Towards better policies for sustainable mangrowe management

摘要

Over the past decades or so, the Philippine mangrove ecosystems have suffered severe degradation to the point that biological diversity is threatened. A recent statistics shows that the extent of mangrove forest cover in the country is now barely 117,000 ha from the reported 450,000 ha in 1920. The main cause of the destruction of mangroves in the country is the change in land use including economic and devalopment pressures, lack of public awareness and/or lack of the intrinsic value of the mangrove system, conflict of uses; lack of an overall national conservation and management policy direction; and failure of the government agencies to fully implement laws and regulations.