Why all the fuss about Boracay?
Why all the fuss about Boracay? Why not Tondo, Payatas, or Samar? Is it because there are no dollars to twinkle the eyes? Absolutely, and that is sad. Are our values that distorted?
The closure of Boracay had become necessary after years of uncontrolled development marred by the unabated greed of owners, developers, local government officials as well as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) and all connected agencies.
Development upon development sprawled until tourism and earnings rose exponentially but at a cost.
The closure was a must. Today, they talk about its opening in October; after all, it is one of the best beaches in the world.
Boracay is a small island and its sustainability is suspect. The number of visitors that go to the island must be monitored and they must follow strict environmental rules. I have not seen big structures being demolished? They should have done so to limit the influx of people, lest its degradation go on uncontrolled and become polluted once again.
As I write this, Metro Manila and Luzon are underwater and so are different places in India and China. Meanwhile, European countries, Australia,
and California have all experienced record high temperatures.
Metro Manila is a dying city, yet malls and developers are carpeting the metropolis with a building spree to benefit tourists and foreigners but NOT the people.
Look at Panglao, Bohol and Puerto Princesa City, Palawan, too. These were once pristine environments and now nothing but jellyfish abound, which is a sign of severe lack of oxygen in the water. Look at the Pasig River after all the hullabaloo of cleaning it up.
While I was a council member in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), we waged battle against oil and gas industries, big pharmaceuticals, companies that are into genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and mining. Shell, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, Anglo-American, Monsanto and Syngenta, to name a few. They were coddling the union with funds.
During the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa, our director-general announced a partnership between Shell and IUCN – without the approval of the council. A big fuss followed as we invoked our rights and the statutes, and he nearly lost his job.
Today, he is the head of United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Corruption has invaded and permeated the United Nations.
Look at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and what it has done for climate change. Nothing. Heat waves, droughts, floods, famine, food shortages, and climatic events are getting stronger and CO2 emissions continue to rise despite planting mangrove forests and terrestrial reforestation by a few good groups.
Our oceans are the new battleground as they give us over 70 percent of our oxygen and absorb over 50 percent of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Yet, the number of gyres filled with garbage and dead zones continues to rise. And all the fuss about Boracay? It’s a small insignificant islet. We ask: What now? How do we save our planet? Do we need a sea change? Yes, we do, and we need to change the leaders’ mindset. Frankly, I don’t know why we have not put environmental education in the curriculum. If we had, we would have had an army of eco-warriors protecting our dying planet by now.
Antonio M. Claparols is the president of the Ecological Society of the Philippines and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy.