The Philippine coral reef area is the second largest in Southeast Asia and is estimated at 26,000 square kilometers. Scientists have identified 915 fish species and more than 40,000 scleractinian coral species, 12 of which are endemic to the country. Over 80 percent of original forests and mangroves in the Philippines have been cleared, increasing sediment outflow into reefs. Mangroves continue to be cut and used for firewood that fish have lost a place to breed and to live. Habitat loss takes several forms: loss of homes used by wild species and degradation, depriving native species of food, shelter, and breeding areas.
The other two problems, according to Melody, are few and weak management organizations, and poor technical and social leadership.
CCE’s primary goal has been to support marine conservation projects because, since 1980, over 400 marine protected areas (MPAs) have been legalized, yet only 10 percent are actually achieving the objectives of habitat protection due to poverty in coastal communities and a general lack of concern for coastal habitats.
Exploitation and destruction of coral reefs continue through extraction, illegal and destructive fishing, and pollution. Mismanagement has threatened these habitats, as well as the food security they offer to communities. CCE Foundation hopes to educate and improve human value formation through brochures, video, websites, posters, and national seminars. Guimaras has given them a new challenge.
Lerner’s essay is hopeful as he pinpoints organizations we can put our hope in to help save the earth from extinction.
The environmental health movement could, in fact, be the great unifying force. He suggests the environmental health movement has the potential to generate coalitions that include religious and spiritual groups, environmental groups, health professionals and affected health constituencies, labor unions, women’s groups, civil rights groups, social justice advocates, consumer groups and progressive corporate interests and a new progressive political majority. We cannot simply leave nature alone when we are the dominant species on earth.
Their aim? To free us from all the chains of toxic global system of production and consumption. Both are great human rights issues of the new millennium. People are troubled by scientific evidence that manmade chemicals, the depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, and new infectious diseases are emerging from habitat destruction, threatening our health.
Climate change is shifting the weather and temperatures. An understanding of the relationship between health and the environment is inevitable. How many of us, me included, feel that direct exposure to the sun stings our skin in a way that it did not 40 years ago?
Climate changes with ancient practices of agricultural burning of rain forests that creates conflagrations of smoke… and pollution. Human activity is making the blanket of carbon dioxide thicker. For example, when we burn coal, oil, and natural gas, we spew huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the air.
Humanity, thank God, is becoming increasingly aware of the threat of extinctions, both to human health and to all life on earth. As Michael Lerner observes, "For some, this revolution in consciousness will virtually become a religious experience, a deep spiritual awareness of the interconnectedness of all life, and our inescapable responsibility as stewards of the creation."
There will be others for whom health consciousness stems primarily not from spiritual, natural or scientific sources, but from a profound concern over social injustice. "There will be many others for whom the recognition of the environmental health consciousness will be based primarily on economical and political calculations. They will be eager to seize the business opportunities that the environmental health consciousness will bring," Lerner explains.
I believe others will see that one cannot win elections without a commitment to environmental health. Finally, through a campaign, consciousness may be driven all the way down to the ordinary barangay folks, for them to know what is happening to the earth, which is not good for them or their families.
At best, as the great scientist Rene Dubos foresaw, "Humans may have to manage the world like a global garden, in which we can consciously choose to preserve different human cultures and biomes in different parts of the world."