We ruined protected areas, now we must save them

The Instagram-famous limestone formations in Rizal seemed to have filtered through everybody’s timeline, including that of Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

In his post, the actor supported the call of Masungi Georeserve, a party currently in the thick of conflict with the Philippine government. DiCaprio, whether he was aware of it or not, added fuel to the fire.

“Now this success is in jeopardy, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources threatens to cancel the agreement that protects this area from prolific land grabbing activities,” the post read.

DiCaprio then proceeded to call on Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to “intervene and continue to protect Masungi.” In some ways, the Hollywood actor and environmentalist shares a similar experience in business and advocacy, being the owner of a 104-acre island in Belize developed into a luxury eco-resort.

There was no response from the President. But the DENR reacted, issuing a statement a day after the post was made.

“We appreciate the statements of concern for the Philippine environment from international celebrities who are distinguished in their respective fields,” the DENR said.

A single-sentence paragraph followed: “However, no one is exempt from the law.”

Between legality and legitimacy

And the law mandates the DENR to protect Philippine environment and resources.

The second year of the Marcos administration was marked by irregularities in the management of protected areas such as Chocolate Hills, Mt. Apo, parcels of land in Surigao del Norte and within the Upper Marikina Watershed.

The environment department had since exercised its power to cancel the agreement with alleged cult Socorro Bayanihan Services Incorporated (SBSI), though late, as one senator pointed out early on in the investigation.

It stopped operations of the illegal resort in Chocolate Hills in Bohol, and told House lawmakers back in May that the order allowing resorts in the protected area will be repealed.

While the department has taken actions on these controversies, there is still unfinished business in Masungi.

The DENR has the legal leverage as the Department of Justice already issued a formal opinion that Masungi Georeserve Foundation Inc’s (MGFI) contract covering around 2,700 hectares of land in Upper Marikina Watershed is unconstitutional.

Yet it stalls on a decision on whether or not to cancel the contract. The agency passed the ball to Congress, which has yet to conclude its probe into the matter.

In the meantime, a slew of celebrities continue to voice out their support for MGFI. “In accordance with the legal system, the 2017 Memorandum of Agreement remains valid and binding unless declared otherwise by the courts,” the foundation maintained in a statement on July 8.

The legality of the contract – leasing hectares of public land without a specified time limit to one institution – gets buried in the noise. As well as the fact that the contract in question does not cover the famed georeserve and its ethereal hanging web and bridges, but a separate parcel of land in Rizal.

“It’s one thing to have the legal powers to do it, but legitimacy takes effort,” George Guerrero, an environmental lawyer from KLIMA of the Manila Observatory, told Rappler in an interview.

According to Guerrero, public opinion plays a huge part in how political institutions enforce laws.

For example, in the case of SBSI, the government was able to cancel the agreement because “there was a convergence of public opinion…and the legal powers of the DENR,” said Guerrero.

SBSI’s leader, Jey Rence ‘Señor Aguila’ Quilario, was under fire after it was revealed in Senate hearings that there were cases of child marriages and abuses under his watch.

Since 2004, the SBSI has had a protected area community-based resource management agreement with the government.

In the aftermath of the cancellation of this agreement, Environment Secretary Toni Yulo-Loyzaga said their approach is to remove settlers in the area “as humane[ly] and peaceful[ly] as possible.”

Concerns at the local level

While protected areas are within the purview of the national government, their everyday management relies on local players.

Loyzaga had already ordered the evaluation and assessment of Protected Area Development and Management Board (PAMB) membership, a DENR representative told Rappler.

The PAMB, created under the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) law, oversees the implementation of a protected area’s management plan.

The board is composed of the DENR regional executive director and representatives from local government, civil society, and indigenous cultural communities. They are not given any salary, but only allowances for their expenses while doing their work.

“Is there actual capacity to manage?” said Neil Mallari, an ecologist from the Center for Conservation Innovations.

Mallari pointed out that management of protected areas is just one of the long list of things that the environment department and its officials have had to deal with.

In view of the gigantic task ahead of the DENR now, Mallari said the challenge for Loyzaga, whose leadership he compared to former DENR secretary and marine biologist Angel Alcala, is how to change the old ways of doing things.

“Madaming moving parts ang environment sector,” said Mallari. (There are many moving parts in the environment sector.)

As a response to crimes that imperil the environment, the DENR has recently taken a stronger stance in pushing for enforcement powers.

The agency throws its support behind the bill creating the Environment Protection and Enforcement Bureau, which targets poachers, illegal loggers, and polluters.

The bill sponsored by Senator Loren Legarda and which is currently pending in the committee level, says the “infraction of protected area laws, rules and regulations have brought numerous issues with tremendous economic problems.”

In the eagle’s habitat

On Friday, June 28, Loyzaga hiked the muddy trail from the remote village of Kagbana in Burauen, Leyte, to the site where two Philippine eagles were set to be released into the Anonang-Lobi mountain range.

Going to Kagbana and into the eagle habitat, the environment secretary went through the Mahagnao Volcano Natural Park where Philippine ducks (Anas luzonica) swim in large lakes. The park is one of the protected areas listed under the Expanded NIPAS Act of 2018, covering 340.82 hectares.

Up in Anonang-Lobi, the weather has been changing constantly. Up until the hour of release, conservationists were wishing for less rain and clear skies. Loyzaga arrived before noon, flanked by aides and welcomed by local officials and members of the press.

“You owe me,” she told Dennis Salvador, executive director of the Philippine Eagle Foundation, once they reached the clearing where a program was ongoing. Salvador laughed.

Anonang-Lobi is one of the key biodiversity areas in the country considered a highly suitable eagle habitat for repopulation. While not necessarily declared as protected areas, key biodiversity areas are places identified as priorities for conservation.

The Philippine eagle is one of the species that got conservation funding in the 2024 budget, said Loyzaga during her speech on June 28.

She mentioned the work of past leadership in the department for starting a series of field expeditions in 2015 to check for the bird’s presence (or more accurately, its absence) in Leyte after Super Typhoon Yolanda.

“For a critically endangered species such as the Philippine eagle, with only about 392 pairs remaining in the wild, every single individual counts,” Loyzaga said.

“Our hope therefore is that Uswag and Carlito will actually bear offspring that will help us reintroduce this species sustainably here in this part of the country.”

There is a push now from advocates to declare eagle habitats as protected areas, to give the bird a fighting chance against poachers and illegal loggers.

Advocating for a place to be declared a protected area is not altogether futile, despite the challenges of implementing laws. For one, it opens space for people to take matters into their own hands.

“[W]hen something is deemed a protected area and there are clear strictures around it, when you try to do citizen action, you can campaign against someone on the basis of negligence of the protected area,” said Guerrero in a mix of Filipino and English.

The conservation of the critically endangered species is inextricably linked to the protection of critical habitats. But not only wildlife are saved in the process of conservation swathes of forest lands, but humans too, from the impacts of climate change.

According to climate scientist Lourdes Tibig, protected areas help reduce concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions as 25% of these emissions can be absorbed by plants.

“[T]he greater the trees and the protected areas, the greater is the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed and leaving less in the atmosphere,” Tibig told Rappler.

That afternoon when the raptors had flown away, the crowd slowly thinned out and the organizers started packing their things. One of the eagles was perched on a tree visible from the platform where it was released. The biologist who had taken care of the eagles when they were in captivity trained his camera on the bird. He was silent as he was taking photos.

In principle, a pair of Philippine eagles needs around 6,800 to 7,400 hectares of forest lands to thrive. The Anonang-Lobi mountain range covers 110,000 hectares.

The eagles would roam forest lands, especially in their younger years when they have yet to settle and find their territory. They are unaware of the lines humans draw on maps, that their presence could spur a whole legal structure in place over forest lands. Boundaries do not serve their nature. – Rappler.com