nipas, the budget for the 113 PAs will be at least P1.13 billion. She said the proposed E-Nipas law does not run counter to current environmental laws, but would complement and strengthen their implementation. “What it [E-Nipas] will do is to strengthen the protection and conservation of country’s PAs. All we need is to harmonize these laws,” she said.
Lim had earlier called for the enactment of more laws to strengthen the protection and conservation of the country’s PAs, underscoring the need for increased budget allocation to boost conservation and protection efforts. There are currently 240 PAs in the country covering over 5 million hectares of forest and marine areas, but only 13 of them are backed with legislation.
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