The Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center (NAPWC) conducted its first Management Effectiveness Assessment (MEA) on November 19-20, 2024 at the SEDA Hotel, Quezon City.
NAWPC, on its Facebook page, said the effectiveness of management interventions which include inputs and delivery of objectives, needs to be evaluated, assessed and monitored in order to better conserve the integrity of the protected area.
According to NAWPC, every protected area undergoes a MEA once every three years.
The tool used in this assessment, the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool (METT) was adopted to assess and monitor management of protected areas, pursuant to Republic Act No. 7586 or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act of 1992 as amended by the Republic Act No. 11038 also known as the Expanded NIPAS Act of 2018, and in line with the Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Target 12 of the Philippine Biodiversity Strategic Action Plan.
Invited guest speakers from the BMB-NPD (National Parks Division) gave an orientation on BMB Technical Bulletin 2018-05 “Adopting the Management Effectiveness Tracking Tool for Assessing and Monitoring Management Effectiveness of Protected Areas”, and together with NAPWC PAMO, provided guidance as they facilitated the assessment.
NAPWC said it took advantage of its unique disposition of having a conservative number of members to create an innovative and streamlined process of evaluation.
NAPWC Management Board members, representatives and stakeholder were fully engaged as each item was discussed, and rated individually and in plenary.
The results, and initial analysis and interpretation were immediately presented to the NAPWC Management Board.
DENR Assistant Secretary for Biodiversity, and Co-Chair of the NAPWC Management Board, Asec. Marcial Amaro, Jr. emphasized that the MEA result will serve as basis to know which elements to prioritize in protecting and managing NAPWC.