By HOWIE G. SEVERINO
BERKELEY, Calif. -- Dubious distinctions have their uses. Someone started calling the Philippines the "economic basket case of Asia" over a decade ago, and helped shame previous governments into thinking of ways to kickstart the economy.
Maybe fresh international notoriety about our environment might make our current leaders sober up for a moment and consider our place on the planet.
Recent studies published abroad have ranked the Philippines as last or nearly last among many countries surveyed for the health of their environments.
One of the more interesting studies is an attempt to develop an "environmental sustainability index," part of an effort to measure the ability of economies to achieve ecologically sustainable development. Released at the last World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said to be the world's leading conference for political and economic leaders, this study ranked the Philippines as next to last among 60 countries. In other words, except for Vietnam, our country was the least prepared to protect communities and the environment from the ecological stresses created by economic growth.
A collaboration of analysts from Yale and Columbia Universities and a special international task force, the study recognizes that economic well-being is ultimately dependent on ecological health. Although by no means conclusive, its findings suggest that environmental sustainability and economic competitiveness can go hand-in-hand, if societies pay attention to the former as much as the latter.
The rankings are based on five components: current conditions of environmental systems; the stresses to those systems; vulnerability of communities to environmental disturbances and disasters; social and institutional capacity to respond to environment problems (including governance systems); and global stewardship, or the degree to which an economy behaves responsibly with respect to other economies (through its consumption patterns and efforts to manage common environmental problems).
The Philippines was way below average in all components. For example, high levels of air and water pollution, and widespread forest loss placed us seventh from the last in environmental stresses. We rated most highly in environmental systems, partly because of nature's gift of rich biodiversity; but this is also gravely threatened, as described below.
What pulled the Philippines down to next to last in the index was "human vulnerability to environmental impacts." No population was ranked more vulnerable other than Zimbabwe's. In particular, the Philippines has one of the highest rates of prevalence of infectious disease and the absolute weakest ability to protect people from natural disasters. Of course, the latter can be misleading, because we are also visited by more typhoons, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions than just about any other country in the world. Still, human failures heighten the risks from natural disasters, such as the anemic enforcement of housing regulations, which in the Cherry Hills case made strong rain deadly, and the inequitable distribution of arable land, which compels farmers to settle dangerous areas like Mount Mayon's slopes. Much more than economic growth, it would seem that a measure for human vulnerability is a powerful indicator of a society's progress.
Much more data is contained in this study, which is available on-line at www.yale.edu/envirocenter.
The Philippines was also mentioned prominently in less than rosy terms in a recent cover story in Nature magazine, a widely respected international weekly journal of science (www.nature.com). In an article co-authored by leading conservation biologists, the Philippines is named one of the world's eight hottest "hot spots," defined as land territories with high degrees of unique plant and animal life coupled with grave threats to that life. These hot spots have been identified as deserving of priority attention by the international community simply because much of the planet's biodiversity is contained in these few threatened places. The Philippines has been previously cited as having, hectare for hectare, the highest degree of biodiversity on the globe. There are more tree species, for example, in one hectare of northeastern Luzon forest than all of Europe.
Among the eight hot spots, most are bio-regions, such as Brazil's Atlantic forest and coastal forest in east Africa. The Philippines was counted in its entirety. Having been separate from major land masses as far back as the Ice Age 20,000 years ago, most species on our islands evolved independently from others, resulting in their overwhelming uniqueness.
This genetic storehouse is a planetary treasure, containing untold ecological, economic and medical value. It may also disappear sooner than any other. Of all 25 global hot spots identified in the article, the Philippines has the smallest remaining primary vegetation -- only 3 percent of the original extent. These tiny patches of ancient habitat contain such endangered animal species as the tamaraw, the freshwater crocodile, and the Philippine eagle, of which there may be only 30 breeding pairs left in the wild. Population pressure, hunting, logging, and government negligence are all contributing to a steady chipping away at this remaining 3 percent.
In a just-published coffee table book entitled Hotspots: Earth's Richest and Most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions, a chapter is devoted to the Philippines. Written by naturalists Lawrence Heaney, Perry Ong, Russell Mittermeier, and Cristina Mittermeier, it concludes, "the Philippines is, in many ways, the hottest of the hot spots, and one of the first nations to stand at the brink of ecological crisis," an extinction spasm that would take away from the face of the earth more species in one blow than at any other time in the modern age.
"The hottest of the hot spots" -- another dubious distinction, but different. If allowed to continue, this status will permanently harm not only future Filipinos but the future of the human race.
http://www.bwf.org/bk/2k/05/25_01.html
Another endangered bird list:
ang galing nyo naman! maganda nga kung ang LGU mismo ang nag-iinitiate ng conservation action. Dito sa Bicol, heto, ang congressman pa mismo ang nagpapasok ng mga exotic species or foreign species sa aming lugar! ha naku!