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PARTNERSHIP FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION (PBC)
BACKGROUND
The Local Government Code of 1991 mandated local governments to prepare and enforce local environment codes and relevant sector-specific laws. Sector-specific laws provide guidance on overall national policies, processes, and procedures on the use of natural resources, and pollution control and prevention. Law enforcement is viewed as a variety of interventions that government may rely upon to achieve compliance with requirements of the law. These interventions can be summarized as forming a continuum of activities ranging from "soft" preventive measures; such as social marketing, information management, and public education, to "hard" sanctions imposed by apprehension, prosecution, and conviction.
Environmental law enforcement will be effective when national agencies and local governments will have taken an integrated approach that employs multiple strategies and available resources in a coordinated and cooperative manner. Although inter-governmental deputation is also provided for in some laws, they are often weak and ineffectual because other agencies are also burdened by the same problems of lack of qualified personnel, logistics and budget. The growing sophistication of violations, the intricacies involved in prosecution and the economic losses attributed to illegal logging, illegal fishing, and waste dumping, makes it difficult for enforcers to be effective.
PURPOSE
The Program supports biodiversity conservation in the Philippines by increasing capacity of local and national environmental law enforcement bodies. The Program objective contributes to USAID's mission of strengthening the ability of national and local government units and communities to address critical threats to the country's coastal resources and promoting good governance - transparency and accountability - in enforcing environmental laws.
ACTIVITIES
The U.S. Department of Interior-Partnership for Biodiversity Conservation will build on previous initiatives and reinforce current environmental law enforcement activities by relevant USAID partners and with Government of the Republic of the Philippines counterpart agencies by sharing its expertise in agreed priority areas. The interventions may be carried out at the national and local levels focusing on the following:
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1. reinforcing national and regional coordinative structures by providing technical advisors assess and strengthen organizational capacities of the National Law Enforcement Coordinating Council and other agencies to effectively and efficiently conduct environmental law enforcement activities;
2. strengthening multisectoral law enforcement bodies at the local level by improving environmental law enforcement practices; and
3. mainstreaming environmental law enforcement in key national government agencies that supports the development of policies and programs that will ensure the conservation biodiversity.
MORE INFO
Cooperating Agency/Partner:
United States Department of Interior (USDOI)
Mechanism :Participating Agency Service Agreement
Period Covered: Sept. 2004 - Aug. 2007
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