Cebu City - For the very first time, the Philippines hosted Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (PIELC) 2023 last June 30 to July 1 at Parklane International Hotel, Cebu City with the theme “Advocacy and action: Advancing environmental justice in the Philippines”. This was attended by different environmental law groups and organizations from the country and different parts of the world.

In celebration of the Earth Day 2023, SM CARES together with the Department of Environment and Resources (DENR), and Sacred Heart College held an earth day event with the theme, Invest in Our Planet, Invest in Our Youth, at SM City Lucena Event Center last 22 April 2023.

NCR MANILA - The Department of the Interior and Local Government -National Capital Region (DILG-NCR) conducted its 2023 Regional Fisheries Compliance Audit (FishCA), through the Manila Bay Clean-Up, Rehabilitation, and Preservation Program Management Team (MBCRPP-PMT) last April 12 to 19, 2023. It assessed the Local Government Units (LGUs) implementation of policies related to the management of municipal waters and aquatic resources in the National Capital Region.

A three-day National Consultation on the Implementation of Devolved Forest Management Functions to the Local Government Units was held  on March 15-16, 2023 at Xenia Hotel, Clark, Pampanga. Tanggol Kalikasan (TK) in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Forest Management Bureau (DENR-FMB) and Forest Foundation Philippines (FFP) conducted consultation workshop between the agency and LGU representatives from all regions of the country.

Special Investigation Group (SIG) that involved forty law enforcement officers from 22 agencies in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines convened to share information on criminal networks targeting their wildlife and agreed to network among themselves to stop them and to protect their region’s environment held May 2-5, 2023, in Phuket Thailand.

Eight (8) coastal municipalities in La Union implemented area specific action plans (ASAP) from 2020 to 2022. ASAP was formulated after the topic discussions in the environmental governance webinar conducted for the coastal municipalities in La Union where LGU department heads are the participants. Municipalities included are Rosario, Santo Tomas, Agoo, Aringay, Bauang, San Fernando, San Juan and Bacnotan. Seventeen projects were implemented to support their resource management, environmental law enforcement, and information education campaigns.

Members of Tanggol Kalikasan gathered in a hybrid set-up for their 36th General Assembly held at Fresh Air Hotel, Lucena City and via zoom on 29 April 2023. Officially opening the ceremony, Mr. Nolasco Ritz Lee Santos III, incumbent President of TK, welcomed the members to its annual General Assembly and called the meeting to order. He also introduced the Board of Trustees (BoT) members and presented the resolution of BoT meetings from 2022-2023. Meanwhile, Atty. Fritzielyn Palmiera presented that there were at least 54 members in good standing who attended the meeting and certified the existence of quorum.

Five municipality and one city from the province of Pangasinan (Sual, Labrador, Lingayen Binmaley, San Fabian and Dagupan City) implemented the area specific action plan under the project of Environmental Justice Sector Reform Program of Tanggol Kalikasan with the support fund from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and US-Department of State and International Technical Affairs (USDOI-ITAP) in partnership with Pangasinan State University.