SEN. Cynthia Villar yesterday urged the government to save from harm more biodiversity hotspots in the country as she pushed for the designation of six more “protected areas.”
Villar, who is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, noted that the Philippines is one of the world’s 17 megadiverse or biodiversity-rich countries which hosts two-thirds of the earth’s biodiversity “and contain about 70 to 80 percent of the world’s plant and species” but is also among the world’s biodiversity hotspots or areas experiencing high rates of degradation and biodiversity loss.
“Hotspots have lost around 86 percent of their original habitat and are also considered to be significantly threatened due to man-made exploitation and by climate change. Hence, there are still many areas in the country, such as wetlands, marine sanctuaries, tropical forests, watersheds, among others, that remain under-protected and one certain way of affording protection to these areas is by designating them as protected areas,” Villar said in her opening statement as she convened public consultations on the proposal to designate six areas in the country as protected areas.
The six areas are the Paoay Lake Protected Landscape in Ilocos Norte, the Las Piñas-Paranaque Wetland Park, the San Francisco Protected Landscape commonly known as Mulanay Watershed Forest Reserve in Quezon Province, the Alibijaban Protected Landscape and Seascape also in Quezon, the Taklong and Tandog Group of Islands Natural Park in Guimaras, and the Bantayan Group of Islands Protected Landscape and Seascape in Cebu.
Villar was among the advocates of RA 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (ENIPAS) Act of 2018 which strengthened the legal framework for the establishment, management, and maintenance of all designated protected areas.
She said the ENIPAS Act of 2018 paved the way for the legislation of 94 more protected areas (PAs) in addition to the 13 PAs legislated under the original NIPAS law or RA 7585.
In the 18th Congress, Villar said seven more protected areas were designated, including Mt. Pulag in the provinces of Benguet, Ifugao, and Nueva Vizcaya; Banao Protected Landscape in Kalinga, Tirad Pass in Ilocos Sur; Mt. Arayat in Pampanga, Sicogon Island in Iloilo; and Naga-Kabasalan Protected Landscape in Zamboanga Sibugay.
“Thus, it brought the country’s total legislated protected areas to 114 or a total of 4,432,984.76 hectares. Perhaps, it would seem that 114 protected areas may be considered a sizable number already or that 4.4 million hectares represent a great coverage already out of the approximately 30 million hectares that is the total land area of the Philippines,” she said.
Villar said adding more protected areas “becomes even more urgent and relevant now” since the country is undergoing the UN Decade Ecosystem Restoration which started in 2021 and end in 2030.
She said the ecosystem restoration was declared so that all nations will scale up the restoration of damaged ecosystems in their respective jurisdictions and all over the world “for the benefit of the people and nature” to enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, stop the collapse of biodiversity, enhance food security, and ensure water supply.
