DENR mandates ‘ biodiversity conservation’ to be key consideration in evaluating projects

THE Environment department has issued an order that requires the consideration of biodiversity factors in what is thought to be the first official recognition of biodiversity as a contributor to economic and social development.

“All DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) offices shall ensure that Biodiversity conservation is considered in the planning and implementation of various programs and projects, and in the issuance of tenurial instruments,” read the agency’s Memorandum Circular No. 2016-745 issued on Nov. 28, and posted on the Facebook account of Biodiversity Management Bureau Chief Theresa Mundita S. Lim.

Tenurial instruments are those that grant a project proponent a lease over government land, subject to certain environmental management conditions.

The order authorizes the BMB to create a team of biodiversity experts to participate in mining audits, environmental impact assessment reviews, and performance evaluations of tenurial agreements issued by the DENR.

“It should benefit the entire country because for the longest time biodiversity has been seen as not contributing to development. So for the first time, there is an official recognition of biodiversity, especially for the Philippines… We have many species that exist only here and we also have many ecosystems that can contribute to a community’s resiliency,” said Ms. Lim on Thursday via phone.

The circular references Executive Order 578, which establishes the national policy on biodiversity as prescribed for implementation throughout the country, particularly in key areas like the SuluSulawesi Marine Ecosystem and the Verde Island Passage Marine Corridor, which is the strait between Luzon and Mindoro.

The law provides for an interagency effort “to protect, conserve, and sustainably use biological diversity to ensure and secure the well- being of present and future generations of Filipinos.”

DENR Administrative Order 2016-12 also outlines the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan of 2015 to 2018.

The priority of the three-year biodiversity action plan, according to Ms. Lim, is “to ensure that biodiversity is taken into account in our development paradigm.”

The Philippines, which is rich in both terrestrial and marine biodiversity, is recognized as one of 18 mega-biodiversity countries that collectively make up twothirds of the earth’s biological diversity,

The country is also known as one of the biodiversity hot spots where biological diversity is under constant threat due to unsustainable resource use practices, overexploitation, population pressures, and poverty, among other factors. —