DENR says rising population a threat to RP’s food security

THE Department of Environment and Natural Resources expressed alarm over the country’s food security—not for lack supply, but because of increasing demand.

Environment Secretary Horacio Ramos said the government is scrambling for solutions to solve the impending problem of ample food production to feed the growing population.

Ramos said that with the world’s human population expanding ever so rapidly, food security becomes a priority concern for governments.

The Philippine archipelago is inhabited by approximately 100 million people and is projected to hit 120 million in ten years time. Scientists say this is beyond the carrying capacity of our land mass and will put extreme stress on the country’s fragile environment.

“The immediate protection of fertile breeding grounds of marine life is seen as a viable response. With over-fishing decimating fish population in the open seas, the conservation of coral reefs becomes important to enable fish populations to recover,” he said.

At least 120 million people in six countries directly depending on the Coral Triangle for their food supply stand to benefit from the signing by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of Republic Act No. 10067, which places the 97,030-hectare Tubbataha Reef in Palawan under a permanent protection status,” according to Ramos.

“Under the protection a national law, the viability of the Tubbataha Reef Natural Park (TRNP) is assured, benefiting not only generations of Filipinos but also those of our neighboring countries in the Indo-Pacific region”, Ramos said.

The rich marine biodiversity of the reef comprises a significant part of the rich marine life of the Coral Triangle—a vast expanse of marine waters shared by the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste. –Francis Earl A. Cueto, Manila Times