How can we find balance between economic growth and stability, while sustaining our environment? If you take a closer look, a country’s wealth and health is linked to nature. Unfortunately protecting one of the world’s most biodiverse countries while supporting the needs of more than 110 million people still presents a challenge – but nothing is impossible without a plan.
In 2025 the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or DENR unveiled the 2024–2040 PBSAP – Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan.
It is one of the most important plans for our future as a nation because it is not just about saving plants and animals. It is about making sure the environment can still provide us with food, water, clean air, and protection against disasters.
What is the PBSAP?
The PBSAP is the Philippines’ official national plan for biodiversity conservation. Think of it as a long-term strategy:
- It identifies what species and ecosystems need protecting,
- Explains why they are important, and,
- Sets clear goals and actions for government, businesses, and communities to follow.
The Philippines has created PBSAPs before – in 1997 (the first attempt) and in 2015 (covering 2015-2028). Each version reflects the country’s commitments to global biodiversity agreements while also responding to local challenges like deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, and destructive fishing practices.
The new 2024–2040 PBSAP is different because it:
- Aligns with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a global deal signed in 2022 where countries pledged goals to reverse nature loss for 2030 and 2050.
- Was designed with input from scientists, NGOs, Indigenous Peoples, and local communities-making it more inclusive and grounded in current issues and real-world experiences.
Why should you care?
It’s easy to think of biodiversity as just forests and fish, but it’s actually the foundation of daily life. The PBSAP matters to everyone because:
- Food security: Healthy ecosystems provide fish, pollinators for crops, and fertile soil. Without biodiversity, our food supply collapses.
- Disaster protection: Mangroves and forests act as shields against typhoons, floods, and landslides.
- Health: Many medicines come from plants and animals.
- Livelihoods: Millions of Filipinos depend directly on farming, fishing, and ecotourism.
- Cultural identity: From weaving patterns to folk tales, much of Filipino culture is inspired by nature. This includes age-old cultures, beliefs, and practices of Indigenous People who have long had a strong connection to our environment.
When biodiversity suffers, people suffer. The Philippines is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, meaning we have incredible species found nowhere else, but also face extremely high risks of losing them.
What’s new in the 2024–2040 plan?
Here are some highlights of what makes this latest PBSAP different and more ambitious:
- Specific targets: It commits the Philippines to protect 24% of terrestrial and inland waters, and 16% of coastal and marine areas, covering 7.44 million hectares of Philippine land area and 35.24 million hectares of Philippine sea area by 2040.
- Cross-sector approach: Unlike before, it doesn’t treat biodiversity as just an “environment issue.” It recognizes the links between nature and food security, climate change, disaster resilience, and poverty reduction.
- Monitoring & accountability: It includes a stronger system to track progress, so the public can hold agencies accountable.
- Local Action: Local government units (LGUs) are expected to align their own environmental strategies with the PBSAP, bringing the plan closer to communities.
- Institutional power: With a presidential Executive Order, the PBSAP becomes a national directive. All government agencies, not just DENR, must integrate biodiversity into their plans. That means agriculture, fisheries, finance, and even infrastructure agencies must align their policies with biodiversity protection.
A Short history of the PBSAP
- 1997: The first PBSAP (then called NBSAP or National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan) was created in response to the Philippines’ commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the global treaty that almost every country has signed.
- 2002: A review of the NBSAP in 2002 identified 206 conservation priority areas and species conservation priorities. Unfortunately there was no clear monitoring and evaluation system.
- 2015: A 2015 PBSAP (2015–2028) was created to improve on the previous versions. The 1997 and 2002 NBSAPs listed strategies that were mostly confined to the DENR, rather than broader sectoral plans. Starting in 2015, a new PBSAP aimed to address these gaps, committing to “measurable targets for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use”. Unfortuantely funding and enforcement remained challenges.
- 2024–2040: The latest version was launched in Iloilo City during the 32nd Philippine Biodiversity Symposium (August 2025). This version is aligned with global goals and has stronger legal backing through an Executive Order. It also involved broad stakeholder inputs including those from Indigenous People.
What are the first steps?
After the launch, the following are expected to happen:
- Executive Order issuance: The President’s office must sign the EO, making the PBSAP legally binding across agencies.
- Agency Integration: DENR will coordinate with the Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Fisheries, LGUs, and others to incorporate PBSAP actions into their annual plans and budgets.
- Funding mechanisms: The government, NGOs, and private sector will work on mobilizing resources, both domestic and international, to support PBSAP programs.
- Awareness campaigns: Civil society and groups like the Biodiversity Conservation Society of the Philippines and the Haribon Foundation will help communicate the PBSAP to the public, so more Filipinos understand its importance.
- Monitoring framework: A national committee will track progress and publish reports so people can see what’s working – and what isn’t.
What can you do?
The PBSAP is a national plan, but it will only succeed if everyday Filipinos also take part. Here are some ways you can help:
- Inquire with local officials, from the baranggay level to the provincial and national levels – have they ever implemented previous or current PBSAPs? In what ways have they been implemented and how can citizens help?
- Support local conservation groups and community projects, and ask if the PBSAP has been or will be reviewed and considered in these groups and projects.
- Continue the momentum in your everyday life. Avoid single-use plastics, eat sustainably sourced seafood, and reduce waste. Share about it on social media, your friends, and your family.
- Participate in citizen science – apps like iNaturalist allow you to record species you see, helping scientists monitor biodiversity. Organizations like the Haribon Foundation conduct annual campaigns from bird counting to tree walks – inquire and join these campaigns every year.
The Philippines’ new PBSAP is more than just a government plan – it’s a national commitment to our future. With stronger legal backing, global alignment, and cross-sector collaboration, it’s the most ambitious roadmap yet for protecting the natural wealth that sustains us all.
But a plan is only as good as the action behind it. Whether you’re a policymaker, farmer, fisher, teacher, student, or professional, the environment serves us all. Help pressure and remind the government and other institutions that the PBSAP… helps the environment help us! What we achieve in 2040, 15 years after this writing, depends on what we achieve today.
Download and view the PBSAP on the DENR Biodiversity Management Bureau website here: https://bmb.gov.ph/philippine-biodiversity-strategy-and-action-plan-pbsap/
