Breadcrumb
Philippines
Capital:
Manila
Land Area:
298,170km²
Inland Water Area:
1,830km²
Length of Coastline:
36,289km
A global center of marine diversity, an archipelago with more than 7,100 islands, and one of the longest coastlines in the world, the Philippines provides visitors with access to all that is wondrous and beautiful about the ocean and coastal resources, as well as insights into the challenges to sustainable development and management of those very resources. The country is confronted with the enormous challenge of finding a suitable path to food security, sustainable livelihood, poverty alleviation and reduction of vulnerability to natural hazards, while protecting ecological integrity and strengthening economic growth. Responding to this challenge, integrated coastal management (ICM) has emerged, through practice, as a better alternative in the governance of coastal and marine areas. In as much as the Philippines is an ocean-dependent country, application of ICM is of vital importance to the country’s long-term social and economic development.
The issuance of Executive Order (EO) 533 on 6 June 2006 adopting ICM as the policy framework for the sustainable development of the coastal and marine environment and resources is considered a significant milestone in the long history of coastal management in the Philippines. An ICM Bill filed at the Senate and House of Representatives, which captures the provisions of the EO, aims to institutionalize ICM through the enactment of the Bill into ICM Act.
In 2013, PEMSEA assisted the DENR to draft a National ICM Program for Sustainable Development of the Coastal and Marine Environment and Resources of the Philippines, as mandated by EO 533. The program targeted developing and implementing effective ICM programs in partnership with local governments, covering more than 20% of the country’s coastline over the next 5 years. In 2015, the Philippine Government signed the Da Nang Compact along with 10 other East Asian countries, committing to scale up ICM to cover 25% of the regional coastline . An independent Third-Party Assessment (TPA) was conducted in 2017 to objectively evaluate ICM program coverage in the country, to benchmark the ICM processes and controls that have been established in selected provinces and municipalities against the requirements of PEMSEA’s ICM Code, and to provide guidance on the standardization, streamlining and strengthening the national ICM program. The results of the TPA has confirmed the Philippines achievement in ICM scaling up where the assessment of 32 coastal provinces (out of 64) covered an estimated coastline of 9.747 km or 26.85% of the Philippine coastline.
With a view of promoting convergence and collaboration among concerned agencies and related programs at various scales, the Philippines through DENR has established partnerships for: a) the joint protection of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion with Indonesia and Malaysia in partnership with GIZ; b) collaboration with the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute for the Philippine Rise Initiative; c) implementing the GEF/UNDP- SMARTSeas Project; d) the multilateral partnership for the Coral Triangle Initiative; and e) managing Key Biodiversity Areas of Southeast Asia in partnership with the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity. Through EO 510, the DENR has developed the Integrated River Basin Development and Management Framework, which provides the blueprint for protecting the country’s priority river basins by reducing pollution and ensuring the sustainable supply of clean and safe water for all.
Focal Points:
Atty. Analiza Rebuelta-Teh (National Focal Point)
Undersecretary for Finance, Information Systems and Climate Change, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
Ms. Jeslina Gorospe
Chief, Project Monitoring and Evaluation Division, Foreign-Assisted and Special Projects Service (FASPS), DENR
c/o Ms. Khasmer Marbella
Project Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, FASPS, DENR
RELATED PUBLICATIONS
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Proceedings of the Thirty Second Meeting of the Executive Committee
The 32nd PEMSEA Executive Committee (EC) Meeting was conducted virtually on 19 March 2024 via Zoom. Participants of the meeting included the EC members , particularly the Chair and Co-Chair, Intergovernmental Session Chair and Co-Chair, the Technical Session Chair of the EAS Partnership Council (PC), and the Executive Director of the PEMSEA Resource Facility (PRF). Observers from the China PEMSEA Center, Ministry of Environment (MoE) of Cambodia, and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) of the Philippines also attended the meeting. PRF served as the Secretariat of the meeting.
DOCUMENT NUMBER DOCUMENT TITLE EC/32/DOC/01a List of meeting documents EC/32/DOC/01b Provisional agenda EC/32/DOC/02 Updates on the EAS Asian Seas Congress 2024 EC/32/DOC/02a Provisional Structure of the EAS Asian Seas Congress 2024 EC/32/DOC/03 Development of the 8th Ministerial Declaration EC/32/DOC/03a Concept Note and Draft Zero of the 8th MF EC/32/DOC/04 Global Trends and Opportunities Impacting the EAS Region EC/32/DOC/05 Updates on the 16th EAS PC Meeting