Climate change ‘devastating’ marine ecosystems

DUMAGUETE CITY — The growing risks and impacts of climate change endanger the Philippines’ rich marine ecosystems and the country needs to tackle the issue more aggressively, according to experts.

The warning came from experts from the Silliman University-Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences (SU-IEMS), the Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation (CCEF) and Greenpeace during a reef check at the marine sanctuary in nearby Apo Island boarding the Greenpeace’ ship Esperanza.

Home to the country’s premier community-managed marine reserve, some of Apo Island’s reefs have borne the brunt of two strong typhoons, which are highly unusual occurrences in this part of the country.

Experts have long noted the Philippine seas are set to suffer from the impacts of climate change such as rising sea level, increase in sea temperature, and more frequent and extreme weather. Communities, particularly those that rely heavily in coastal resources, such as in the Philippines, will bear the brunt of the impacts.

“One of the effects of climate change that the Philippines is experiencing right now is the increase in the frequency and severity of typhoons,” said Dr. Janet Estacion of the Silliman University Institute of Environmental and Marine Sciences (SU-IEMS). “Since most Filipinos live in coastal areas, they are directly impacted through the destruction of property and disruption of livelihood. Fisherfolk become more marginalized as the marine ecosystems they depend on are destroyed and fish migration patterns get less predictable.”

Mark Dia, Regional Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia said, “Climate change and the use of fossil fuels are the ocean’s silent killers. They warm the oceans and make the sea water more acidic, killing fragile and important marine species, such as plankton, the basis of the marine food chain. Since the Philippines relies so heavily on the oceans, it only makes sense to put resources that can increase the resiliency of the marine environment. Our lives depend on it.”

Climate change is considered a very serious threat to the oceans globally. Rising temperatures due to global warming causes thermal stress in oceans, and in particular causes coral bleaching (when living coral turn white, weaken and eventually die). Marine life is also damaged by ocean acidification, when excessive amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere cause sea water to become more acidic. Ocean acidification can cause mass extinction of marine species, food insecurity and damage to economy.

Just recently the World Bank released a report Turn Down The Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts, and the Case for Resilience. The report projects that extreme weather events are going to be more severe in Southeast Asia in the coming decades. By 2050, increased water temperatures will severely affect fish in the Java Sea in Indonesia as well as the Gulf of Thailand. In southern Philippines, maximum fish catch potential is predicted to decrease by 50 percent. Meanwhile, all coral reefs in the region are predicted to experience severe thermal stress by the year 2050.

But there is hope. In the central Philippines, including Apo Island, studies are ongoing to help marine ecosystems cope with the effects of climate change. Led by Dr.Aileen Maypa, Research Director of CCEF, research on how reefs can adapt to the impacts of climate change and how these can be mitigated is currently being conducted. The organization is developing a protocol for coral reef recovery, fisheries recovery and coral reef rehabilitation that can be used by local communities and LGUs. They are also looking into the redesigning of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), including the establishment of a network of MPAs, as a resiliency strategy to climate change, while considering the many factors that may impact the effectiveness of a MPA design.

“The threat of climate change impacts is a clear signal that the Philippine government needs to urgently enact a Roadmap to Recovery for our oceans,” said Dia. “We need to stop the additional stresses of overfishing and habitat degradation. And we need to defend our oceans now more than ever. The seas need all the resilience they can muster in the face of climate change and the potentially disastrous impacts this is already beginning to produce in the marine world and coastal communities.”

The Esperanza is in the Philippines for the “Ocean Defender Tour of Southeast Asia 2013”. The tour aims to tell the story of the richness and the beauty of the Philippine seas, expose destruction that causes marine degradation and sound the alarm to call for urgent government action to save the Philippine seas from crisis.

Greenpeace is calling on the Aquino administration to immediately act against the crisis of overfishing and marine ecosystem degradation by enacting a Road to Recovery for the Philippine Seas that includes:

1. Ensuring that the protection, rehabilitation, and conservation of Philippine seas are a national priority (such by improving MPA management and establishing a national network of marine reserves) ; and

2. Creating and immediately implementing a roadmap that eliminates overfishing and allows the recovery of the Philippine fish stocks and rehabilitation of coastal habitats. This can be achieved with steps such as stronger vehicle registry systems, halting the issuance of commercial permits, and strict enforcement of the 15 kilometer zone for small scale fishers.

photo credit: Greenpeace