The current environmental laws in the Philippines are policies of the state that aims to protect, conserve and develop our natural resources and the ones found and living with it. Executive Order Number 79 Section 16, Article II of the 1987 Constitution provides that the State shall protect and advance the right of the Filipino people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. It shows that the state want a protection not just on nature but also on its sovereign people. Living in the rhythm and harmony of nature is what the state wants for its people. But that was a long time ago people are contented living a simple life they are already satisfied with what the nature can offer to them. People as time goes by seek more and find ways on how to get more resources on our nature that they wouldn’t mind if it’s already endangering the nature. Presidential Decree 1152 – Philippine Environmental Policy defines the policy objectives and the strategies for the various aspects of environmental management, such as air and water quality management, natural source development, land management, and waste management. It launches a comprehensive national program of environmental protection and management, with reference to policies and standards of noise, air quality, water quality, classification of water and waste management. In this program the proper protection and management that was supposed to be done was not followed. Quality management is needed. It is one of the major factors that cause diseases on people because our resources were not of good quality nowadays. It recognizes that a clean and healthy environment is for the good of all and should therefore be the concern of all. Clean and healthy environment is not what all Filipinos have. Only a few can experience what a healthy and clean environment is because majority of the people tend to go to urban places and eventually pollute it. Presidential Decree 389 (P.D. 705) – The Forestry Reform Code codifies updates and raises forestry laws in the country. It emphasizes the sustainable utilization of forest resources. When we say sustainable it is how we use the resources properly and how to maintain its productivity for future generations. This law wants to eliminate illegal logging and other forms of forest destruction which are being facilitated. Taking Care of our forest is very crucial specially to us who are living on elevated areas we are more prone on Landslide and the ones living beneath us is also affected with flashflood, mudslide and others. It is important that we would take care and propagate trees on our forests. Presidential Decree. 856 Sanitation Code places the responsibility in the local government units for he solid waste management in his area of production. People in Cities are too many it causes pollution due to overcrowding the resources is not sufficient to support the population living in a certain place. A lot of people don’t practice proper hygiene on themselves and even on their environment. Overcrowding leads to unhealthy practice and lifestyle. Presidential Decree 1181 (supplements the provision of P.D. 984) providing for the abatement, control and prevention of vehicular pollution and establishing the maximum allowance emissions of specific air pollutants from all types of vehicle. We invented so many things that really have a negative impact on our nature as we go through modernization so many substances is being used that served as a poison to our natural resources and slowly killing and destroying it. The state has no control and supervision on it. The use of Cars that produce smoke, chemicals on pesticides and insecticides and even using spray will harm our mother nature. It is negligence on our part we are supposedly the stewards of it but what we are doing is we are destroying it. Lack of discipline also is happening we don’t mind the laws that were made to safeguard our nature and also ourselves from harm. The environment we’re living in right now is not what the state envisions for us. These are general policies that pursuit a better quality of life for the present and future generations. It provides objectives and strategies for the various aspects of environmental management. Nature is really one of the major sources of income before and even nowadays. But the equal opportunity was not imposed properly by the state proper resource allocation is needed. Strictly implementation of the laws passed is not enough we need to make the citizens abide with rules and regulations not because it is one of their responsibilities as a citizen, but because of the fact that we need this law that will serve as our guidelines and manuals to continue living in ecologically balanced and healthy environment.

How Hospitality and Tourism Management Course is affected in current environmental Law?

The quality of the environment, both natural and man-made, is essential to tourism. However, tourism’s relationship with the environment is complex. It involves many activities that can have adverse environmental effects. Many of these impacts are linked with the construction of general infrastructure such as roads and airports, and of tourism facilities, including resorts, hotels, restaurants, shops, golf courses and marinas. In Hospitality Industry we offer products and services that are tangibles and intangibles. Attractive landscape sites, such as sandy beaches, lakes, riversides, and mountain tops and slopes, are often transitional zones, characterized by species-rich ecosystems. Hotel and Tourism Industry is anchored on natural resources. And it is where we usually build infrastructure we usually convert and developed the place to cater to our guests. The fact that most tourists chose to maintain their relatively high patterns of consumption (and waste generation) when they reach their destinations can be a particularly serious problem for the industry as Philippines a developing country without the appropriate means for protecting our natural resources and local ecosystems from the pressures of mass tourism. Hospitality and Tourism Industry contributes a lot with this destruction. As a number one contributor our industry is affected with many these laws imposed it limits our capacity to render and innovate more on our products and services offered to our present and future guests. The Industry’s business areas, the facilities being operated and managed as well as our locations and activities are also affected. We need to comply with environmental legislation, regulation and standards. We also need to identify the extents to which environmental issues are being considered and addressed in the operations, services and products of the organizations that are part of our industry. The Industry needs to commit on how we are going to manage the operations and services to achieve environmental objectives and targets. The Hospitality and Tourism Industry must show where the organization stands on its environmental performance in relation to its operations, services and products. These environmental laws can make major impacts on the organization’s activities, services and production processes. Those processes may have cause impact on the environment. It will take into considerations the planning, design, construction, operation and maintenance of all properties facilities and services. We need to develop or adapt procedures and technologies to the benefit of both the environment and wider community and still maintaining in reaching or exceeding our guests’ expectation. The practice of our staff, contractors, suppliers and customers must be with of responsibility for their actions and to comply with their environmental obligations. Suppliers taking part in the environmental protection initiatives will be considered. Purchasing strategies with the suppliers and the materials needed is also affected we need to make sure that it does not add cost to the problem. Like in purchasing initiatives we must consider those who are committed to sustainable environmental development, and continuously seek environmentally-friendly products and services that represent genuine value for money. The industry need to devise the most innovative and practical environmental improvement initiatives. We need to provide products and services that have the minimum adverse impact on the environment. The industries employees and staff is also affected they need to carry out regular internal programmes of education and training to enhance environmental awareness amongst themselves.

How can Hotel and Tourism Management Course help to improve the current environmental situation in the Philippines?

Tourism can be considered one of the most remarkable socio-economic phenomena of the twentieth century. From an activity “enjoyed by only a small group of relatively well-off people” during the first half of the last century, it gradually became a mass phenomenon during the post World War II period, particularly from the 1970s onwards. It now reaches larger and larger numbers of people throughout the world, and is a source of employment for a significant segment of the labor force. And now Hospitality and Tourism Industry is one of the largest and fastest growing industry in the world has growing adverse impacts on our environment. It provides considerable economic benefits for many countries, regions and communities; its rapid expansion has also had detrimental environmental and socio-cultural impacts. Natural resource depletion and environmental degradation associated with tourism are serious problems. The management of natural resources to reverse this trend is thus one of the most difficult challenges for governments at different levels. The main environmental impacts of tourism are (a) pressure on natural resources, (b) pollution and waste generation and (c) damage to ecosystems. Furthermore, it is now widely recognized that not only uncontrolled tourism expansion is likely to lead to environmental degradation, but also that environmental degradation, in turn, poses a serious threat to tourism. Tourism is closely linked to biodiversity and the attractions created by a rich and varied environment. It can also cause loss of biodiversity when land and resources are strained by excessive use, and when impacts on vegetation, wildlife, mountain, marine and coastal environments and water resources exceed the carrying capacity. This loss of biodiversity in fact means loss of tourism potential. Global tourism is closely linked to climate change. Tourism involves the movement of people from their homes to other destinations and accounts for about 50% of traffic movements; rapidly expanding air traffic contributes about 2.5% of the production of CO2. Tourism is thus a significant contributor to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Air travel itself is a major contributor to the greenhouse effect. Passenger jets are the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. The number of international travelers is expected to increase, adding greatly to the problem unless steps are taken to reduce emissions. Despite its many adverse impacts, tourism can help improved the current environmental situation by preservation and conservation of sensitive important sites in our country. Furthermore, tourism that focuses on cultural and historic sites (sometimes referred to as “heritage” tourism) can be the driving force for the preservation and rehabilitation of existing historic sites, buildings, and monuments. The Hospitality and Tourism Industry can contribute to environmental conservation through: (a) Direct financial contributions; we can contribute directly to the conservation of sensitive areas and habitat. Contributions to government revenues; governments collect money in more far-reaching and indirect ways that are not linked to specific parks or conservation areas. User fees, income taxes, taxes on sales or rental of recreation equipment, and license fees for activities can provide governments with the funds needed to manage natural resources. Such funds can be used for overall conservation programs and activities. (b) Improved environmental management and planning; Sound environmental management of tourism facilities and especially hotels can increase the benefits to natural areas. But this requires careful planning for controlled development, based on analysis of the environmental resources of the area. Planning helps to make choices between conflicting uses, or to find ways to make them compatible. By planning early for tourism development, damaging and expensive mistakes can be prevented, avoiding the gradual deterioration of environmental assets significant to tourism. (c) Environmental awareness raising; Tourism has the potential to increase public appreciation of the environment and to spread awareness of environmental problems when it brings people into closer contact with nature and the environment. This confrontation may heighten awareness of the value of nature and lead to environmentally conscious behavior and activities to preserve the environment. (d) Protection and preservation; Tourism can significantly contribute to environmental protection, conservation and restoration of biological diversity and sustainable use of natural resources. Because of their attractiveness, pristine sites and natural areas are identified as valuable and the need to keep the attraction alive can lead to creation of national parks and wildlife parks. (e) Alternative employment; Tourism can provide an alternative to development scenarios that may have greater environmental impacts. (f) Regulatory measures; Regulatory measures help offset negative impacts. It controls the number of tourist activities and movement of visitors within protected areas and it can limit impacts on the ecosystem and help maintain the integrity and vitality of the site. Such limits can also reduce the negative impacts on resources. Limits should be established after an in-depth analysis of the maximum sustainable visitor capacity. The Hospitality and Tourism Industry has now an increasing agreement on the need to promote sustainable tourism development to minimize its environmental impacts and to ensure more sustainable management of natural resources. The concept of sustainable tourism, as developed in the United Nations sustainable development process, refers to tourist activities “leading to management of all resources in such a way that economic, social and aesthetic needs can be fulfilled while maintaining cultural integrity, essential ecological processes, and biological diversity and life support systems.” These sustainability concerns are, therefore, beginning to be addressed by governments at national, regional and local, as well as international, levels. In addition, given the leading role of the private sector in the tourism industry has many initiatives that have also been taken by this sector. The main policy areas regarding sustainable tourism are: (a) the promotion of national strategies for sustainable tourism development, including the decentralization of environmental management to regional and local levels, (b) the use of both regulatory mechanisms and economic instruments, (c) the support for voluntary initiatives by the industry itself, and (d) the promotion of sustainable tourism. The Industry needs to formulate and effectively apply an appropriate mix of regulatory and economic instruments for both sustainable natural resources management and environmental protection. The most direct tool for promoting sustainable tourism involves the use of regulatory mechanisms, such as, integrated land-use planning and coastal zone management. In many cases, it may be necessary to protect coastlines through rigid building restrictions, such as, existing legislation that bans any buildings within a defined distance from the coast. It is also essential that environmental regulations be applied transparently throughout the tourism sector, regardless of business size, type of tourism activity concerned or location. Mass tourism, in particular, should be carefully monitored, regulated and sometimes even prohibited in ecologically fragile areas. In protected areas, such as national parks and natural world heritage sites, tourism activities should be strictly subject to the preservation of biological diversity and ecosystems, not stressing their limited capacity to absorb human presence without becoming damaged or degraded. The Industry has voluntary industry initiatives which tend to oppose greater government regulation and taxation of the industry on the grounds that they are ultimately detrimental to efficiency, competitiveness and profits. The tourism industry has thus developed several self-regulation and voluntary initiatives to promote greater environmental sustainability. These include waste and pollution reduction schemes, voluntary codes of conduct, industry awards and eco-labels for sustainable tourism. In addition, environmental management schemes to encourage responsible practices have been promoted in various sub-sectors, including hotel and catering, recreation and entertainment, transportation, travel agencies and tour operators. To achieve this emphasis it must be directed to sustainable ecotourism development as the core in this industry supported by expansion in the hospitality service sector. There is inadequate skilled manpower in this sector but the future of tourism needs product diversification, opening up of new tourist circuits, promotion of domestic tourism and provision of skilled manpower. The programme in Ecotourism and Hospitality Management is designed to train manpower to meet these challenges.

Sources:

http://www.chanrobles.com/eono79-2012.php#.UFWWlLLiYpA

http://mboard.pcaarrd.dost.gov.ph/forum/viewtopic.php?id=12137

http://bio427.blogspot.com/2010/10/environmental-laws-of-philippines.html

http://www.gdrc.org/uem/eco-tour/envi/index.html

http://www.mtnforum.org/sites/default/files/pub/1423.pdf