Global body hails RP environment programs

MANILA, Philippines – Officials of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a global partnership comprising 178 countries, international institutions, private sector groups and non-government organizations committed to address global environmental issues, lauded the Philippines for its high absorptive capacity in carrying out projects funded by the institution.

The projects pertain to biodiversity, climate change, protection of marine life in international waters, and other initiatives on the sustainable management of the world’s natural resources.

The praise was relayed by GEF officials led by Alfred Duda, its senior advisor on international waters; Nicole Graneur, its program director for biodiversity and Rawleston Moore, its adaptation and country relations officer to Philippine Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap during a meeting at the institution’s headquarters in Washington DC.

Yap is in Washington as part of the official delegation of President Arroyo to the United States.

The GEF provides grants for projects related to biodiversity, climate change, international waters, land degradation, the ozone layer, and persistent organic pollutants.

The GEF has so far provided financial aid totaling $173 million (roughly equivalent to P8.3 billion) to the Philippines.

During his meeting with GEF officials, Yap thanked the organization for its continuing support for DA projects and the Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI), of which the Philippines is a member.

Projects funded by the GEF include the preservation of the Verde Island Passage between Batangas and Mindoro.

The Verde Island passage is considered  “the center of the center” of the world’s marine biodiversity with the highest number of species —1,736 in all, found in a single 10 by 10 kilometer square area.

Yap reiterated the Philippines’ called for concerted global action to protect the Coral Triangle, a 5.7-million-square-kilometer area in the Indo-Pacific Ocean that contains 67 percent of the world’s marine resources, against manmade threats such as over fishing, the proliferation of non-biodegradable wastes and other forms of ecological degradation.

The Philippines and five other countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste border the Coral Triangle.

The Coral Triangle is in great peril from direct human induced stresses such as sedimentation, over fishing, proliferation of non-biodegradable wastes, as well as coral bleaching and other effects which are the direct results of climate change. –Marianne V. Go (The Philippine Star)