MANILA, Philippines - The United Kingdom has awarded a P20-million Darwin Initiative grant to improve five key biodiversity areas in the Philippines.
The UK’s Newcastle University, Ateneo de Manila University and Haribon Foundation yesterday launched the three-year project to help maintain and improve the ecosystem in the Verde Island Passage, Palawan, Danajon Bank, Bohol, Polilio Islands, and Lanuza Bay, which are key biodiversity areas.
British Ambassador Stephen Lillie said the project “will be a really valuable addition to the Darwin portfolio.”
“It goes to the heart of those sustainable development challenges that I have just outlined: how we reconcile conservation needs with sustainable livelihoods and better resource management. Certainly, we stand at something of a crossroads, between protection and extinction of our biodiversity,” Lillie said.
“This makes the Darwin Initiative more important than ever. It is timely therefore that we are launching it in the Philippines just ahead of the upcoming Rio+20 international conference in Brazil next month,” he added.
The project leader, Newcastle professor Nicholas Polunin, said the undertaking will reconcile conservation needs with sustainable livelihoods and enhance local capacity in resource management.
The project co-coordinator, Ateneo’s Margarita Lavides, said they will use different research methods and partner with other organizations to come up with a comprehensive study that will provide an effective template that can be replicated in other areas.
Haribon Foundation chairman John Lesaca commended the initiative, saying it “could not have come at a better time, with our capture fisheries being heavily exploited and in decline since the early 1900s.”
“The Visayas region, in particular, experienced low counts of reef fish typically exploited. This is further exacerbated with the effects of climate change and habitat destruction,” he said.
Philippine fisheries directly provide income to some 1.7 million fisherfolk and their families. Filipino fishermen, along with farmers, are the backbone of the country, supplying 43 percent of the protein intake of Filipinos.