More Philippine schools to join coastal management campaign

MANILA, Oct. 5 (PNA) - Two more Philippine schools will soon offer services that will boost capability of local governments, communities and non-government organizations nationwide to undertake integrated coastal management (ICM) in the country.

"This move will help further promote sustainable development nationwide, particularly as the Philippines itself is actually one big coastal area since it's surrounded by water," said Magnolia Uy, coordinator of Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) which is spearheading this initiative.

PEMSEA, a regional coordinating mechanism on sustainable development for East Asian seas, is pushing its ICM capability-building call, noting oceans and coasts will become increasingly important to the world's economy.

Uy said PEMSEA is already looking into which schools in Luzon and the Visayas can be tapped for the task.

"The chosen schools will be those with significant experience in ICM and which have learning resources on this matter," she noted.

PEMSEA is aiming to tap one school each in Luzon and the Visayas for maintaining information materials, including those on tools and technologies, which stakeholders concerned can use to boost their knowledge and capability in implementing ICM up to the grassroots level.

These schools will also undertake research on coastal and marine resource management, share with the public findings from these studies and conduct training on ICM implementation for stakeholders concerned using modules PEMSEA developed.

Last Sept. 29, PEMSEA and Xavier University signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) tasking the latter with bringing such services to stakeholders in Mindanao.

This MOA is the first of its kind in the Philippines and the East Asian region.

East Asia includes Brunei, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam and the Philippines.

Under the MOA, PEMSEA will train Xavier's core ICM trainers' team and facilitate development of learning modules for local governments.

PEMSEA will also help establish among Philippine universities a learning network aimed at boosting ICM capacity-building nationwide.

Uy said PEMSEA will sign similar MOAs with the chosen Luzon and Visayas schools.

"PEMSEA will also likely announce this October names of these schools," she noted.

The upcoming MOA signing will bring to three PEMSEA's Philippine learning center partners in boosting and enhancing ICM activities nationwide.