Part Three
THE Philippines is known to have the most number of protected areas among Southeast Asian countries with its National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act in place.
The country has 240 protected areas (PAs), 70 of which are considered marine protected areas (MPAs).
Strictly speaking, however, it only has a total of 30 National MPAs, which are described as “predominantly marine-areas”, said Theresa Mundita S. Lim, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Biodiversity Management Bureau (DENR-BMB) director.
Aside from national MPAs, there are 1,751 local MPAs, which include fish sanctuaries managed by local government units (LGUs).
The MPAs are often marine key biodiversity areas (MKBAs) set aside for conservation. These areas are declared “no-take” zones as they are habitats of unique or threatened marine wildlife and are home to marine keystone species, the conservation and protection of which are important to allow faster recovery of degraded ocean environment.
Oceana Philippines Vice President Gloria Estenzo-Ramos said their organization focuses on the Tañon Strait, a protected seascape between the islands of Cebu and Negros Island.
The strait, which is about 161 kilometers long, connects the Visayan Sea in the north to the Bohol Sea in the south. Ramos said Oceana is advocating for a complete ban on commercial fishing in the area.
She added Oceana’s experience in Tañon “in protecting our oceans, can be a model that we can replicate in other areas.”
Wrong track
WILFREDO Licuanan, a professor and fellow at the De La Salle University, observed that most efforts of both the government and the private sector-partners focus on managing fisheries and conservation through the establishment of MPAs, more than rehabilitation and recovery of the country’s coral reefs.
Licuanan said current efforts are insufficient possibly because government and private-sector initiatives are on the wrong track.
“Unfortunately, the situation is not improving as can be inferred from the decline of coral reefs over the last 40 years,” he added. “The latter indicates our efforts are not enough. For example, not enough of our waters are in MPAs.”
He said what the state of reefs clearly shows is that acting together as a society, not as sectors, is needed to help address the situation.
“There is an urgent need for us to come together for a frank dialogue on the next steps,” Licuanan added. He said there is a need for stakeholders to realize that solutions are not technical and are not in the hands of experts or specific sectors.
Vince Cinches, ocean campaigner of Greenpeace, said the state of the Philippine oceans is not getting any better.
A couple of years ago, he added, at least 1 percent of the country’s coral is still in excellent condition. Unfortunately, he said, recent studies revealed this is no longer true, citing Licuanan’s latest report.
“A lot of our initiatives, unfortunately, are wrong,” Cinches added. “There is a need to rethink our strategy.”
For the past 14 years, he said, the decline is astounding because most efforts to restore marine and coastal ecosystems are wrong.
Taking action
VINCENT Hilomen, project manager of the DENR-BMB Marine Key Biodiversity Areas (MKBA), said the Philippines expressed “voluntary commitments” to pursue Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.
Hilomen summarized these commitments into three main thematic areas, namely, governance, socioeconomic and ecological.
For governance, the commitments include the enactment of the Expanded Nipas Act by 2024 and that LGUs have complied with the rule of having 15 percent of municipal waters declared marine reserves under the fisheries code, with penalties for noncompliance. The Philippines also committed to establish by 2020 competency standards for management of PAs.
Under the socioeconomic commitments, the Philippines targets having a sustainable
financing scheme by 2020 for the management of MPAs in pilot coastal communities using biodiversity-friendly enterprise and promotion of comanagement agreements and increased generated income from sustainable fishing for coastal communities.
The Philippines’s ecological commitments include that, by 2020, marine pollution in coastal areas is significantly reduced; 10 percent of municipal waters are under effective zone management and 2 percent are managed by organized fishing communities.
Also by 2020, MPA networks are established in key marine biodiversity areas and around a 17,000-hectare portion of the Benham Bank and 2 million of the 25 million hectares of the entire Philippine Rise is declared as an MPA.
Budget woes
FOR years the Philippines, mainly through the DENR, is working to address the multifaceted problems that besiege the country’s troubled oceans with the help of various private-sector and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as partners.
DENR Undersecretary for the Environment and International Environment Affairs Jonas R. Leones said the Philippines has various programs aimed at protecting and conserving the ocean.
Much of the programs, however, are focused on the rehabilitation of degraded mangrove forests and the establishment of more MPAs under the Nipas.
Last year P500 million was allocated for coral-reef rehabilitation. The money was expected to boost efforts to protect and conserve the country’s marine and coastal ecosystem.
The budget allocation was expected to jump-start a program that focuses on coral rehabilitation, which for years, have received no allocation despite the degradation of the country’s network of coral reefs.
Earlier, Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said such budget will go a long way in terms of rehabilitating the country’s degraded corals.
She said the budget will be a big boost in terms of on-ground assessment of corals to determine the kind of intervention needed to allow faster coral-reef recovery.
This year’s current budget for coral-reef rehabilitation is approximately P600 million.
Leones said the DENR will be batting for a bigger budget next year for coral rehabilitation.
“We started with P500 million. This year we have another P600 million. It will eventually increase,” he told the BusinessMirror. “Like the NGP [National Greening Program], the budget allocation started small. Then it eventually increases.”
To be concluded
Image credits: Nonoy Lacza