Government’s partners are working out details of the endowment fund they target launching in early 2013 to help boost conservation efforts in threatened Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL), Palawan province’s largest terrestrial protected area (PA).
“That will be a first for our country,” said Jose Andres Canivel, executive director of Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation, Inc. (PTFCF) which is involved in discussions on the matter.
Since sustainability is key to conservation efforts, he said the target endowment fund will serve as seed money for initiatives that will not only protect MMPL but also yield revenues for future activities on helping preserve ecological balance across this forested mountain range.
“Studies show between P3 million to P5 million is needed annually to continue conservation and resource management efforts there,” he noted.
Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) Director Ma. Theresa Mundita Lim welcomed efforts to establish the endowment fund, noting available funding at present is insufficient for sustaining and enhancing conservation efforts in the 240 PAs nationwide.
“We have an annual funding gap of about P1.67 billion,” she reported earlier this week when PAWB, United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility and Ateneo School of Governance launched “Communities in Nature”, the first local report on state of PA management in the Philippines.
PAWB identified small-scale timber extraction, illegal logging, “kaingin” or slash-and-burn activities and land conversion as among threats to MMPL.
Conservation International (CI) Philippines also reported MMPL is under threat from wildlife poaching, in-migration, population increase, destruction of watershed areas and water reservoirs as well as mining claims.
Sustained funding for conservation efforts is critical for MMPL particularly since this site is also a key biodiversity area (KBA), Lim noted.
KBAs are globally significant sites for biodiversity conservation.
CI is supporting the bid to better protect MMPL, noting this area likewise provides eco-system services that benefits local communities.
Such services include water supply, flood control, carbonsequestration, provision of non-timber forest products and soil conservation, CI noted.
CI also said presence of waterfalls, caves and other natural features within MMPL opens up opportunities for eco-tourism there.
Earlier, CI reported studies estimated at some USD5.5 billion total economic value of MMPL’s eco-system services.
To help enhance conservation efforts in MMPL, CI said its Global Conservation Fund committed providing a USD1 million grant towards establishing the endowment fund.
Canivel said PTFCF is also looking into its possible assistance for the fund’s establishment.
“We’re studying how PTFCF can contribute to the fund,” he said.
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