Arend Kolhoff
Technical sectretary
The NCEA issued an advice on three projects for integrated coastal zone development in the Wider Manila Bay area. The NCEA makes recommendations on the implementation of two of the three proposed projects. Concerning the third proposed project, the NCEA calls attention to specific environmental and social problems that the project may cause.
Significant details
The objectives of the advice are: (i) to assess the relevance of these projects from the environmental point of view; (ii) to assess the quality of the available documents regarding these projects, and (iii) to present views and advice on the priorities and, where relevant, the sequence of activities to be executed.
On the basis of the review criteria of environmental relevance, feasibility and effectiveness, and institutional aspects, the Commission recommended:
- to implement the Laguna de Bay¹ project and the Guidelines² project;
- with respect to the combined project proposal on coastal and environmental development:
- not to support the project ‘Integrated Management and Development of Land and Water Resources’ in the present form, in which land reclamation and the development of a decision support system (DSS) for the Wider Manila Bay area are linked;
- execute the ‘GeoCES project’ in the originally planned area of the Lingayen Gulf and not in Manila Bay;
- not to support the project ‘Proposed Sand Search and Environmental Investigation in Manila Bay’.
On the basis of the Commission’s advice, the Laguna de Bay project and the Guidelines project have been selected for implementation. The former began in 1998 and the actual project implementation will start in 2000. The Embassy asked the Commission to prepare an advice on Terms of Reference for the Guidelines project. Which has been submitted in 1999, see projectnumber 035.
¹ The Laguna de Bay project targets the development of integrated water resources management through institutional capacity building and development-related tools and skills
² The Guidelines project aims to develop guidelines for environmentally sound and socially acceptable land reclamation projects