Philippines

Marine Protected Areas in the Philippines

The Philippine Archipelago includes 7,107 islands totalling more than 36,000 km of coastline. The Philippine nation claims an EEZ of more than 2.2 million sq km of ocean territory [1]. This entirely island nation faces extreme pressure on its marine resources from uncontrolled deforestation and erosion, coral reef degradation, and increased pressure on coastal mangrove swamps.

Targets for MPA coverage in the Philippines have been specified in the 1998 Fisheries Code legislation, which calls for 15% of coastal municipal waters (within 15 km of the coastline) to be protected within no-take MPAs, and in the Philippine Marine Sanctuary Strategy (Areco et al 2004), which aims to protect 10% of coral reef area in no-take MPAs by 2020 [2].

While there has been a large push to create more than 1,000 areas of marine protection with varying amounts of management and monitoring [3] many of these MPAs are weakly-functioning “paper parks.” Approximately 90% of the MPAs are “no-take” and are <1 sq km in size [2]. A study published in 2010 revealed that even given the number of MPAs that have sprung up in the Philippines, “the extent, distribution, and size of MPAs are inadequate to fulfill conservation objectives at this scale.” [2] It also indicated that while some MPAs have been effective at achieving increased fisheries resources within the reserves as well as in surrounding areas, as cited by Alcala and Russ, 2006, they are not effective at fulfilling conservation targets of protecting representative biodiversity [2]. As many as 95% of the MPAs in the Philippines are community-based and created primarily for fisheries management purposes, so many are overlooked in traditional MPA databases (392 in WDPA). In 2006, a survey of 251 MPAs rated 12% as “sustained,” meaning that they have a fully operational enforcement system, management plan and monitoring system.

Recommendations for improved MPA implementation and effectiveness in Weeks et al (2010), include continuing to increase number and size of community-based MPAs, designation of additional large no-take areas such as Tubbataha Reef National Park and Apo Reef Natural Park, and lastly, help build abilities of local and national management and governance [2].

Sources

[1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html; retrieved on February 6, 2012.

[2] Weeks, R., Russ, G. R., Alcala, A. C., and White, A. T. (2010). Effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas in the Philippines for Biodiversity Conservation. Conservation Biology, 24(2), 531-540. Blackwell Publishing Inc.

[3] http://www.coast.ph/resource-center/mpa-database; retrieved on February 6, 2012.

[4] Areco, H. O.,W. L. Campos, F. Fuentes, and P. M. Alino. (2004). Proceedings of the workshops towards the formulation of the Philippine Marine Sanctuary Strategy. University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute, Diliman, Quezon City.

[5] Alcala, A. C., and G. R. Russ. 2006. No-take marine reserves and reef fisheries management in the Philippines: a new people power revolution. Ambio 35:245–254.

[6] White, A., A. B. T. Meneses, M. Ovenden, and S. Tesch. (2006). Sustaining marine protected areas through continued monitoring and evaluation: the MPA report guide and management rating system. International Coral Reef Symposium 10:1466–1470.

[7] MPA report http://innri.unuftp.is/pdf/Marine%20Protected%20Areas.pdf