German govt turns over protected area management plan to Batanes

Batanes (Photo contributed to the Inquirer by Rene Alcala)

BASCO, BATANES — Saying the Philippines and Germany “share a commitment to preserve our planet for future generations,” German Deputy Ambassador to the Philippines Michael Hasper formally turned over an environmental management plan to the Batanes provincial government during a three-day visit here that culminated on Wednesday (May 17).

The Updated Batanes Protected Landscape and Seascape (BPLS) Management Plan for 2017 was the outcome of a joint German-PH project to enhance the management of 60 protected areas and establish a hundred more “terrestrial or marine protected areas.”

Hasper said the BPLS management plan was financed by Germany’s International Climate Initiative (IKI), saying his country’s collaboration with the Philippines to preserve the environment dated back to 2008.

He was accompanied here by Berthold Schrim, principal advisor of Germany’s Protected Area Management Enhancement (PAME) program, who described Batanes as a unique ecosystem.

Governor Marilou Cayco said the BPLS plan “underscores the relative importance of planning for the future of Batanes as a protected area… a place known only as the playing field of typhoons.”  SFM