Data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources shows that around 6.8 million hectares of watershed areas were assessed as vulnerable to deforestation, biodiversity loss, erosion, floods, landslides, and water pollution, while 14.2 million hectares were identified as critical for the national irrigation system.
Watersheds are vital for managing water resources, providing habitats for various species, controlling floods, droughts, and extreme climate events.
However, a report from think tank Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) has found that at least 9 percent of ecologically critical and 55 percent of agriculturally critical watersheds lack protected status, which means that only 6.5 million hectares or 22 percent of the country’s total land area are protected either through presidential proclamations or coverage under the National Integrated Protected Areas System.
“Watersheds in the Philippines are clearly in a state of crisis,” the LRC report said.
“This watershed crisis is marked with spatial conflicts that have resulted in the increasing inaccessibility of water supplies; eroding water quality; degrading integrity of ecosystems; and worsening vulnerability to water and climate-related disaster risks,” it added.
LRC stressed that granting protective status to watersheds has been a challenging process, noting that it took 16 years for Congress to amend the NIPAS Act. The latest presidential proclamation safeguarding a watershed was the declaration of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape as a protected area.
To achieve a “more robust and transformative” watershed governance in the Philippines, LRC recommended the greater integration of watershed management councils into core local planning processes. It also said there must be a moratorium on approval or renewal of agribusiness, mining, dam, and other infrastructure projects until a new legislation streamlining watershed regulations is passed. Local governments were also urged to declare watershed reserves as no go zones for mining and other destructive projects using their authority granted by the Local Government Code.
Watersheds play a critical role in sustaining the environment, economy, and even our society as a whole. That is why a more concerted effort to protect them by the government and private sector would reap untold benefits for future generations.*
