The Philippines has one of the world's longest coastlines, a total of 36,289 kilometers. The country's marine jurisdiction extends up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline (Exclusive Economic Zone) and up to the limits of the continental margin where it extends beyond 200 miles (Extended Continental Shelf). Located within the Coral Triangle, at the center of high marine diversity, the country's vast, rich and diverse coastal and marine resources are composed of coral reefs, sea grass beds, mangrove and beach forests, fisheries, invertebrates, seaweeds, marine mammals and many others. About 60 percent of the total Philippine population live in the coastal zones and depend on these coastal resources for livelihoods.
Some unsustainable human activities, however, cause great stress to coastal and marine resources. Coastal development and climate change impacts such as sea-level rise and increasing sea-surface temperature add to the stress on these resources. Sedimentation in coastal areas due to unsustainable land use in upland areas continues to threaten coastal ecosystems. The productivity of the country's coral reefs, mangrove forests, sea grass, and algal beds and fisheries is declining at an alarming rate. Of the 27,000 sq km. of coral reef, over 70 percent are of poor or fair quality and only five percent are in excellent condition.9 The Philippine reefs may already be in a steady state of decline from 5 percent to 3 percent to less than 1 percent (Nanola et. al., 2004). The country's coral reefs are considered to be one of the highly threatened reef areas in the world.10
Major distributions of seagrass beds in the Philippines are found in Bolinao Bay in Luzon, Palawan, Cuyo Islands, the Cebu-Bohol-Siquijor area, Zamboanga, and Davao. About half of the country's seagrass beds have been lost due to coastline development and blast fishing. The mapping of seagrass bed distribution remains limited, and the management of seagrass resources has not received priority.
Mangroves protect the coast from waves, tidal currents, and typhoons and provide habitats, shelter, breeding sites, and food sources to various groups of fish and other coastal wildlife. The ecological functions of mangroves as land builder and coastline stabilizer are also widely known. Mangrove cover, however, has declined from 450,000 hectares in 1918 to only about 140,000 hectares in 2008.11 The development of mangrove swamps into aquaculture ponds, salt beds, reclamation areas and other agricultural activities has extensively degraded this resource. A total of 62,834 hectares of mangrove forest area were issued Fishpond Lease Agreements (FLAs) between 1973 and 2002. Logging concessionaires generally have not left behind mother trees to replenish the area, and several cases of illegal logging cutting occur even in protected reserves.
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9 Gomez et. al., 1994.
10 Burke et al., 2002
11 WB, 2009