Philippines government commits to planning for 30 x 30 using KBAs.
10th July 2024
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources of the Philippines held its 3rd National Protected Areas Conference last week in Manila. This three-day event brought together many of the conservation practitioners from around the country to present on their work to conserve the Philippine’s protected areas and how they are engaging with the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Andy Plumptre from the KBA Secretariat was invited to present on how KBAs are being used by governments as part of a session on planning for 30% conservation by 2030 (30 x 30) under target 3 of the GBF led by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). At the end of the meeting those present signed up to a declaration on 30 x 30 which included a statement on identifying KBAs as part of the process of identifying sites for 30 x 30.
This meeting was followed up by a one day training course in the use of the World Database of KBAs to propose re-assessments and identified new KBAs. Currently KBA partners in the Philippines are working with biodiversity experts to re-assess all existing KBAs. Using results from the KBA Secretariat’s scoping tool they are evaluating what species might trigger KBA status using the global KBA criteria. We learned at the training day that the Forest Foundation of the Philippines had agreed to commit significant funding to enable this assessment to be completed in full. A KBA National Coordination Group is starting to be formed, after agreement at the meeting to do so, and we look forward to seeing proposals coming through in due course.
