Good morning.

Thanks to BMB and the team from the UK Embassy for always being at the forefront in terms of this work. Our colleagues and of course, our friends from the diplomatic community and development community. And those partners of the BMB that have been longstanding and perhaps some of the new partners as well.

Let me just begin by stating two things. The first one, those of you who know me, I’m a bottom- line upfront person so that we get to that very quickly. The first really is a statement that came from the initial activity that George and I attended during COP28 week which is organized for the World Economic Forum and by the United Nations. It is basically there would be no Paris without the ocean. Unless we are able to master what we are doing and what we know about the ocean and our coastal systems as part of that. We will not be able to hit our targets for Paris. The second one is really an experience that we had recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, which is the oil spill in Oriental Mindoro. And here again, we discovered how much we know, and how much we don’t know about some very important areas in our country, including the Verde Island passage. And of course, the whole coastal area of Mindoro which is impacted by at least one side of it by this particular incident.

The anniversary, the one-year anniversary was particularly significant because, as I stated in my address during the anniversary celebration or commemoration of this event, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources doesn’t bring with it subsistent level goods or direct assistance to the economies of these particular ecosystems and local government units. We don’t bring relief. We are not part of the everyday needs that need to be met whenever a hazard strike, however, the service that the DENR brings, particularly the BMB and EMB in this particular instance. We hope we’ll be able to help these areas recover, be restored, and somehow be rehabilitated. If in fact, they have been affected by hazards, such as the oil spill. And sometimes that particular fact is lost. When of course the daily needs of our communities, particularly of our fisher community need to be met and of course the impacts on the local

economy need to be managed. And so, with that though, I would like to thank our partners and our colleagues in the DENR for actually responding in the way that we are actually the first ones on site. And we were actually part of designing the approach to mitigating the hazard.

To our partners and colleagues in conservation, thank you very much for making time today to participate in this first multi-sector workshop to set the course for Blue Carbon action that we need in the Philippines. This is the first technical workshop and as you may notice, not all stakeholders are present today, just some few of you.
This is supposed to be core session only but we understand there’s growing interest in this space. Surely, a larger venue will be convened to officially launch and commence the work on blue carbon in the Philippines. Your presence and participation this week are crucial as the framework that will guide us through this endeavor has been a long time coming, and we hope that we’ll be accelerated by this consultation.

We have all noticed how oceans and the coastal and marine environment have gained significant attention in the Philippines and globally, especially over the past decade. From mainly discussing terrestrial forests, we have started to publicly discuss more often our coral reefs and our mangrove forests, as well as our seagrasses but to a lesser extent. We need to ramp this up, including our saltmarshes as well. These are in recognition of the ecosystem services they provide in terms of food security and climate action.

While it is a global momentum that we take advantage of in many platforms, we need to boost our efforts to protect and conserve our coastal and marine ecosystems today, here and now. It is then crucial for the Philippines to develop a practical, whole-of-nation ambition or roadmap that could ultimately lead to the harmonious coexistence of these ecosystems and a prospering green and blue economy. We have been implementing the Coastal and Marine Ecosystem Management Program covering the conservation and management efforts of our rich marine biodiversity and habitats over a number of years now.

This year, we will establish six marine scientific research stations that will serve as our blue sentinels covering the six marine biogeographic regions of the Philippine archipelago. We hope to multiply the scientific stations over time. These stations will serve as hubs or knowledge lighthouses at the forefront of innovation and action for the protection, conservation, and sustainable use of marine resources for current and future generations, guided by the primary mission to secure, further discover and understand the coastal and marine environment of the country for informed decision-making, management and sustainable development towards an inclusive and climate-resilient future.

But another sub-sector which is important and gaining more momentum globally involves our Blue Carbon Ecosystems, which are considered a viable nature-based solution sources and valuable contributions that these ecosystems can make. They offer not only to our countrymen but to the world in our fight against biodiversity loss and the climate crisis.

We joined the World Economic Forum’s Blue Carbon Action Partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding during a side event at the COP28 in Dubai. The establishment

of the National Blue Carbon Action Partnership (NBCAP) in the Philippines through the DENR’s work, through the BMB, will facilitate the inclusive, whole-of-society approach to developing a shared ambition for blue carbon, community resilience, and inclusive development. Apart from this, we also joined the Mangrove Alliance for Climate and we are also members of the global mangroves alliance already.

Eventually, the Blue Carbon Roadmap mentioned earlier must translate into Policy to guide and enhance our protection and conservation efforts as well as to grow our blue wall – our great blue wall for the country. And we want to align and synergize with efforts globally as well, towards effective and impactful biodiversity and climate action.

Let me just add that policy is not our end goal it is action. And actions needed today and not tomorrow. Especially the protection of our coastal and marine environments. The knowledge we need needs to be harnessed, needs to be enhanced. With the partnerships that we hope to form further deepen with you today, I hope that this will in fact accelerates our efforts. The one ask I have is to define what the great blue wall is for the country. And that universe must be part of our goal in terms of establishing what the roadmap can actually achieve.

I thank you for your valuable time and for the knowledge and guidance you will share with us in this Blue Carbon Inaugural Workshop. And I look forward to a very fruitful and impactful implementation of the National Blue Carbon Action Partnership in the next two years and beyond.##