Marine Conservation In The Philippines

Among the countries in the Southeast Asia, the Philippines sits at the heart of the Coral Triangle and is considered as the center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity where the highest concentration of species per unit area was observed (Carpenter and Springer, 2005). However, Roberts et al. (2002) list the Philippines as being the most highly threatened center of endemism with its marine environments at the intensified level of degradation. With all of these considerations, marine conservation efforts in the Philippines deserve a special attention.

The unique and valuable biodiversity of the Philippines as well as its high vulnerability, contributes to the long experience of the country in MPA development. The establishment of

The Philippine MPA database recorded a total of 1,800 MPAs in the country (Cabral et al., 2014). The substantial increase of MPA establishment may be attributed to the strong interest shown by the national government, local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations (NGOs) and funding institutions and to the innovations of coastal resource management thriving in the country (White et al., 2002). Different governance systems and characteristics with broad diversity of strategies were promoted which influence the dynamics of stakeholders in the respective areas. In general, MPAs are established nationally through the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act or through local (municipality or city) government planning and ordinance. The three jurisdictions holding the authority to

In addition to various national, regional, and global initiatives of the Philippine government to protect marine resources, (e.g. United Nations Development Programme Millennium Development Goals of the 2013 UNDP 2013, Coral Triangle Initiative, and Philippine Development Plans), the Philippines is also a signatory to the United Nations CBD, aiming to protect 10% of all marine and coastal habitats by 2020 (Arceo et al., 2004), hence the proliferation of MPAs located in every coastal area of the country is observed. However, using the nine criteria (i.e. law enforcement, monitoring and evaluation, financing, management body, information, education and communication, legitimization, community participation and site development) of the Management Effectiveness Assessment Tool (MEAT), the result of the Coral Triangle Support Partnership and MPA Support Network assessment on the nine nationally- established MPAs and 110 locally-established MPAs showed that only 22% of the national MPAs and 64% of the locally-established MPAs were effectively managed (CTI-CFF,