Half of Philippine Biodiversity needs Protection By Cai Ordinario

According to US-based scientists, more than half of the Philippine archipelago should be protected in order to preserve rare and endangered species as well as high-biodiversity areas. The report, “A ‘Global Safety Net' (GSN) to reverse biodiversity loss and balance the Earth's climate,” stated that 54% or 15.8 million hectares of the Philippines should be considered protected land or areas. However, only 15% of the country is currently considered protected areas which mean an additional 36% should be protected to preserve rare and endangered species and another 2% to conserve high-biodiversity areas.

Karl Burkart said that “If we fail to protect lands for ecosystem services and carbon sequestration, we will not be able to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement. The two conventions are intertwined,” There is a very finite amount of natural land that could be converted to human use before we lose the 1.5-degree Celsius window. In order to save biodiversity and stabilize our global climate system, we need to protect all remaining natural lands by 2030—approximately 50 percent of the Earth.

The first comprehensive global-scale analysis of terrestrial areas essential for biodiversity and climate resilience, totaling 50.4 percent of the Earth’s land was made by a group of scientists and experts. It highlights the importance of preserving and restoring the natural environment to address three converging crises which are climate change, the loss of biodiversity, and the emergence of novel viruses such as Covid-19.

As recorded in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), the Protection Level is a simple score of 0 to 10 based on the percentage of biologically important lands identified in the GSN that are currently designated as protected by each government. A score of 10 indicates that more than 95 percent of these lands are protected, with a score of 5 indicating that roughly half of important lands are protected. Based on the report, the Philippine ranked 45th out of 70 large countries with a protection level of 3 which means only about 30 percent of the country’s biologically important land is currently protected.

The conservation of land areas, which provides vital habitat for the world's most endangered species, has been listed as an urgent priority. As stated by Carly Vynne-Baker, “The Global Safety Net shows a way forward to conserve wild places and ensure that nature isn’t something left in a few remote, far-off places. All of humanity deserves access to nature and the myriad of benefits it provides to our mental, physical and spiritual health,”