Ocean Ambassadors,
an information and education Internet campaign for coastal and marine
conservation and management that opened recently on this site, will
be launched formally on August 11 at the Filipinas Heritage Library,
Makati Ave., Makati City. The campaign uses highly migratory marine
animals, including sea turtles, whales,
dolphins and migratory
sea and wading birds, and endangered species such as the dugong,
as "Ocean Ambassadors" to highlight its message that the world's
oceans are but one big ecosystem, and that the loss of one resource
in one part of the sea can have repercussions on a global scale.
The Ocean Ambassadors homepage now consists mainly of information on
marine
turtles , marine
turtle conservation, and marine turtle habitats, particularly the
Turtle Islands
Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA), the first and so far the only trans-frontier
protected area for marine turtles in the world. Its main attraction
is an
interactive presentation of the results of an ongoing telemetry
project being undertaken jointly by the Pawikan Conservation Project
(PCP) of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (PAWB-DENR), DENR's USAID-funded
Coastal Resource Management Project (CRMP), World
Wildlife Fund-Philippines (WWF-Philippines) and the Smithsonian
Institution.
Using specialized transmitters, the telemetry project hopes to generate
information on the long-range movements of green turtles from the southwest
border of the Philippines and Malaysia. The information will be used
primarily as input to the management of marine turtle habitats. It is
being made available to a wider audience through the Internet to increase
people's awareness of marine turtle conservation issues and promote
coastal and marine conservation and management worldwide.
The formal launching will also serve as a venue for discussion of various
marine turtle conservation issues in the Philippines and the ASEAN region.
Invited speakers include Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR) Secretary Antonio H. Cerilles, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau
Director Rey Bayabos, United States Agency for International Development
Office of Environmental Management Chief Michael Yates, and World Wildlife
Fund-Philippine Executive Director Romeo Trono. Renato Cruz, supervising
ecosystems management specialist of the Pawikan Conservation Project
of the DENR will make a presentation on the Ocean Ambassadors campaign,
particularly its turtle tracking component.
