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Landscape Planning Application for Biodiversity Conservation


Biological diversity, or biodiversity for short, is defined by the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity as the variability among living organisms from all sources, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part.  In the Philippines, the country's biodiversity resources continue to be threatened due to the fragmentation of natural forests that are habitats of important flora and fauna species.  The main government initiative to protect and conserve biodiversity has been the establishment of a system of protected areas through the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) as provided for under Republic Act 7586.  However, the system currently excludes Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and the surrounding production landscapes, which are important for the connectivity of key biodiversity corridors.  There is, thus, the need for an integrated landscape planning and management approach that can provide the framework for coordinated actions of all stakeholders.  This paper presents an approach for landscape-level land suitability assessment that could provide the basis for the spatial structuring and land use policy framework to support the objectives of biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services consistent with the needs and development aspirations of the stakeholders in the planning region.


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