Save Agusan Marsh

In 2008, 34 international companies joined an initiative of the Conference of Parties to the UN-Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and committed to implement corporate social responsibility (CSR) projects that would contribute to the 2010 goal of reducing biodiversity loss. The business and biodiversity initiative encourages CSR on biodiversity conservation, sustainable use of biodiversity, and access to and benefits sharing of genetic resources. The growing awareness on biodiversity conservation and the role that businesses and the private sector can play in this endeavor brings me to the subject of the Agusan Marsh. According to Dr. Jurgenne H. Primavera, scientist emerita and a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation under the US-based Pew Environment Group, it is home to a diverse ecosystem of rare flowering plants and vegetation, more than 17 fish species, and some 200 species of endemic, threatened and migratory birds.