European Commission lauds Asean biodiversity project

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – The European Commission (EC), through its delegation in the Philippines, expressed satisfaction yesterday over the progress of a joint Southeast Asian project on biological diversity being implemented by the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The ASEAN Regional Center for Biodiversity Conservation (ARCBC) is moving into the second half of its life and is in full swing, noted Luc Vandebon, Charge d’Affaires of the EC delegation in the Philippines.

Vandebon spoke at the opening of the "5th Consultative Meeting of the National Biodiversity Reference Unit (NBRU) Coordinates and ARCBC" at the Splash Mountain Resort Hotel here.

Another opening program speaker was Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio of the Department of Environmenta and Natural Resource (DENR), ARCBC’s executing agency.

The ARCBC was launched in 1999 to intensify biodiversity conservation through improved cooperation in a comprehensive regional context, by assisting in setting up a network of institutional links among ASEAN countries and between ASEAN and EU partner-organizations.

The NBRUs serve as the center’s national focal point within an existing institution in a member country. For instance, in the case of the Philippines, the NBRU is the DENR-Protected AReas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB).

Vandebon said the EC delegation has been reading the ARCBC reports "with great interest."

For instance, he noted, the research program is now fully operational and almost all the approved research projects are being executed.

The training needs have been assessed nad a number of agreed upon priority training programs are being implemented. The training resources database and the collection of more than 1,000 training materials by ARCBC in particular, are very valuable and lasting achievements.

By now, Vandebon added, the ARCBC web is a very significant and valuable took, providing easy access to biodiversity data in the region.

"It provides a great encouragement for other data holders to join in the network and share their data holdings more openly," he said.

ARCBC has also been publishig a magazine called "ASEAN Biodiversity" and has initiated a valuable series of other publications on biodiversity guidelines.

Vandebon concluded: "We should not be looking just at the last 2 years of the project, but also into the whole issue of sustainability of ARCBC as a long-term regional center. While different donors may provide assistance to ARCBC, the government of the ASEAN countries will remain responsible for ARCBC and its network of NBRUs to fulfill its role in the conservation of biodiversity in the ASEAN region."

For his part, Ignacio observed that the ASEAN region is considered to have one of the highest biodiversity concentrations in the world.

"Unfortunately," he lamented, "this concentration is also among the most threatened in the world."

He continued: "Biodiversity is critical for our survival. It provides for our food, clothing, shelter, medicine, livelihood and even nourishment for our spirit."

It is, therefore, vital that hte people in the region protect and conserve biodiversity, whose natural habitats are threatened by both natural causes and man-made destructive practices.

The conference participants came from ARCBC member-countries (Brunei, Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and the Jakarta (Indonesia)-based ASEAN secretariat.