NextGen Day

Two bills have been approved by the House of Representatives that aim to mitigate the negative effects of climate change by protecting and restoring important resources.

House Bill 8204, which seeks to improve the protection and restoration of peatlands to enable the nation to manage them sustainably, given its worth as a natural response to climate change, was approved on final reading by 268 lawmakers during Monday’s plenary session.

Peatlands, which are wetland ecosystems with the buildup of decomposed plant components, are described by the speaker Martin Romualdez as having peat and permanent water logging as well as vegetation in the form of trees, shrubs, grasses, and mosses.

Romualdez added that because they act as carbon sinks because they absorb and store more carbon than they release, these are natural solutions for reducing climate change.

Accordingly, he added that this policy will give the nation possibilities to achieve various benefits for biodiversity and climate resiliency, including finance through market-based instruments and procedures.

The proposed legislation will be monitored and generally implemented by the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), which reports to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

To direct, assist, and guide local government units (LGUs) and stakeholders in the establishment and execution of their local peatland conservation and restoration programs, the DENR is required under the act to create a National Peatland Conservation and Restoration Program.

The program will, among other things, map the nation’s peatlands and analyze the country’s vulnerability to climate change and disaster risk management.

According to the proposed law, peatlands currently designated as agricultural lands must be changed, on DENR’s proposal, to forest areas or national parks.

The bill also forbids the drainage of peatlands, as well as the cutting of trees, dumping of rubbish, and the introduction of invasive alien species.

House Bill 7754, which aims to reforest and restore fishponds abandoned or underutilized for three years, was also unanimously adopted by the chamber with 284 votes.

The proposed legislation would change Section 43 of Presidential Decree 705—also known as the “Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines”—to shorten the time required to reforest inactive or abandoned fishponds from five to three years.

According to Romualdez, these abandoned or underused fishponds can aid in efforts to conserve and protect the environment rather than becoming a wasteful asset.

“By actively encouraging reforestation in areas that can be planted with trees, this measure also seeks to address the negative effects of climate change,” he stated.

HB 7754’s major goal is to hasten the conversion of idle or abandoned fishponds to forest areas so that they might be “immediately rehabilitated and reforested.”

Additionally, it requires the Departments of Agriculture and Environment and Natural Resources to collaboratively establish standards for identifying and rehabilitating fishponds that are undeveloped, underutilized, or abandoned and are covered by Fishpond Lease Agreements.

Alfelito Bascug and Eddiebong Plaza of Agusan del Sur, as well as Linabelle Ruth Villarica of Bulacan, sponsored the legislation, which was passed by the House Committee on Natural Resources, which Cavite Representative Elpidio Barzaga chairs.

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