The Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), a unit of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), is mapping out a plan to protect the country’s peatlands.
Peatlands refer to wetlands that are characterized by the accumulation of organic matter called peat which derives from dead and decaying plant materials under high water saturation conditions. While peatlands cover only three percent of the world’s land area, it contains nearly 30 percent of all carbon on land and that protecting peatlands can reduce gases causing global warming by 10 percent.
PAWB Director Mundita S. Lim said “improved management of our peatlands maintains biodiversity and ensure a healthy and more liveable environment.”
DENR Undersecretary Demetrio U. Ignacio said “the Philippines has an important role to play and much of our peatlands remain intact and still actively take in carbon from the atmosphere. Despite the relatively small area that these cover, we can already contribute a considerable share in the challenge of climate change.”
In a recent workshop, Chee Tong Yiew of the Global Environment Centre based in Malaysia, discussed the magnitude of the ASEAN peat forests and its importance to the environment. Yiew said peat forests in the region cover 35 million hectares believed to store 120 billion tons of carbon. He said it is unfortunate that in 1998, burned peatlands caused about $9 billion in losses in terms of health, education, tourism and air traffic damage in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Thailand.
The presence of an intact Peat Swamp forest was confirmed in the Agusan Marsh by a team lead by Dr. Jonathan Davies, a long term expert partner of the Philippines on wetlands conservation in a first known exploration for this type of forest in the country in November 2006. Small remnants of peat swamp forests are also found in Leyte Sab-a basin the province of Leyte. – Benny Enriquez
