On May 22, the world celebrates the International Day of Biological Diversity, which aims to shed light on issues surrounding the vast array of plant and animal life on earth.
Biodiversity and their ecosystems are the cornerstone of all life, from which our food, medicine, energy, and water, among others, are derived. This year’s theme is “From Agreement to Action: Building Back Biodiversity.”
This theme underscores the recent approval of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and the urgency for each country-signatory to implement the strategies therein. The Philippines is one of the signatories to the GBF — an agreement between governments to halt and reverse biodiversity loss.
Thus, I find it perplexing that parts of the Philippine government have been too keen to scrap the award-winning Masungi Geopark Project, which is leading the way in the restoration of degraded watersheds and habitats in the Philippines. This goes against our international commitments in the GBF to “ensure that by 2030 at least 30 percent of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and marine and coastal ecosystems are under effective restoration.”
Panatang Luntian Coalition calls on Filipinos to #SaveMasungi.
The Masungi Geopark Project (MGP) has recovered more than 2,000 hectares of degraded watershed areas in the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape, a watershed that is crucial to reducing flood and landslide risk to millions of Filipinos downstream. We can describe the supposedly protected area as “under life support” with only 11 to 20 percent forest left. Masungi’s contribution to the reforestation and protection of this area is indispensable, foiling about five major forest invasions in the last five years through vigilance, storytelling, and coalition-building.
Retaliatory attacks against Masungi escalated in September 2022, right after three large-scale quarrying agreements found in the project site in the province of Rizal were canceled by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in response to widespread public clamor. These attacks include organized disinformation, adverse inquiries by local congressmen, strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), and fishing for technicalities in the MGP contract.
Lawmakers show support to Masungi through the passage of House Resolution 516 on May 15, 2023 in the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Committee.
Despite this, compassionate lawmakers showed support to Masungi through the passage of House Resolution 516 on May 15, 2023 in the House of Representatives’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Committee. The committee, chaired by Rep. Bro. Eddie Villanueva, congratulated Masungi for receiving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Action Award in 2022.
Ambassadors and members of the diplomatic corps with the media call on the concerned citizens to #SaveMasungi.
Masungi also held a diplomatic reception last May 5, briefing and engaging ambassadors and diplomats from more than six countries about its current situation.
I can only assure you that the Masungi Georeserve Foundation and its partners stand firm in its commitment to protect the Masungi landscape and secure the sanctuary’s long-term future.
Speaking not as a trustee of the foundation but as an ordinary Filipino citizen, I truly hope that the DENR Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga does not give in to political pressures, but fights for the environment and its changemakers. For who will benefit from the scrapping of the MGP but the syndicates preying on our defenseless forests?