By Othel V.
Campos | Posted on Dec. 25, 2012 at 12:01am
[
manilastandardtoday.com ]
The Protected
Areas and Wildlife Bureau asked local government units to participate in the
Biodiversity Partnerships Project in drawing up policies that will protect
endangered or critical species in their areas.
“Before the
program expires by 2016, local government units should be able to create
ordinances that will protect the agriculture landscapes and tourism spots in
the country,” PAWB director Theresa Mundita Lim said in an interview.
The six-year
program is funded by a $4.5-million grant from the Global Environmental
Facility with supplementary funding of $300,000 from the United Nations
Development Programme as well as local government counterpart of $12.8 million.
Lim said her
agency would only guide the LGUs in creating a biodiversity profile in every
city or municipal development agenda by creating a model for the land-use plan.
“We will
continue to remind them of our international commitments to the Millennium
Development Goal and other international protocols. That way they will include
these agenda in their development blueprint,” she said.
The
multi-sectoral partnership involving government agencies and local government
units aims to demonstrate how LGUs can plan and manage economic activities and
growth in ways that meet landscape-level biodiversity conservation and
sustainable developments.
The
partnership was created to enable local government units to build their
knowledge and capacity in biodiversity impact assessment.
This would
include the integration of biodiversity conservation in the local land use and
development planning, including strengthening the enforcement of wildlife trade
regulations, to prevent poaching and trading of endangered or critical species.
The program
also seeks to strengthen partnerships between the Housing and Land Use
Regulatory Board; the Agriculture, Local Government and Trade Departments;
non-government organizations; as well as the Leagues of Provinces, Cities and
Municipalities.
__________________________________________________________________
