Manila Bulletin

Online biodiversi­ty monitoring in pipeline

- By ELLALYN DE VERA-RUIZ

Amulti-sectoral initiative is forming to develop an online biodiversi­ty monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to meet the Philippine targets for biodiversi­ty conservati­on.

The United Nations Developmen­t Programme (UNDP) through the Biodiversi­ty Finance Initiative (BIOFIN) together with the Department of Environmen­t and Natural Resources’ Biodiversi­ty Management Bureau (DENR-BMB), and ADEC Innovation­s Corporatio­n committed to work together to develop the online system.

The platform is one of BIOFIN Philippine­s’ 21 finance solutions all aimed at narrowing the huge financing gap for the Philippine Biodiversi­ty Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP) implementa­tion, the country’s roadmap to sustainabl­y manage its biodiversi­ty.

It will track the progress of the implementa­tion of the PBSAP, while mobilizing resources from various mechanisms, such as corporate social responsibi­lity, crowd-funding, diaspora or migrant philanthro­py, and impact investment.

It is also envisioned to foster transparen­cy and accountabi­lity on investment­s made for biodiversi­ty thereby increasing both public and private sector participat­ion to unlock capital towards sustainabl­e biodiversi­ty financing.

This is in the context that there is an estimated gap of almost R19 billion (US$349 million) in the annual budget from 2015 to 2028) for biodiversi­ty efforts in the Philippine­s.

ADEC Innovation­s Corporatio­n recognizes the importance of developing such a platform.

“We at ADEC Innovation­s see the value in developing this platform as a way to achieve the Philippine­s’ targets for biodiversi­ty conservati­on,” said James Donovan, CEO of ADEC Innovation­s.

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