by Carina L. Cayon
The Regional Development Council in the Davao region has adopted a biodiversity corridor conservation framework for Eastern Mindanao in an effort to “minimize and mitigate impacts of human development on biodiversity.”
Subsequent to this, the Council approved the creation of an interregional body to “implement and/or monitor the framework’s implementation.”
During its 2nd quarterly meeting held in Davao City last week, officers and members of the RDC-11 adopted the Eastern Mindanao Corridor (EMBC) Conservation Framework along with the creation of the interregional body which will be presented to the Regional Land Use Committee (RLUC) 11.
Ma. Lourdes D. Lim, RDC-XI vice-chair and regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA-11), said the framework is the outcome of the multi-stakeholder participatory workshops conducted from 2002 to 2007.
Lim said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional offices in the Davao region and Caraga spearheaded the workshops involving representatives from national government agencies, local government units, academic institutions and non-government organizations.
Dennis P. Salvador, president of the Philippine Eagle Foundation and RDC-11’s private sector representative, presented the EMBC Conservation Framework to RDC’s economic development committee for endorsement and approval.
The framework embodies eight (8) major strategies for the protection and conservation of biodiversity corridors which “provide habitat and dispersal routes for wildlife, maintain ecological processes, and provide resources of livelihood for local residents.”
Among the strategies Lim disclosed are, the “creation and expansion of network of protected areas and mainstreaming and institutionalization of actions to conserve biodiversity in local development plans and policies.”
She said the framework also considered the strategies of building “stakeholder capacity for sustainable management of the corridor’s biological resources and establishment of corridor research database to enhance planning, policy and decision making.”
“Addressing the population, health, education, poverty and other issues linked to biodiversity for human welfare, establishing a coordinated information, education and communication system for biodiversity conservation, promoting and developing appropriate sustainable livelihood,” are also featured in the framework, Lim stated.
Lastly, she said that the framework ensures adequate fund mechanisms to be in place in order for “stakeholders and its local partners achieve conservation goals.”
Lim stressed that the “immediate implementation of these strategies is crucial towards conservation and management of biodiversity within the corridors.”
She said Eastern Mindanao is “host to an extensive variety of terrestrial biodiversity which covers about 909,191 hectares of wildlife habitats for 69 globally endangered species.”
Eastern Mindanao has nine (9) core key biodiversity areas (KBAs) and the “mosaic of landscapes amid them called biodiversity corridors.” [PIA 11]
