the Philippines is moving towards sustainable development

A particularly popular destination in Southeast Asia for its scuba diving spots, the country is becoming aware of the urgency of protecting its environment by avoiding overtourism, as this French woman living in the Philippines explains.

The country attracts several million foreign tourists every year, in search of heavenly beaches, natural landscapes and scuba diving. It is also the main activity in the country for vacationers.

At 30, Julie Bureau has just moved to the Philippines. It offers its foreign clients the ability to arrange turnkey or à la carte stays for them throughout South-East Asia. The Frenchwoman confirms that tourism has become a priority for the authorities.

“They realized the potential that there was in the Philippines, she assures, money that it could bring back to the country. For them, a key to the development of tourism is to become aware of this.”

The sector is not anecdotal. Diving tourism brought more than 1 billion euros to the Philippine economy last year. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos is pushing private companies to launch sustainable tourism initiatives and invest in infrastructure.

Today, diving activities are offered on 120 of the 7,000 islands of the archipelago, such as that of Siquijor where the Frenchwoman lives, where measures are taken to protect the fauna and flora.

“As soon as it’s a full moon, she says, there is no right to any underwater activity, neither diving nor freediving, to let the fish reproduce peacefully during the full moon.”

The island of Boracay was closed to tourism for six months in 2018 to allow its ecological restoration after years of overcrowding and degradation. Since its reopening, the island has implemented measures to limit the number of visitors, regulate water activities, manage waste and protect sensitive areas. The counter-example is the island of Oslob, explains Julie Bureau.

“It’s an overexploited place for whale sharks, she observes. They feed them, there is no more migration. The whale sharks stay there all year round. There is a two-hour queue to go into the water to see the whale sharks. They want to avoid repeating that kind of place now.”

The Philippines has exceptional biodiversity, with more than 50,000 animal and plant species, a third of which are endemic, not to mention exceptional coral reefs. Climate change is another factor that affects the environment in the Philippines, one of the most vulnerable countries, due to its geographical location exposed to natural hazards such as typhoons, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. According to the Frenchwoman, the Philippines is at a crossroads.