DENR urges Protected-area users to get SPU agreement
USERS of Protected Areas, including the controversial Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL), are now required to apply for Special Use Agreement (Sapa), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Acting Secretary Jim O. Sampulna said.
The UMRBPL, which has been occupied by various users, has been the subject of land dispute that often result in violent incidence. The degradation of the upper Marikina river basin has been blamed by experts for flooding in Metro Manila, due to the diminished capacity of the Marikina River, which is heavily silted.
Among the users in the UMRBPL is the Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc. The group runs the awardwinning Masungi Georeserve, a low-impact ecotourism site in Baras Rizal and Rublou Inc. and Blue Atom, which has business interests within the area. These groups have been involved in a verbal tussle, each accusing the other of wrongdoing. But all these groups have no Sapa. A Sapa is an agreement between the DENR and a project proponent, which has a term of 25 years and is renewable for another 25 years. It is a type of agreement applicable to special uses of protected areas.
NIPAS, ENIPAS laws
UNDER the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act of 1992 or the Expanded Nipas (Enipas) Act, special uses may be allowed within protected areas except in strict protection zones and strict nature reserves, subject to compliance with the environmental compliance certificate and payment of corresponding user fee.
The law also states that the DENR secretary has the authority to determine a system-wide set of fees and charges to ensure sustainable financing of protected areas.
“The law requires a certain type of agreement with the DENR on special uses of protected areas. We are bound by this law,” Sampulna said. “The conversion of [a] MOA [Memorandum of Agreement] into a Sapa is also an opportunity for the DENR to correct its course and to cure defects in the MOA. Such defects include unconstitutional provisions and provisions that violate the Enipas Act and the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act.”
The implementing rules and regulations of the Enipas Act provide that MOAS issued by the DENR within protected areas prior to the effectivity of the Nipas Act shall be converted into Sapa upon satisfactory compliance with requirements.
According to Sampulna, this is the “best possible solution” that the DENR has come up with so far after a series of consultations and meetings with various stakeholders.
Constitutional limits
THE 1987 Constitution sets a limit of 25 years, renewable for another 25 years, for the term of agreements that the State enters into for the exploration, development and use of natural resources. The rules and regulations implementing the Nipas Act provide that ecotourism is one of the special uses of protected areas.
A Sapa aims to provide access and economic opportunities to indigenous peoples, tenured migrant communities and other protected area stakeholders; optimize the development of special-use projects consistent with the principles of sustainable development and biodiversity conservation in cooperation with stakeholders; guide the development of the zones of protected areas under their management objectives and provide a revenue stream for the sustainable management of protected areas. Under a MOA signed in 2017, the DENR has given a perpetual land trust to the Masungi Georeserve Foundation.
The MOA did not have the free, prior informed consent of the indigenous people whose ancestral domain overlaps with the 2,700 hectares covered by the MOA. It also does not provide for the payment of user fees.
From MOA to Sapa
IN 2018, the DENR issued DENR Administrative Order 2018-05, Addendum to DENR Administrative Order 2007-17 on the Rules and Regulations Governing Special Uses within Protected Areas, which states that “all existing MOAS on Special Uses within Protected Area shall be converted into Sapa in accordance with DAO 2007-17 and this Order.”