Lawmaker advocates bayanihan to protect biodiversity

MANILA, Philippines - Mindoro Occidental Rep. Josephine Sato is advocating the bayanihan approach to protect and conserve the country’s biodiversity.

“Recognizing the urgent requirements to address the continued biodiversity loss in the Philippines and particularly recognizing the massive requirement to secure resources to finance biodiversity plans, programs and projects, a concept comes to my mind – bayanihan,” she said.

“In the Philippines, bayanihan is a time-honored tradition in rural villages where almost the entire community is mobilized to help a family literally move their home to another place,” she told a recent United Nations-sponsored forum on biodiversity.

“The spirit of bayanihan is exactly what we want to serve as model for our approach to biodiversity protection and conservation,” she said.  

Sato is a member of the House of Representatives committee on ecology. She has pushed for biodiversity and environmental protection and preservation through various bills.   

She said the country, being an archipelago of over 7,500 islands and islets, hosts more than 52,000 known species of plant and animal wildlife, “more than 50 percent of which are endemic or species that can only be found here and nowhere else in the world.”

“However, our biodiversity is seriously threatened. We are among the world’s biodiversity hotspots,” she said.

She cited a report by nongovernment organization (NGO) Conservation International, which identifies 35 biodiversity hotspots all over the world, including the Philippines.

Sato said a biodiversity hotspot is a country hosting vast species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world.

“Globally, biodiversity loss is happening for various reasons, such as habitat loss and degradation, making conservation crucial to protecting nature,” she said.

The former governor said areas for improvement include broader participation from citizens, improved coordination among branches of government, and mobilization of local governments.

“We should continuously identify new and additional sources and mechanism for cooperation for biodiversity conservation,” she added.