Republic Law 7586

The Republic Act 7586 ( Filipino : Batas 7586, English : Republic Act No. 7586 ), it also bears the nickname National Integrated Protected Areas System , ( German : Integrated national nature reserve system ), short NIPAS law . This law determines the legal framework for the designation, use and administration of landscape, nature conservation and marine protected areas as well as national parks in the Philippines . It is intended to protect the biodiversity of the Philippines , the natural resources of the population and a sustainable development in the Philippines. It gained force of law through the ratification of Congress in 1991, and the signature of the then President of the Philippines, Corazon Aquino , on June 1, 1992.

History of the law

The Philippines are one of the world's megadiverse regions , and the state of the environment in the Philippines assumed increasingly catastrophic forms in the 1970s and 80s. During the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos , new nature reserves continued to be designated, but due to the widespread corruption, nepotism and mutual favoritism of the ruling power elites, the previous nature protection laws failed and ever larger regions were practically deforested in order to make profits from the main export good at that time, wood . After the EDSA revolution , the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) began to formulate a concept in 1987 that should promote sustainable development in the Philippines. For this purpose, expert groups were set up which consulted foreign non-governmental organizations and the World Bank . In 1989 a concept was presented to the government under the name Strategy for economic growth, taking into account the protection of natural resources, biodiversity with its vital ecosystems and general environmental quality . One of the key elements of the strategy paper was an integrated nature reserve system . The legal concept for the National Integrated Protected Areas System was developed from this strategy paper .

At the same time the public demand for better state protection of the environment and the biosphere developed . After the Ormoc tragedy on November 5, 1991, this culminated in a society-wide discussion about better environmental laws when over 8,000 people were killed in the Central Visayas by the tropical storm Thelma . Investigations by NGOs and the DENR indicated the massive deforestation in the region around Ormoc City for the cultivation of monocultures, such as sugar cane, as the primary cause for the largest natural disaster in the Philippines since 1945. With the massive support that began now, the law was able to congress and House of Representatives already passed in 1991 and signed by the President in 1992. When it was introduced, 202 nature reserves were designated as protected areas under the NIPAS Act on an area of ​​2.57 million hectares. On June 29, 1992, the DENR issued Administrative Order No. 25, which contained guidelines that should support the implementation of the law at regional and local level and for example provides for management committees ( Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) ) to designate and manage the protected areas at local level. To finance the implementation of the law, the Integrated Protected Areas Fund (IPAF) was set up, which was supposed to use 75% of the budget to finance nature reserves and nature conservation projects.

International aspects of the NIPAS law

The Philippines are a signatory to the following international agreements that are of international law :

• Convention on Biological Diversity , signed 1992, ratified in 1993
• UNESCO World Heritage , signed and ratified in 1985
• Agreement on the Conversation of Nature and Natural Resources of the ASEAN member states from 1985
• Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals , ratified 1994
• Convention on Wetlands of International Importance , ratified 1994

The passing of the NIPAS law supports the government, parliament and authorities of the Philippines in implementing the content and objectives of the above-mentioned conventions into national law.

Classifications

The protection zones include the following classifications: Strict nature reserve ( National Park ), Natural park , Natural monument , Wildlife sanctuary , Protected landscapes and seascapes , Resource reserve, Natural biotic areas . Further protection zones are the protected areas , buffer zones and the indigenous cultural community areas .

A total of around 35,000 km² of the area of ​​the Philippines were designated as nature reserves in accordance with the guidelines of the NIPAS law. Of these, around 21,300 km² are terrestrial and 13,700 km² marine protected areas .

The requirements of the NIPAS Act already met the following protected areas as early as 1992:

• the Danao lake on the island of Leyte
• Baganga Bay Protected Landscape and Seascape
• Marikina Watershed Forest Reserve
• Mainit Hotspring Protected Landscape

National parks and protected areas of the Philippines

Luzon archipelago :

Mindoro Island & Palawan :

Visayas archipelago :

Mindanao archipelago :

Web links

• Republic Act No. 7586 known as the NIPAS act (English, PDF  ≈ 152  kB ; 152 kB) - file with the Republic Law 7586 at Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) ; As of June 30, 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Anatomy of RA 7586 The Philippine Mountaineering
2. ↑ Legal Framework for Protected Areas (PDF; 1.4 MB) Authors: Antonio GM La Viña, James L. Kho, Mary Jean Caleda IUCN-EPLP No. 81 (English)
3. ↑ The Ormoc-Tragedy Environmental Science for Social Change (English)
4. ↑ Ormoc Revisited by HOWIE SEVERINO Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) (English)
5. ↑ The State, Illegal Logging, and Environmental NGOs, in the Philippines Author: Julio C. Teehankee Philippine Journal of Third World Studies, Vol 9, No 1 (1993) (English)
6. ↑ National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) on Philippine CHM (English)
7. ↑ Alexander D. Anda Jr .: An Institutional Assessment of the Integrated Protected Area Fund (IPAF) in the Philippines .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)  
8. ↑ Memberstates on Convention on Biological Diversity (English)
9. ↑ UNIESCO (English)
10. ↑ 1985 AGREEMENT ON THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) PDF document 
11. ↑ Member states of the Bonn Convention  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English; PDF; 175 kB)  
12. ↑ Member States of the Ramsar Convention (English)
13. ↑ Republic Act No. 7586 known as the NIPAS act ( Memento of the original dated December 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 152 kB; English) - File with Republic Law 7586 at Integrated Approaches to Participatory Development (IAPAD) ; Status: June 30, 2007, see page 3 (accessed on: April 7, 2013) 
14. ↑ List of Proclaimed Protected Areas under the NIPAS (English) - page with protection zones under the NIPAS law at CHM Philippines ; Status: around 2009 (accessed on: April 7, 2013)