While it has been a decade since the declaration of its global importance, the Verde Island Passage remains “unprotected” from serious threats to its megarich biological diversity.

Stakeholders in Lobo, Batangas, have expressed alarm over the potential adverse environmental impact of a serious threat to their environment: a proposed large-scale mining project in the municipality.

The proponents of the project have gained the nod, and even got the endorsement, of the local government, and are now securing an environmental clearance certificate (ECC) from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to start exploration in the area. The Lobo River, which leads all the way to the Verde Island Passage, will be at the receiving end of waterwaste from the proposed gold mine, and an accidental spill, like that of Philex Mining Corp.’s Padcal mine in Benguet, could happen and dump toxic mine waste into the Verde Island Passage. This observation was made by Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE), 

While the Verde Island Passage is not a declared protected area under Nipas Act 1992, its being a marine key biodiversity area (KBA) calls for its protection from destructive human activities.

“We already identified it as a key biodiversity area in the Philippines. There are marine organisms besides coral-reef diversity there, which means there is a diversity of fishes and other important marine life that needs to be protected,” said Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB).

Lim added that providing protection to Verde Island Passage would mean that fish and other commercially important marine products from the region will continue to benefit the entire country... there are scientific findings that the Verde Island Passage is resilient to coral breaching, making it a potential model from which the government and its private-sector partners can tailor-fit its intervention in other areas experiencing coral bleaching.

(http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/protecting-verde-island-passage/)