Updating of General Protected Area Management Plan of Apo Reef Natural Park

CELPA, Inc. team leading the planning workshop in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro

Duration: September 2019 - December 2020

The Apo Reef Natural Park (ARNP) and its surrounding waters have been proclaimed as a protected area under Presidential Proclamation No. 868 on September 6, 1996. It covers a total of 27,469 hectares, which includes the peripheral buffer zone.

As a protected area, ARNP is mandated to adopt a general management planning strategy to promote the adoption and implementation of innovative techniques to ensure that activities conducted in and adjacent to the park would not pose any adverse effects to its natural state and to provide guidelines for the protection of indigenous communities and tenured migrants and close coordination between and among local and national government agencies and the private sector. (NIPA Act, 1992)

The ARNP adopted a General Management Plan (GMP) in 2011. However, as stipulated in DAO 25 series 1992 or the Implementing Rules and Regulation of the NIPAS, a GMP must be reviewed and updated at least once every three (3) years.

CELPA, Inc. was contracted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) - Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) Occidental Mindoro to update the Apo Reef Natural Park General Management Plan.