Sustaining Water Resources with Environmental Protection

Abstract

This chapter focuses on past and current policies (including programs) on environmental protection and how these policies facilitate or constrain the implementation of policy actions to promote the sustainability of water resources in the Philippines. Alongside water policies, policies on land use management and allocation, forestry, agriculture, natural resource management, and pollution control are examined with respect to its expected outputs versus actual outputs and impacts. Cases of synergy and conflicts of environmental and water policies and what attempts were made to achieve concurrently environmental protection and sustainable water resources are presented. The chapter concludes by drawing out policy recommendations from the best practices and lessons learned from past experiences. Specifically, key policies and programs related to sustainable agriculture and food security, forest and biodiversity conservation, land use planning and management, environmental impact assessment, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and soil conservation, among others, are examined. The National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (NIPAS Law), the National Greening Program, and the Solid Waste Management Act are some of the key policies and programs that are reviewed in this chapter.