Abstract
Mangroves perform a crucial role in maintaining the ecological integrity of the coastal ecosystem. They act as filters in the coastal zone, preventing the damaging effects of upland sediments on seagrass beds and coral reefs, minimise the effects of storm surges and act as carbon sinks that mitigate climate change. These essential services, however, are degraded through indiscriminate cutting, conversion of mangrove swamps to fishponds, reclamation projects and other coastal developments and pollution. Experts reveal that the Indo-Malay Philippine Archipelago has one of the highest rates of mangroves loss. From an estimated 500,000 hectares of mangrove cover in 1918, only 120,000 hectares of mangroves remain in the Philippines today. The country has had the legal and policy framework to protect and conserve mangroves. But weak implementation of laws, overlapping functions among agencies and, in general, poor management by the people and local governments have hindered the sustainable management of mangrove forests. Positive developments, however, are taking place with the promulgation of laws on climate change and executive orders which specifically include mangrove and protected areas under the National Greening Program (NGP) and addresses equity, food security and poverty issues by giving preference to NGP beneficiary communities as a priority in the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) Program. Moreover, participatory Planning and Multi-stakeholder Approaches are among the strategies contemplated by the Philippine National REDD + Strategy. The article examines the implementation and effects of the Philippine National REDD+ Strategy, the National Climate Change Action Plan which specifically integrates REDD+ and ecosystem valuation into decision-making, and the executive orders which support the mainstreaming of the National Greening Program.
Highlights
Mangroves are the true rainforests of the Philippine coastline
The National Wetlands Action Plan for the Philippines 2011-2016 (‘NWAP’) notes that: Major threats to marine ecosystems and resources include: 1) human-induced and direct stresses on species and ecosystems such as deforestation, expanding human settlements, water pollution, overfishing and the use of destructive fishing methods; 2) those that can be attributed to climate change such as coral bleaching, eutrophication, dredging, siltation and sedimentation, nutrient loading, and sea level rise.[18]
Resource conservation and protection, productivity enhancement, climate change mitigation and adaptation are among the priority programs of the Aquino administration, the National Greening Program (NGP) requires the planting of 1.5 billion trees covering around 1.5 million hectares for a period of six years from 2011 to 2016 in forestlands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military
Summary
Mangroves are the true rainforests of the Philippine coastline. With at least 40 species out of the 54 known species worldwide,[1] mangroves are among the most biologically-diverse coastal ecosystems in the country. An estimated 70 per cent of the original mangrove forests has been lost, reduced from an estimated 400,000–500,000 hectares in the early 1900s2 to only 109,700 hectares in 2000.3 Huge losses in mangrove forest cover are primarily attributed to conversion of the land into fishponds for aquaculture production and overexploitation for mangrove-derived products such as charcoal, firewood and timber.[4]. Minor Forest Products of the Philippines’ (1920) 1 (22), Bureau of Forestry Bulletin 18 . M L Wilkie and S Fortuna, ‘Status and Trends in Mangrove Area Extent Worldwide’ Working Paper No 63, Forest Resources Division, FAO, December 2003) . J H Primavera, ‘Management and Conservation of Mangroves in the Philippines’ in Joint UNU-Iwate-UNESCO.
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