Conservation Priority Investments
Eyed for Corridor Target Clusters
Conservation stakeholders have identified a set of criteria and procedures for selecting biodiversity-focused priority investments for target clusters in the biodiversity corridors of Central Mindoro and Eastern Mindanao.
The DENR-GEF/UNDP Biodiversity Corridor Project is implementing an integrated network design and efficient management of the Philippine BD system, ensuring the continued stability and sustainability of these corridors’ bio-ecosystem services and socio-economic conservation values.
Moreover, the Project will build a strong corridor alliance each for Mindoro (R4B) and Eastern Mindanao (R13/R11), as it aims to effectively conserve globally threatened species and high conservation value forests (HCVAs).
Enhanced Livelihoods
The main goal of the BD Corridor Project is to operationalize an integrated management of biodiversity corridors to generate multiple benefits, including effective conservation of globally significant biodiversity, reduced deforestation and degradation, and enhanced livelihoods for the community.
To achieve this, the approach is to identify distinct “clusters” of biologically significant areas. These include key biodiversity areas (KBAs), protected areas (PAs) and other area-based effective conservation measures (OECMs) within the landscape.
These clusters will therefore represent the most critical areas (including highest biodiversity significance, threat reduction urgency, and potentials of replication) within the corridors. The approach proposed here is based on the following principles:
- Principle 1. Ecosystems Approach
- Principle 2. Representativeness and ecological viability
- Principle 3. Evidence-based Science
- Principle 4. Precautionary Design
- Principle 5. Threats Reduction
- Principle 6. Performance Monitoring and Accountability
Holistic Approach
The vision of the BD Corridor Project is to maximize the opportunity that the identified corridors present to ensure a holistic approach to their management and generate multiple benefits. Hence this is a huge undertaking in terms of coverage (area size as well as biological and institutional enabling mechanisms), requiring a significant amount of investments from various partners.
In his opening remarks during the Project inception workshop last December 2, DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) director Datu Tungko Saikol highlighted the significance of engaging multiple stakeholders so they will fully benefit from direct and indirect ecosystem services.
Dir. Saikol, also the BD Corridor National Project Director, added that the Project will generate, assemble and package user-friendly and science-based information on the ground, as it builds strong corridor alliances with stakeholders.
BMB assistant director Amy Ortiz, in her closing remarks during the inception workshop, meanwhile said the Project will ensure that the management of these biological corridors will continuously become stable and sustainable in the coming years.
Asst. Dir. Ortiz said the Project will develop and adopt this unique framework of integrated ecosystems management (IEM) for both Mindoro and Eastern Mindanao BD corridor pilots. She said the Project will help the corridors design their site-specific integrated cluster conservation plans. (Mitch R. Confesor)