MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines is highly regarded in the world for the richness of its coastal and marine resources. This archipelago was declared as the epicenter of marine biodiversity with the richest concentration of marine life on the entire planet by scientists (Dr. Kent Carpenter and Dr. Victor Springer in 2006) –based from a 10-year multi-disciplinary study for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) entitled: “The Center of the Center of Marine Shorefish Biodiversity: The Philippine Islands”.
The study identified the Philippines as home to an astonishingly vast marine life, refuting previous studies indicating that Indonesia holds the highest fish diversity.
This unique natural heritage is indeed a great pride for the Filipinos. However, with the astounding results of the study also came the discovery that the Philippines as well, is the center of marine conservation adversity. With this, the continuing call to conserve and protect the Philippine coastal and marine environment is strongly being pursued.
In 1999, the month of May has been declared as the “Month of the Ocean” in the Philippines through Presidential Proclamation No. 57 by then president Joseph Ejercito Estrada.
Section 2 of the proclamation states that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) through the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) shall spearhead the observance of the Month of the Ocean (MOO) in collaboration with the different sectors of society through the conduct of activities that shall highlight the conservation, protection and sustainable management of Philippine coastal and ocean resources.
Since then, the DENR has been annually celebrating the MOO through various activities that campaign for the continuous protection and conservation of our coastal and marine resources.
This year, another array of activities has been set, with the theme: “Buhay Dagat, Buhay Natin” in conjunction with the observance of the International Day of Biological Diversity (IDBD) last May 22 and its theme of marine biodiversity.
The theme “Buhay Dagat, Buhay Natin” encompasses a broad spectrum of owning and charging to all the protection and preservation of the country’s marine resources as it serves as a large basin of life sustenance in the land.
The state of the country’s coastal and marine resources have been severely affected by the rapid increase in urbanization, industrialization and population that resulted to sedimentation and siltation from coastal development activities, coupled with illegal and destructive fishing methods and over fishing (Aliño, 2008).