CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Around a hundred marine protected area managers, ecosystem management specialists, and development management officers of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in four regions converged recently in a bid to strengthen the protection of marine protected areas (MPA) in the country.
An MPA is an area that has been reserved by Philippine law and governed by specific rules or guidelines to manage activities to protect the entire, or part of, the enclosed coastal and marine environment.
Arthur Salazar, deputy director for technical services of the DENR Central Luzon, said the 10-day marine spatial planning workshop was participated in by different personnel from DENR-Ilocos, DENR-Cagayan Valley, DENR-Central Luzon, DENR-Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), and DENR-Calabarzon, or the Luzon Island cluster.
“This training-workshop aims to further improve the competency of DENR staff in managing the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS) marine protected areas and to maximize the potential use of marine waters for protection, conservation, and source of food and livelihood of coastal communities,” he explained.
The participants were tasked to plan for the strategic ecological management of NIPAS marine protected areas located in their regions, namely: Batanes Protected Landscape and Seascape, Palaui Island Protected Landscape and Seascape, Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, and Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape, all in Cagayan Valley; Agoo-Damortis Protected Landscape and Seascape and Hundred Island National Park in Ilocos; Masinloc Oyon Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape in Central Luzon; and Alibijaban Island in Calabarzon.
The event was in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) through the United States Agency for International Development (USAid).
Salazar said coastal and marine spatial planning (CMSP) is a process vital for analyzing and allocating their spatial and temporal distribution of human activities in marine areas to achieve ecological, economic and social objectives, adding that marine waters are important home to various diverse species of marine life.
“CMSP is important so that we can manage and conserve our marine resources sustainably to achieve an informed and coordinated decision. This is similar to land-use planning but for marine waters,” he added.
In Central Luzon, the 7,000-hectare Masinloc-Oyon Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape, a newly legislated protected area under Republic Act No. 11038 or the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System (Enipas) Law is the lone marine protected area in the region and is home to unique and diverse marine life.
Other newly legislated protected areas in the region include the Amro River Protected Landscape (6,431.30 hectares), Dinadiawan River Protected Landscape (3,366.54 hectares), Simbahan Talagas Protected Landscape (2,284.30 hectares), Talaytay Protected Landscape (3,598.31 hectares), all in Aurora; and the Roosevelt Protected Landscape (950.43 hectares) in Bataan.
DENR records show that the Philippines has 33 declared marine protected areas covering more than 1.5 million hectares under Enipas.