RP calls for 'time-bound' plans to save oceans

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is calling for the immediate implementation of “time-bound” action plans to save the world’s oceans from the devastating impact of climate change.

Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap made the appeal in Manado, Indonesia, last week where he led the Philippine delegation to the first-ever World Ocean Conference (WOC).

According to Yap, such initiatives should be supported with funds and expertise to allow countries adopting them to share the information and best practices they have learned with other nations.

“Most of all, no amount of mitigation and adaptation will be effective unless a decision is made to stop pollution now,” Yap said in a plenary speech during the WOC.

“All countries must pledge to prioritize stopping the poisoning of the earth in dramatic and substantive levels, instead of measured and ineffective tranches,” he said.

“No strategy can work where environment and marine degradation does not first come to a decided stop,” Yap added.

Yap pointed out that if the world can set aside trillions of dollars to save companies reeling from the current global economic meltdown, it must also be able to galvanize the will and the funds “to nurse Mother Earth back to health.”

Yap said the assistance is important at this critical time “when it has already started to reap the whirlwind for our past and continuing sins and omissions.”

Instead of just coming up with pledges and commitments, Yap said, “what is needed now are time-bound action plans to support model initiatives and to ensure that these are sustained and expanded through adequate funding.”

He said “the message for Copenhagen is that, the initiatives undertaken by many of the coastal countries must be supported by resources and expertise, so that the information and practices learned can be shared among nations and communities.”

The WOC, where 76 countries adopted the Manado Ocean Declaration, was organized by Indonesia to raise global awareness of the urgency of saving oceans from the adverse effects of climate change and making ocean issues a key agenda in the UN climate talks in Copenhagen.