Philippine Government Urged to Implement Environmental Security Plan

Citing the existence of continuing threats to environmental security, the Ecological Society of the Philippines is renewing its call for the government to implement Philipine Agenda 21, an offshoot of the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

"Sadly, 10 years after the said summit, there is more poverty, less forest, wetlands, coral reefs and estuaries," said ESP president and International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources regional councilor Antonio M. Claparols.

According to Claparols, the Philippines has been experiencing one of its worst summers in years. He pointed out that an iceberg the size of Manhattan Island has broken away from South Antarctic, "a clear indication of global warming."

He added: "Throughout the country, temperatures are soaring, threatening life resources like the Angat, Magat, Binga and Ambuklao dams. Forestlands continue to be denuded. When there is no land to till and no water to irrigate croplands, then how can life be sustained?"

"How can we prosper as a nation when poverty cannot be eradicated due to dying ecology?" the ESP official said, adding that environmental security must be addressed to mitigate poverty.

"I am afraid that sustainable development may no longer be viable as our ecology has reached a point of irreversibility. The World Bank has given us a bad environment report card. Taiwan in on water rationing. Will we be next?" Claparols asked.

He said ESP is appealing to all elected officials to address the degradation of the country’s environment and give back the people’s basic rights as mandated in the Constitution.

Source: The Philippine STAR