Managing protected areas through PPP

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is ready to accept applications for Special-Use Agreement in Protected Areas (Sapa) after Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu recently announced the lifting of the moratorium that stopped the awarding of tenurial instruments in protected areas. The scheme was suspended in 2011 by then-Environment Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje, according to DENR officials, because it failed to generate revenue and improve protected area management. A protected area, under Republic Act 7586, or the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas) Act, is defined as “identified portions of land and water set aside by reason of their unique physical and biological significance, managed to enhance biological diversity and protected against destructive human exploitation.”