The Philippines has been one of the seventeen known mega biodiverse countries within the world (USAID, 2016). A mega biodiverse country contains two-thirds of the Earth's flora and fauna (Australian State of the atmosphere Committee [ASEC], 2001). The Philippines ranks fifth in the variety of plant species and fourth in bird nativeness (Convention on Biological Diversity [CBD], 2021). The Philippines additionally boasts an excessive number of natural minerals and resources. Most of the country's gold-bearing minerals, gold, iron ore, lead, zinc, chromite, and copper, are drawn from significant deposits on the islands of Luzon and island (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021). Copper has remained the country's primary mineral, though ever-changing world market demands and investment incentives have rendered its production somewhat volatile (Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021). In line with the Department of Trade (2021), the Philippines is the fourth largest copper reserve globally, with four billion metric tons. Over 8,300 workers are given jobs because of this industry (DTI, 2021). producing industries, and therefore the services sector directly enjoys this immense copper deposit in the country. The industry and repair sectors rates of 20.8% and 9.6% directly helped succeed the Philippines' 4.63 trillion pesos GDP within the second quarter of 2021 (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2021). alongside this fast industrialization, there has been a growing demand for infrastructure. According to TomTom (2019), the Philippines was graded fourth because of the most engorged urban town globally. Manila was 53 percent congested compared to the 416 cities the index collected information from (TomTom, 2019). The government's answer to the present condition was to modernize infrastructure and road networks. This rapid development caused tremendous environmental harm to the Philippines. From 2010-2015, a 0.6% drop in the Philippine Forest cover was seen (DENR-FMB, 2019). The drop in forest cover in the Philippines has been constant since the beginning of the twentieth century. Guiang, Borlagdan & Pulhin (2001) noted that from a 70 percent forest cowl in 1900, the Philippines solely includes a 19 percent forest preserve from 2010. Stedman-Edwards (1997) explained that ecosystem and biodiversity loss is inevitable due to organic processes and market efforts. Development can ultimately cause biodiversity loss (Stedman-Edwards, 1997).
If these side-effects of infrastructure and economic progress are not sustainably addressed, antagonistic effects on the system will occur (Pires et al., 2018). Pires et al. (2018) simulated temperature change and diversity loss in tank bromeliad ecosystems. They incontestably showed that maintaining biodiversity can decrease ecosystem sensitivity to climate change, that climate change can switch the mechanisms underlying biodiversity-function relationships, which climate change and biodiversity loss can have antagonistic effects on ecosystem functioning. There are interactive effects between climate change and biodiversity loss on this tropical ecosystem. However, such interactive effects were restricted to specific processes (Pires et al., 2018). Without dramatic and immediate changes focused on varying policy and practice, the losses of the many species and any dominance by early successional and alien species are doubtless (Hughes, 2017). Aquatic systems have suffered significant losses from invasive plants inflicting preventative waterways and numerous alien fishes that have out-competed native species and remodeled aquatic ecosystems (Hughes, 2017). This comparatively sizable number of invasive species results from the relatively poor implementation of the government's environmental programs and the lack of thence laws to implement them. For the most part, Philippine Local Government Units (LGUs) are unaware of their roles in managing municipal waters, the maximum amount as they are unacquainted with concerning the roles of state establishments task to help them. In contrast, resource management generally receives low LGU prioritization (Gonzales et al., 2021). There are also weak policies, not implemented laws, or unenforced rules about minimizing invasive species' introduction within the Philippines (Ejares, 2021). Implementation of environmental protection at the bottom level is littered with lack of participation and engagement, lack of accountability, low transparency, lack of awareness of active citizens, the weak role of civil society, and gender difference (PIN, 2017). Moreover, Taylor (2016) emphasizes that the quality of call-making accountability processes conjointly influences the protection of the environment. Additionally, native attitudes and behaviors (Cameron, 2016), political will, legislation, stakeholders' participation, and priority of outsourced funds (Gonzales, 2011) should be crucial in protecting the environment.
In response to the present clamor for the resolution of issues in transportation and sustainably addressing the environmental impacts of the mass industrialization the country experienced, the current government has arranged the plan labeled as Build, Build, Build (Lusterio-Rico, 2021). In 2016, President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Gina Lopez as the Department of Natural Resources Secretary (Ranada, 2016). This landmark political move in environmental focus has been the primary of its kind within the Philippines. Gina Lopez ordered the mass closure of mines, the ban on open-pit mining, the transition of the Philippines to renewable energy, and the end of inequality in Mindanao (Ranada, 2016). However, thanks to varied problems raised by the mining sector and the alleged incompetence of Gina Lopez, the Commission on Appointments headed by the House of Representatives and the Senate rejected Gina Lopez's appointment (Santos, 2017). With Lopez gone, the President appointed Roy Cimatu to be the DENR Secretary (ABS-CBN News, 2017) aboard the already confirmed Department of Transportation (DOTr) head Arthur Tugade (Ager, 2016) and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) chief Mark Villar (Cayabyab, 2016). Tugade, Villar, and Cimatu spearheaded the Build, Build, Build program of the administration. Cimatu started the cleanup of Boracay in 2018, with the promise of resolving the crisis in six months. DENR deployed a “mission team” that may address the environmental issues in Boracay island (Geronimo, 2018). Divided into six teams, they will be tasked with rehabilitating and fixing the waste treatment of the island (Geronimo, 2018). Environmental rehabilitation is the centerpiece of the Build, Build, Build program, just like the Manila Bay redevelopment, which drew controversy over the dumping of dolomite on the shore to “beautify the landscape” (Malasig, 2019). Elgaali, Ziadat, and Alzyoud (2019) argued that accretion and erosion of the beaches are one in each of the significant impacts known within the geo-engineering of Dubai. The water quality in the town was impacted, high salinities and the large-scale desalinization activity in the neighborhood is predicted to extend the salinity levels by discharging a significant amount of brine into the ocean (Elgaali, Ziadat, & Alzyoud, 2019). The degree of total organic matter content, the natural gas demand, total nitrogen, and phosphoric rose (Elgaali, Ziada, & Alzyoud, 2019). It will be aforementioned that environmental issues were the facade of the infrastructure project. The main achievements were developing and extending numerous bridges, roadways, and public transportation within the Philippines. This program is no different from the industrialization and modernization that resulted in the ultimate environmental loss for the country. Presumptuous that these do not overlap with priority infrastructure, the combining total fund necessities of the program total to PHP 7.25 trillion. This Brobdingnagian sum results in ninety-one percent of the calculable total price to realize the nation's ultimate goal of beating the Golden Age of Infrastructure (Cuenca, 2021). This agenda conjointly interprets the development of the Pasig River Expressway, designed by the San Miguel Corporation. As mentioned earlier, the project aims to alleviate and solve the continuing traffic crisis in railway line Manila (DENR-EMB-EIA, 2021). The project drew criticism because it was erected within the Pasig River (Lago, 2021). San Miguel plans to dredge the “dead” Pasig River to construct the nineteen-kilometer, six-lane, all-elevated state highway (DENR-EMB-EIA, 2021). In comparison, several studies have advised the environmental impact of dredging (Manap & Voulvoulis, 2016; Jayaraju, Reddy, B.S.R & Reddy, K.R., 2010; Sandirasegaran & Manap, 2016). Stryjecki et al. (2021) argued that dredging a tiny low river displayed higher diverseness and served as a species catalyst in Krapiel River, Poland. The response of individual teams of invertebrates to the intervention was powerfully influenced by the role of the terrestrial introduce their life cycle: the more significant the role of the terrestrial phase within the life cycle, the more chances of the cluster being full of changes in the terrestrial surroundings following the intervention (Stryjecki et al., 2021). However, even the study was conclusive enough to indicate that dredging will affect animals; this was seen in the devastation and collapse of the Odonata insect species compared to the previous ecosystem (Stryjecki et al., 2021).
Instead of constructing the Pasig River Expressway, it would be better if the authorities prioritized mass public transportation instead of non-public roadworks. Public transportation carried out with the Six Sigma DMAIC technique lessened road injuries and promoted much less road congestion (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). The imply of each day injuries reduced from 1.95 to 1.57, and the wide variety of injuries in line with 100,000 km additionally reduced from 4.73 to 3.77 (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). Kuvvetli and Firuzan endorsed that increasing the application citywide and presenting its sustainability are desired in presenting a hit public transportation system. It is noteworthy that the Six Sigma technique is an effective business method that can enhance the best initiatives in many industries worldwide (Kuvvetli & Firuzan, 2017). Therefore, private people can nonetheless assist the authorities to form their transportation gadget as opposed to the authorities counting on corporate sponsorship. Another trouble of PAREX is the opportunity of it develop the Braess Paradox. The Braess Paradox is a strange occurrence in congested city transportation networks (Nagurney A. & Nagurney L., 2020). In particular, the Braess Paradox happens best in networks wherein the customers function independently and noncooperatively in a decentralized manner (Nagurney A. & Nagurney L., 2020). The counterintuitive phenomenon is that a brand-new road might also bring about the growth of travel cost/time for all drivers within the network. A real-life instance of the Braess paradox is quite uncannily much like PAREX. The rehabilitation of Cheonggyecheon, a city that circulates in downtown Seoul, South Korea, became a world focus when first introduced in 2002 and finished in 2005 (Kim & Jung, 2018). Between 1958 and 1977, the Cheonggyecheon Freeway was built. Concrete was poured over the stream to assemble a 50-meter-wide arterial road that ran six kilometers; and in 1976 was improved by an elevated highway that reached 5.9 kilometers and was constructed above the street to serve the swiftly growing traffic among downtown and outskirts of Seoul (Kim & Jung, 2018). This project shares the similar goal of creating transport infrastructure in a “dead” river, which even exacerbated the traffic clogs in Seoul. Kim and Jung (2018) said that the Seoul Metropolitan Government provided a rehabilitation challenge to repair the Cheonggyecheon River. The new Cheonggyecheon was opened to the general public on 1 October 2005 after 28 months of labor supported with the aid of using the sturdy involvement of the Seoul Metropolitan Government during the entire process (Kim & Jung, 2018). Structures established withinside the industrialization length had been removed, and direct daylight shed mild at the hibernating circulate underneath the bloodless concrete slabs and pillars (Kim & Jung, 2018). Today, it flows from west to east in valuable Seoul, passing via 13 neighborhoods in four city districts (Kim & Jung, 2018). Consequently, it is compelling that the PAREX challenge needs to be replaced with the neighborhood authorities' intensive and systematic rehabilitation plan. According to Kim and Jung (2018), awareness around the scale of maintenance of surroundings and biodiversity, water best and recharge, and mitigation of world warming can construct fee to rehabilitating ecosystems.
Information dissemination and focus group discussions are important ways to contribute solutions, critiques, and research on the sustainability of infrastructure projects. A STEM student must use proper communication to reach out to planners effectively, government institutions, architects, and private individuals to solve this progress dilemma. We must innovate in transportation, quality of life, and services without sacrificing gender equality, social justice, and the environment. Biodiversity is a vital area of the ecosystem. Environmental awareness and advocacy are areas where we need focus and attention as much as we do in governance, crime, justice, and education.
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