The Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference in Egypt provided advocates for the protection of the environment with an opportune moment. This year’s conference gave us the platform to center hotspots like the Philippines’ own Verde Island Passage in the conversations on biodiversity, especially now that it continues to face threats to its marine ecosystem.
The rich marine biological diversity of VIP and its extraordinary underwater life has been touted as the “Amazon of the Oceans” and is a source of wonder for scientists. In 2005, biodiversity experts Kent Carpenter and Victor Springer dubbed Verde Island Passage the “center of the center of marine shore fish biodiversity,” while eminent Filipino marine scientist Dr. Wilfredo Licuanan called it the “richest place on earth.
These increasingly obvious problems have not fazed multinational corporations like Shell. During last week’s commemoration of the ninth anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda, frontline communities and clean energy advocates wrote a letter to Shell to object to its planned LNG terminal near the VIP. Despite Shell’s claims of “protecting and enhancing biodiversity,” the proposed P3.5-billion LNG import terminal will put our biodiversity hotspot and surrounding coastal communities at risk.