THE oceans are in trouble, as ocean explorer, filmmaker and conservation advocate Alexandra Cousteau puts it. It is threatening a major source of food that feeds the world’s population.
The Philippines is declared by scientists as the “center of the center of marine biodiversity” because of its rich marine life on a per-hectare basis. But it is also considered a marine-biodiversity hot spot because of the rapid loss of biodiversity.
Speaking at last weekend’s Kapihan sa Isla, a forum dedicated to ocean conservation, Cousteau said unless various stakeholders come together to protect the country’s troubled oceans today, there will be nothing left for future generations to enjoy tomorrow. Cousteau, a senior advisor of ocean-conservation advocacy group Oceana, was in the Philippines early this month, as part of the campaign to protect the ocean.
While advances in underwater photography and cinematography has allowed the world to see the ocean’s abundance more, the granddaughter of oceanographer Jacques Cousteau pointed out that the world has lost more than what it is only beginning to discover in the last half century.
In the Philippines briefly exploring two of the country’s best diving spots at Apo Island in Negros and El Nido in Palawan, Cousteau described pockets of ocean’s abundance found in the country as “treasures,” which the people must protect, for the environment, tourism, but more important, for food security.
According to her, “no other people can understand the ocean better than Filipinos. You are intimately connected to the oceans. We must protect the place that we call home.”
Cousteau said overfishing, illegal fishing and by-catch of marine mammals should stop, as she underscored the need for the establishment of marine-protected areas (MPAs) to “Save the ocean, feed the world,” which is Oceana’s campaign slogan.
Marine key biodiversity areas
According to the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), there are 70 national and 1,751 local MPAs.
Out of the 70 national MPAs, 33 have proclamations under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act, but only four out of the 33 are legislated.
On the other hand, provincial, city or municipal ordinances provide legal framework for the protection of local MPAs.
MPAs are considered marine key biodiversity areas (MKBAs) and priority areas for conservation.
Cousteau said laws protecting the oceans are already in place in the Philippines, pointing out that it is a matter of enforcing these laws to ensure that the future generation would continue to benefit from ocean’s abundance.
Oceana Philippines Vice President Gloria Estenzo Ramos, an environmental lawyer and ocean conservation advocate, is leading a campaign in Tañon Strait Protected Seascape (TSPS) to strengthen local MPAs.
Ramos said that, despite laws that protect the ocean, illegal fishing by commercial fishing vessels and use of destructive dynamite and cyanide remain a big problem in many areas, which threaten the habitat of fish and other marine species.
She agreed with Cousteau that the country is facing a big problem in protecting its ocean and it would require the national government, local government units (LGUs) and other stakeholders to take a stand a protect the marine environment.
Limited resources
In 2015 the DENR got Congress’s approval for a P500-million budget for the rehabilitation of the country’s coral reefs this year.
This is the first time that Congress has allotted a budget specifically for coral-reef restoration. The same amount is being allocated for the same purpose next year.
However, because of the limited budget, the DENR-BMB is revisiting its coral-reef rehabilitation program and is now opting to strengthen collaboration with various stakeholders to establish more MPAs.
Vincent Hilomen, executive director of the DENR-BMB’s Coastal and Marine Division, said the establishment of more MPAs would save the government’s huge amount of money instead of implementing coral-reef rehabilitation, which would cost around P500,000 to P500 million per hectare.
Protect, reduce, eliminate
Through MPAs, Hilomen said natural recovery would be faster and the coral reefs—considered as an important defense of coastal communities against calamities—would be stronger and more resilient to stress.
“Instead of artificial reef planting, we will protect areas, reduce the stress and eliminate the threats,” Hilomen said. Citing a report by the Coral Reef Targeted Research and Capacity Building for Management, he said natural restoration of corals is more cost-effective than coral-reef rehabilitation through artificial-coral planting or deployment.
Expanding MKBAs
Timely enough, the government effort to protect and conserve the country’s rich marine biodiversity is getting the much-needed boost.
The government is embarking on a six-year, $8-million project to enhance the protection of MPAs and boost conservation of MKBAs in the Philippines, described as areas that hold species that are globally significant and requires site-scale conservation to prevent extinction.
The MKBA project aims to increase management effectiveness, improved financial sustainability of MPAs and MPA networks; and establish enabling policy framework of marine-biodiversity conservation. Backed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environmental Facility (GEF), the DENR-BMB will implement the project in partnership with international and local ocean-conservation advocacy groups.
Soft-launched in 2015, DENR-BMB Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said the project would start implementation this year.
The DENR-BMB and its project partners will simultaneously implement the project in five pilot sites—namely, Verde Island Passage, which separates Batangas and Mindoro Island; Southern Palawan also in Luzon; Lanuza Bay in Surigao del Sur; Tañon Strait in Negros and Cebu; and Davao Gulf in Davao region.
Conservation International will implement the project in the Verde Island Passage; Haribon Foundation for Lanuza Bay; the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR) for Southern Palawan; Rare for Tañon Strait; and WWF Philippines for Davao Gulf.
The DENR’s project partners will tap into the indigenous knowledge of community-based organizations and other non-governmental organizations in implementing the project, Lim said.
Through the project, Lim added that the government hopes to enhance fish stock and restore habitat-forming species, such as mangroves, sea grass and corals, to better conditions. Situated at the apex of the Coral Triangle, the Philippines has diverse species of corals, sea grass and mangroves that made it one of the world’s richest in terms of marine life.
Integrated MKBAs
According to the DENR-BMB, there are 123 identified integrated MKBAs in the Philippines.
It is also home to 209 globally threatened and 21 restricted range species of corals, mollusks, elasmobranchs, reef fishes, marine turtles and marine mammals.
According to Lim, specific objectives of the project targets the inclusion of at least 66 of the 123 MKBAs in the Philippines in the protected-area system under Nipas; increase by 5 percent the fish biomass of at least three commercial fish species; and reduce water-pollution levels.
It also aims to ensure there will be no decrease in sightings of large marine vertebrates. Of the five pilot sites, only Tañon Strait has been declared as protected area under the category of protected seascape.
However, Lim said all of the pilot sites have local MPAs within them, which are either marine reserve or fish sanctuary, where fishing is either banned or regulated.
The DENR-BMB and its project partners would promote the ecosystem approach to managing MPAs and network of MPAs. The management of which should be enhanced through “ecosystem approach”.
Strong laws, poor enforcement
The DENR-BMB is at the forefront of the government effort to protect and conserve the country’s rich marine biodiversity.
The Philippines has many environmental laws that protect the ocean against various threats.
For destructive-fishing methods, it has the Fisheries Code of the Philippines. For the protection of marine ecosystems, it has the Nipas Act. For conservation, it has the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act.
Under Nipas, MPAs are established, no-take zones declared, and fish sanctuary and marine reserves are declared “off-limits” to fishing and other human activities. Poor enforcement, however, led to the degradation of the ocean over the years, leading to the depletion of ocean’s abundance, including fish and other seafood.
Effective management
Tañon Strait is a national protected area, but within it are smaller marine areas within the political jurisdiction of several LGUs.
According to Lim, it is important that LGUs recognize that they are all part of the management regime of the entire MPAs, such as in the case of Tañon Strait.
“There is interconnectivity of resources within the entire seascape of Tañon. Therefore, the management must be at the seascape level, as well. We want them [LGUs] to be actively engaged as members of PAMB [Protected Area Management Board] and help the national government ensure that the Tañon Strait and its resources are managed sustainably,” she said.
Lim said LGUs should “mirror” actions in protecting MPAs, whether national or local, in their own local land use and local development plans. “After all, they, and the coastal communities, which are part of their constituency, will be the first to benefit from these efforts,” she said.
According to Lim, the government recognizes the reality that it is not how many MPAs must be established. Rather, how many of these are effectively managed.
“This is how the initiative must be measured. Effectively managed marine-protected areas are the ones with active PAMBs and issuing resolutions that are consistent with the objectives of the protected area,” she said.
In the case of LGU-managed MPAs, the LGUs are issuing ordinances that are biodiversity friendly. “There is increased awareness among stakeholders, and there is very good enforcement of fisheries and protected area laws,” she said.
According to Lim, there is now an operational financial mechanism that allows revenue from the sustainable use of the biodiversity resources to be plowed back to the management of the MPA, which can translate into benefits for the communities who are helping protect the resources. “If we achieve these, then truly we can say our efforts at establishing MPAs are positively impacting our country’s biodiversity,” she said.
Image credits: Ferdinand Edralin/Oceana Philippines, Stephanie Tumampos