Planned infrastructure projects in Western Visayas are threatening important ecosystems, San Carlos Bishop Gerardo Alminaza said Friday, August 26.
Alminaza was one the speakers at the Green SONA (State of Nature Assessment) with the theme “The continuing assault on nature: What are the ecological options?” at the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City.
The planned Patag-Calatrava Road runs through protected forest in Northern Negros, and the proposed Panay-Guimaras-Negros bridge threatens the critically endangered dolphins in the Iloilo-Guimaras Strait, he said.
A Green SONA resolution said that the Northern Negros Natural Park and the Philippine forests in general are threatened primarily by human activities, including road projects.
It also said the Guimaras Strait is home to marine mammals and declared as a protected area but threatened by industrial pollution, coastal development, conversion of mangrove forests to aquaculture ponds, sand quarrying, unrestricted fishing activities
The participants of the Green SONA called on government to:
• Adopt a Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System (PENCAS);
• Invest on solar power and other renewable energy;
• Strengthen the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system and biodiversity impact assessment;
• Ban the GMO yellow rice and enforce stricter penalties on violators;
• Enforce biosafety law to address accountability on GMO contamination and health risk;
• Push for sustainable and organic agriculture;
• Scale up production of organic products and pursue Negros to become the organic food island of the country;
• Empower farmers by supporting programs such as organic certification, technical assistance, and by providing micro credit and trainings;
• Harness indigenous energy sources and move away from dirty and dangerous fuels such as coal, liquefied natural gas, and nuclear power;
• Strengthen partnership with various stakeholders towards diversification of energy supply;
• Protect the Northern Negros Natural Park and the rest of the forests in the country and conserve their rich biodiversity;
• Strengthen management and conservation of marine, estuarine, and coastal habitats
• Implement and enforce marine protected areas; and
• Push for inclusive, science-based, ecosystem-based policies
They said as members of civil society, they resolve to:
• Call for reduced dependence on fossil fuels and on environmentally hazardous options;
• Protect living resources, natural legacies, livelihoods, and cultural heritage endangered by risky environmental policies and projects;
• Protect the people’s health by rejecting GMO products;
• Live a lifestyle that promotes organic agriculture and protects the biodiversity;
• Disseminate to the public the risk of operating a nuclear power plant in the Philippines;
• Educate and mobilize the youth as champions of renewable energy and towards movement-building;
• Protect the remaining forests and participate in forest restoration;
• Lobby for the enforcement of appropriate laws for the protection of marine diversity; and
• Educate the public on the importance of marine biodiversity*