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By Katrina April Mennen A. Valdez,
Reporter
The Department of Environment and
Natural Resources has signed a memorandum of agreement with a US
non-government organization that plans to invest $3.5 million yearly
for the conservation of Philippine biodiversity.
Environment Secretary Angelo
Reyes signed the MOU with the Conservation International during the
CI’s board meeting in the Philippines.
The Philippines is one of the few
countries with highest level of biodiversity in the world. The CI
has also identified the Philippines as one of the 18-megadiverse
countries in terms of biological resources.
The CI, which is based in San
Francisco, California, works with various countries in saving and
preserving the earth’s living heritage, its global biodiversity,
and promotes the coexistence of man and nature.
It celebrated its 20th
anniversary during the board meeting in San Francisco where Reyes
signed the MOU.
The CI’s board includes
prominent personalities like Peter A. Seligmann, Harrison Ford,
Gordon Moore of Intel, Rob Walton of Wal-Mart, James D. Wolfensohn,
formerly of the World Bank, and Ann Friedman.
Reyes said that although the
Philippines has a very high concentration of species, many of them
endemic, they are under various threats of habitat destruction. The
situation handicaps the country in meeting its need for
environmental management and sustainable development.
The Philippines was invited for
the first time to send a representative to the CI board meeting to
present its program on biodiversity.
CI plans to invest a total of
$3.5 million annually in the Philippines for biodiversity
conservation and related environmental programs.
Their projects include
establishment of protected area networks in the Sierra Madre,
Eastern Mindanao and Southern Palawan biodiversity corridors, as
well as the sustainable management of marine biological resources
within the Sulu and Sulawesi seas.
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