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Governance And Regulation Are Key To Saving Philippines Environment, Says ADB Report

Read CNN's story about the AEO here.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (18 June 2001) - Overexploitation of natural resources, poor management, and unchecked industrial expansion and urbanization are imperiling much of the Philippines' environment. In turn, a rapidly degrading environment increases pollution, threatens food security and widens the gap between rich and poor.

This is the scenario painted in a Philippine country report which was issued today along with ADB's Asian Environment Outlook 2001 (AEO), which provides in-depth analyses of environmental issues facing the region and a framework to improve the environment and reduce poverty.

The AEO identifies core elements of a new approach in which consumption is based on services rather than ownership or assets, ecosystems and biodiversity are valued and protected, and environmental management is decentralized. The three elements of the approach, which all apply to the Philippines, are:

• Environmental and development policies must be integrated at national and regional level. Currently, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DENR) is responsible for environmental protection but it lacks the authority to put environmental concerns high on policy agendas. AEO stresses that environmental objectives must be achieved through the public and private sectors rather than national environmental agencies.
• Development by design should guide sustainable development. This means guiding urban and industrial development according to publicly accepted and integrated environmental and economic development plans.
• A strong political will is essential to translate environmental rhetoric into actions. This is to ensure environmental compliance, to provide the budgets and human resources to get the job done, and to eliminate subsidies that encourage degradation. In turn, political will needs untrammeled access to information and an empowered civil society. In the Philippines, a positive sign is that political will ensured the enactment of the Clean Air bill and the removal of leaded gasoline as a major fuel.

Apart from the AEO, the Philippines country report identifies four main areas for policy improvements:

• institutional performance -- the need to modernize environmental organizations, line agencies, and local government units;
• natural resources management, particularly forests and coastal resources;
• industrial performance and efficiency of energy use; and
• urban development (particularly Metro Manila and other metropolitan areas).

The Philippines report provides examples of programs that could strengthen each of these areas, detailing the costs, time frame, and impacts. They range from institutional modernization and improved environmental performance, to managing coastal resources and forests and watersheds, and revitalizing urban hot spots.

For instance, the report highlights how international funding agencies could coordinate and manage a program to strengthen institutional capacity in Metro Manila and other urban areas. Such a framework could be implemented over three years and improve the quality of life for up to 10 million urban residents as well providing a better environment to attract investment.

Another example is a program to register all waste-generating industries, establish industrial environmental standards, and punish violators. This could be funded by small grants and would have a positive impact on reducing poverty and improving the environment, especially in poor and hot spot districts.

The Philippine report identifies worsening urban environmental quality, degradation of coastal resources, a fragmented approach to the management of watershed and forests, poor industrial performance and energy consumption, and weak institutional performance as the main environmental problems facing the country.

In addition, the capital, Metro Manila, faces special problems following a population explosion that has strained urban services infrastructure and caused traffic congestion. The increased population has also led to serious depletion of underground water resources, a loss of productive use of agricultural land through speculation, and has adversely affected investment and tourism.

The Philippines report points out that economic growth and development over the last few decades has come at a high environmental cost. Among the findings:

• only 65 percent of urban households in Metro Manila have direct access to piped water supplies.
• less than 10 percent of households in Metro Manila are connected to a central sewer collection system, which discharges directly into Manila Bay.
• the average annual deforestation rate in the Philippines reached 3.5 percent, while arable land decreased from 0.11 to 0.08 hectare (ha) per capita.
• major river systems in Metro Manila and Laguna de Bay receive the untreated effluent of an estimated 2,000 industries.
• exposure to fine particulate matter causes an estimated half a million cases of lower respiratory illness and 5,000 cases of premature deaths annually.

"Increasing environmental deterioration is directly impacting the population through poor public health and poverty, and threatening future economic growth," the report says.

"It is not ADB's intention to prescribe specific and predesigned environmental projects for funding agencies," said Mr. S. Tahir Qadri, ADB Senior Environment Specialist. "The recommendations presented provide general and mostly multisectoral examples of program frameworks from which a number of well-focused development projects can be identified."

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