Protected-areas rules simplified in the Philippines
by Jonathan Mayuga
Date: 21-01-2009
Source: Business Mirror
The Philippines government has just completed the revised rules for the selection and protection of nature preserves that it says would “rationalize and simplify” setting up protected areas, and allow natural flora and fauna in the selected areas to flourish for the benefit, as well, of future generations.
Environment Secretary Lito Atienza said the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas), revised by his department, does away with the “tedious processes” for the creation of protected areas by providing streamlined management zones.
The new IRR is also aimed at clearing up all gray areas in the jurisdictional areas of the different government agencies, allow for the direct use of the Integrated Protected Areas Fund and allow for greater participation of the local government units and other stakeholders in the decision-making process in the establishing and planning of management zones.
Under the revised IRR, the DENR, in collaboration with the Protected Area Management Board will likewise be assisting indigenous peoples in identifying, delineating and recognizing their claims to their ancestral domain within protected areas.
“The Nipas law serves to protect outstandingly remarkable areas and biologically important public lands that are habitats of rare and endangered species of plants and animals representative of biogeographic zones and related ecosystems. Conserving biodiversity through declaring protected areas is just one of the ways of attaining sustainable development of our natural resources,” said Atienza.
He added, “The revised guidelines will boost our efforts to conserve the diversity of our ecosystems, the source of our biological wealth—supplying all of our food, much of our raw materials, a wide range of goods and services and genetic materials for agriculture, medicine and industry.”
To date, 107 protected areas have been declared since the enactment of the Nipas law in 1992 with a total area of 3.34 million hectares, where development activities such as logging, hunting and mining are not allowed. The DENR has identified an additional 4,360 hectares near these 107 protected areas as “buffer zones” or an added layer of protection where livelihood activities of communities at the edges of protected areas are regulated.
Some of the more popular protected areas are the Batanes Protected Landscapes and Seascapes, the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, the Subic-Bataan Natural Park, the Apo Reef Marine Natural Park, the Mt. Canlaon Natural Park, the Turtle Island Marine Natural Park, the Mt. Kitanglad Natural Park, the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary, the Siargao Island Wildlife Sanctuary and the Mt. Apo Natural Park.
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