Experts are aiming to further elevate management of protected areas in the Philippines.
Aside from broadening the governance base for PAs, they’re recommending integration of conservation efforts into mainstream development planning initiatives of local government units nationwide so the areas can be better managed and protected.
“LGUs must have greater participation in conservation efforts,” said Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) Dir. Ma. Theresa Mundita Lim.
She said LGUs can do so by including conservation initiatives in respective forest and comprehensive land use plans.
PAs are places designated or set aside for conservation due to respective recognized natural, ecological and/or cultural values.
Lack of funding for conservation efforts raise urgency for effectively managing PAs using available resources, Lim noted.
German development agency GIZ advisor Dr. Walter Salzer also cited the country’s balooning upland population – already estimated at some 25 million people – as among reasons for enhancing PA management.
“We, LGUs and communities have to work together,” he said.
Enhancing PA management is among concerns covered in the report ‘Communities in Nature’ which PAWB, United Nations Development Program-Global Environment Facility and Ateneo School of Government launched this week in Metro Manila.
Such publication documents state of Philippine PA management 20 years after government enacted the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act.
Challenges to enhancing PA governance are also identified in the report. [PNA]
“The report tells us there’s still unfinished business,”Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Managing Dir. Errol Gatumbato said at the launch.
Lim reported during the event the Philippines has 240 PAs covering some 5.4 million hectares of land and marine territory, of which about 3.6 million hectares are within key biodiversity areas.
“We want to conserve around 10.6 million hectares of KBAs but since funding is short, there’s a gap of seven million hectares,” she said.
She reiterated funding gap for existing PAs nationwide is about PhP1.67 billion annually.
KBAs are globally significant sites for biodiversity conservation.
PAWB noted KBAs provide the building blocks for landscape-level conservation planning.
Establishing KBA networks help address biodiversity loss, PAWB added.
