Published on 22 November 2012 [ manilatimes.net ]
Written by James Konstantin Galvez Reporter
The government will be spending over
$17 million to beef up existing policy and environmental efforts crucial to the
protection of the country’s natural resources, the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR) said on Wednesday.
In an interview on the sidelines of
the Biodiversity Partnership Project (BPP), Theresa Mundita Lim, DENR-Protected
Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) director, said that the Philippines is well
underway to achieve a resource mobilization, that would ensure the fulfillment
of one of the top global priorities in the aspect of biodiversity conservation
and protection.
The BPP is a partnership among the
national and local governments, non-government organizations (NGOs), local
communities and indigenous peoples, funded by the United Nations Development
Programme-Global Environment Fund (UNDP-GEF). The DENR-PAWB is the implementing
agency.
Under the multi-sectoral partnership,
the UNDP-GEF will be spending some $4.8 million, while the Philippine
government will shell out $10.2 million as counterpart funding, and the
remaining $1.9 million will be coming from various NGOs and other partners.
“The program will be implemented for
the next six years with a total funding of $17.022 million,” Lim said.
The PAWB director said that the
program might be extended after December 2016, citing delays in its
implementation from the rigorous process with the release of the funding.
Among those who attended the launching
were Vice President Jejomar Binay, UNDP Country Director Toshihiro Tanaka, Gov.
Junie Cua of Quirino along with six mayors of the province, officials and
representatives of partner agencies and organizations.
The BPP aims to demonstrate how local
government units (LGUs) can plan and manage economic activities and growth, in
ways that meet landscape-level biodiversity conservation and sustainable use
objectives in critical regions.
“These will be achieved through
partnerships with key national government agencies, local conservation and NGOs
that would muster their resources and expertise to address key issues in
creating sustainable and impactful measures to safeguard the country’s rice
biodiversity areas,” Lim said.
He added that the BPP was created to
enable LGUs to build their knowledge and capacity in biodiversity impact
assessment – including the integration of biodiversity conservation in the
local land use and development planning, and enforcement of wildlife trade
regulations to end poaching and trading of endangered or critical species.
As its main project sites, BPP would
focus on Regions 2, 4B, 6, 10, 11 and 13; and in the provinces of Cagayan,
Quirino, Mindoro, Palawan, Antique, Capiz, Aklan, Negros Occidental, Agusan del
Norte, Surigao del Norte and Davao Oriental.
Lim said that these pilot sites will
showcase the benefits of mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in various
aspects of local development planning, policy making, promotion of biodiversity
friendly agriculture and business opportunities, as well as the generation and
manage of data needed for decision making.
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