Doers Collective

21/09/2026

📢 Call for proposals: the Sustainable Blue Economy Partnership's 4th transnational call is open!

Co-branded with the Ocean Decade under the theme "Building a sustainable and innovative Blue Economy: mastering digital opportunities and fostering resilience", this call aims to support impact-driven contributions to the transformation into a blue economy for a more resilient future and towards carbon neutrality targets, following an impact pathway approach.

With a total funding of €38 million, it seeks transnational research and innovation projects of 36 months duration addressing one of these four priority areas:

1️⃣ Transitioning the blue economy sectors for sustainability and strategic autonomy
2️⃣ Managing sea-uses by advancing digital and ecosystem-based approaches
3️⃣ Promoting sustainable blue bioresources through innovation in marine production and harvesting
4️⃣ Building resilience in coastal communities with infrastructure and businesses

The proposals are recommended to consider a minimum of two European sea basins and to assess the project proposal’s impact on other European basins.

With a total funding of €38 million, this call pools national and regional financial resources through the participation of 34 funding organisations from 29 countries combined with the contribution from the European Union.

🗓️ Deadline pre-proposals: 16 Nov 2026 | Deadline full proposals: 14 Jun 2027
🔗 Find more information and submit your proposal here: https://ow.ly/H9YH50ZNe8C

20/09/2026

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐩 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔: 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐭 𝐀𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬

Picture this: a beach full of volunteers bent over for six hours straight or more, bagging trash that isn't theirs, made by companies that will never show up to help carry it.

Now picture that same scene happening every single year, forever, with the same brands, the same sachets, and the same excuses, because the system that makes the mess was never asked to change.

According to the DENR, the ICC 2026 collected more than 466,000 kilograms of trash in a single day, with over 103,000 Filipinos across 369 coastal, river, waterway, and underwater cleanup sites nationwide. It's the kind of number that goes viral for the right reasons, until you remember it's the same number every year, because nothing upstream has changed.

Here's what nobody puts on the tarpaulin:

⚠️ The Philippines discards an estimated 59.8 billion plastic sachets a year, enough to bury Metro Manila under a foot of plastic. The same brands top the polluter list, year after year, audit after audit.
⚠️ Only 9% of our municipal waste is recycled. 35% leaks straight into the environment. We were legally required to build 1,700 sanitary landfills. We built 189 (data subject to validation).
⚠️ RA 9003 requires a Materials Recovery Facility in every barangay or cluster of barangays. We have more than 42,000 barangays and only 20,458 MRFs; that's less than half, and that count is just presence, not whether the ones that exist actually function. The law's most basic building block still isn't built.
⚠️ And instead of fixing that first, the government is fast-tracking Waste-to-Energy auctions that are worth 400 MW, with contracts that need a steady supply of trash to stay profitable for 15-20 years.

So now, let's ask ourselves: what happens to "reduce, reuse, and recycle" when an incinerator needs your garbage to survive?

The ICC is not the solution. It is a mirror. It shows us, once a year, exactly how much we failed to prevent the other 364 days. And this year we even handed out snacks and meals in the same sachets/single-use plastics we were bending over to pick up, because we still haven't fixed the packaging economy that makes this "cleanup" necessary in the first place.

Cleaning the coast is not the finish line. It's the receipt.

RA 9003 is 25 years old. It's being "modernized" to make room for incinerators before we've even built the MRFs and enforced the segregation and producer-responsibility rules already on the books. That's not modernization, that's skipping the hard part.

Yes, this is a great initiative. The fact that we are coming together and taking action! So every ICC, let's show up for the cleanup, then show up for the harder fight: functioning MRFs, real EPR enforcement, and WTE safeguards before the go-signal, not after.

More information and sources in the comments.

20/09/2026

Forests reduce the probability of all floods, including the largest inundations. 🌳

New research challenges the long-held assumption that forests only protect against small and moderate flooding. Using causal methods standard in climate science, the study finds that forest cover reduces the frequency and size of floods across the board — including the largest events.

Healthy forests actively suppress flood probability — keeping floods smaller and less frequent.

🌿More evidence that preserving and restoring nature contributes to effective disaster risk management. ➡️ https://ow.ly/xbmb50YKPfK

19/09/2026

Nature Reviews Biodiversity: African swine fever virus has spread rapidly across Asia, causing lethal disease in several endemic wild pig species and Eurasian wild boar in Southeast Asia, and threatening some species with extinction. In this article, the authors set out a Roadmap for coordinated action to address this emerging conservation, livelihood and food-system crisis.

Link to the article in the comments.

19/09/2026

𝟖𝟕% 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐖𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰?

87% of Wildlife Criminals in the Philippines Walk Free. Meanwhile, we're the #1 deadliest country in Asia to defend the forest you're being robbed of.

So, let's talk about a number that should make every Filipino furious: 13%. That's the share of identified wildlife-crime violators in the Philippines who actually faced consequences between 2013 and 2018: 228 violators, only 30 penalized. Over 26,700 confiscated animals. Only 70 cases even made it to filing.

One repeat trafficker was caught four separate times trading endangered wildlife. He was convicted once. His penalty fine was only ₱5,000. YES, ONLY ₱5,000. This isn't a glitch. It's the system working exactly as broken as it's designed to be.

Here's the uncomfortable math nobody wants to say out loud:
🚨 38.6% conviction rate for environmental crimes overall (as of DENR's own 2024 data)
🚨 27.2% of cases just... sit. Stuck with prosecutors. Never moving. Not dismissed, not tried, just quietly dying of neglect.
🚨 7.2% formally thrown out, usually for "lack of evidence," because our forensic and prosecutorial systems still aren't built to fight environmental crime the way they're built to fight everything else.

Meanwhile, and this is the part that should really make your blood boil!

The Philippines has been Asia's DEADLIEST country for environmental and land defenders for 13 YEARS STRAIGHT. Not once in the top 5. First. Every single year since 2013. In 2025 alone, 12 people were killed for standing between a chainsaw, a mining permit, or a fishing trawler and the ecosystem they were protecting. 227 more were slapped with terrorism charges just for organizing.

So let's be honest about what's actually happening here. It is currently easier and safer in this country to destroy a protected forest than it is to defend one.

We have laws. Good ones, actually, some of the most progressive environmental procedures in Asia. The Writ of Kalikasan. The Public Trust Doctrine. A Supreme Court that in 2019 literally ruled the government has a sacred obligation to future generations to keep our waters clean. On paper, we're ahead of most of the region. But paper doesn't stop a bulldozer. And here's the part almost nobody is talking about:

There is not a single Philippine court case-not one-where a company or individual has been made to actually PAY to restore the biodiversity they destroyed. Not one case where a mining company was ordered to fund species rehabilitation. Not one where a trafficker was made to bankroll ranger patrols for the population he decimated. We have the legal tools sitting right there in the Civil Code and in landmark Supreme Court rulings, and in nearly two decades, they have basically never been used for what they were built for. We built the gun. We just never pulled the trigger.

So while our defenders are being killed at the highest rate in Asia, while our forests, reefs, and wildlife populations keep shrinking, the legal system meant to hold destroyers accountable is either too slow, too underfunded, too poorly trained on the science, or too scared of who's on the other side of the courtroom to actually function.

This is not an accident. This is a policy choice made by inaction, year after year, administration after administration.

What needs to happen now, not eventually???

✅ DOJ and DENR need to stop just chasing convictions and start making offenders pay to restore what they destroyed, real biodiversity remedies, not just fines that go into a general fund nobody tracks.
✅ Update the 20-year-old Wildlife Act penalties. A ₱5,000 fine is not a deterrent, it's a permission slip.
✅ Protect the people risking their lives to defend what's left. Thirteen years at the top of a killing list is not a "concerning trend." It's a national emergency being treated like background noise.
✅ Give prosecutors the forensic tools and legal presumptions they need so "lack of evidence" stops being the easiest way out for people caught red-handed with endangered species.

We are not short on laws. We are short on the will to use them.

Every case that gets thrown out, every prosecutor who lets a file gather dust, every fine that's cheaper than the crime, that's a decision that biodiversity in this country is worth less than the paperwork it takes to protect it.

How many more pangolins and other endemic species, how many more hectares, and how many more defenders before that changes?

Read the Philippines case study by the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC) and Conservation-Litigation.org on legal remedies for harm to biodiversity: AN ANALYSIS OF ENVIRONMENTAL LIABILITY LEGISLATION IN THE PHILIPPINES
(1) https://www.conservation-litigation.org/
(2) https://www.conservation-litigation.org/information-hub -reports

18/09/2026

17/09/2026

𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐓: 𝟒 𝐁𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐒𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐬𝐨𝐧 (𝐏𝐒𝐏)

Per the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Shellfish Bulletin No. 22, Series of 2026 (16 September 2026), shellfish samples collected from the following areas remain POSITIVE for Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) beyond the regulatory limit:

📍 Dumanquillas Bay, Zamboanga del Sur
📍 Tantanang Bay, Zamboanga Sibugay
📍 Matarinao Bay, Eastern Samar
📍 South Bais Bay, Negros Oriental

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭?
PSP is caused by toxic algal blooms, most commonly the dinoflagellate Pyrodinium bahamense, which produces saxitoxin. This neurotoxin accumulates in filter-feeding shellfish and 𝘈𝑐𝘦𝑡𝘦𝑠 sp. (alamang) as they feed on the algae. Critically, saxitoxin is heat-stable; it is NOT destroyed by cooking, boiling, or freezing. Even a small contaminated portion can cause illness.

Symptoms of PSP typically appear within minutes to hours of consumption and may include tingling or numbness of the lips, tongue, and fingertips, dizziness, and difficulty swallowing, progressing to muscle weakness and, in severe cases, respiratory paralysis, which can be fatal without prompt medical care.

𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐅𝐄 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:
All types of shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters, etc.) and 𝘈𝑐𝘦𝑡𝘦𝑠 sp. (alamang) harvested from the areas listed above.

𝐒𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠:
Fish, squid, shrimp, and crab from these areas remain safe provided they are fresh, washed thoroughly, and internal organs (gills and intestines) are removed before cooking.

Community reminders: shellfish and alamang from the affected bays are not safe until BFAR lifts the advisory.
🚫 Do NOT harvest.
🚫 Do NOT sell.
🚫 Do NOT buy.
🚫 Do NOT eat.

If you or someone you know has consumed shellfish from an affected area and experiences numbness, tingling, dizziness, or difficulty breathing, seek medical attention immediately and do not wait for symptoms to worsen.

For further verification, inquiries, or to report symptoms of shellfish poisoning, contact:
[email protected] | [email protected]
+63 (2) 8539-5685
Or your local BFAR regional office/municipal health office.

Source: BFAR Shellfish Bulletin No. 22, Series of 2026, 16 September 2026.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1PFXbqDubx/

17/09/2026

𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐉𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐁𝐍𝐉 𝐀𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

On January 17, 2026, something historic happened in international law: two-thirds of the world's ocean got a rulebook for the very first time. We now have the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction.

For nearly two centuries, the high seas, the vast waters beyond any nation's jurisdiction, operated on a simple, brutal logic: whoever gets there first, takes. No binding rules on marine protected areas. No mandatory environmental impact assessments. No shared benefit from the genetic treasures of the deep sea. Just open water and open exploitation.

The BBNJ Agreement changes that. And for the Philippines, sitting at the top of the Coral Triangle, the scientifically recognized "center of the center" of marine biodiversity on Earth, this isn't background diplomacy. Home to over 500 coral species, thousands of reef fish, and five of the world's seven marine turtle species. High-seas fish stocks migrate, spawn, and spill over into our own waters. If the high seas collapse, our municipal fisheries collapse with them. BBNJ isn't a foreign environmental abstraction; it's food security, livelihood, and biodiversity insurance for an archipelago that has more to lose than almost anyone else on Earth. It's a treaty with our name already written into its outcome, whether we show up prepared or not.

In January 2027, the first Conference of the Parties will convene in New York to decide how this treaty actually works. The Philippines has a seat at that table. The question is whether we're going to use it or watch others decide the rules for the waters we depend on most.

𝐂𝐎𝐏𝟏 𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠.

The Agreement entered into force on 17 January 2026 after reaching 60 ratifications. Under its own rules, the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) must convene within one year, and it's now officially set for 11–22 January 2027 at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Philippines ratified on 23 September 2025, becoming the treaty's 65th State Party, and has even held a Bureau seat during the Preparatory Commission negotiations. That's a seat at the table most countries in our region don't have. But a seat means nothing without a position. Before COP1, we need a whole-of-government negotiating stance (DFA, DENR, BFAR, DOJ, DND), domestic legislation aligned with the treaty's rules on marine genetic resources and impact assessments, and scientific capacity to actually generate the data our delegates will need to negotiate from strength, and public awareness, so this isn't just a diplomatic footnote nobody scrutinizes.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐁𝐁𝐍𝐉 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐟 𝐰𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞?

Here's the part that should actually make headlines. China ratified BBNJ in December 2025, while simultaneously maintaining that there are no high seas inside the South China Sea, treating nearly the entire sea as its own. Legal experts have flagged a real danger: under the international law principle of acquiescence, if the Philippines and other claimant states don't actively and consistently object, silence can be read as consent. A treaty celebrated as a victory for ocean multilateralism could become irrelevant in exactly the waters where our biodiversity is richest and our sovereign rights, affirmed by the 2016 Hague ruling, are strongest.

So, should the Philippines be vocal at COP1? Yes, unambiguously. This is a legal and diplomatic opening, not just an environmental one. Our stand should be that BBNJ's high-seas provisions apply fully and without exception in the West Philippine Sea, that our EEZ and continental shelf rights under UNCLOS and the 2016 arbitral ruling are non-negotiable baselines for any BBNJ implementation discussion, and that as ASEAN chair and ratifying state number 65, the Philippines is positioned to lead a unified regional voice rather than let bigger powers write the rules for our own backyard.

We fought for recognition of our maritime rights in 2016. BBNJ is the next arena where that fight either gets reinforced or quietly erodes through inaction. The high seas don't belong to whoever shows up loudest. They belong to whoever shows up prepared.

If you are interested in knowing more, explore here:
(1) https://www.unep.org/resources/agreement-marine-biological-diversity-areas-beyond-national-jurisdiction-bbnj-agreement
(2) https://www.un.org/bbnjagreement/en
(3) https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-is-the-bbnj-agreement-on-the-conservation-and-sustainable-use-of-marine-biological-diversity/

17/09/2026

17/09/2026

𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐃𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬!

Did you know that, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), there are 221 lakes spread across the Philippines' watersheds? Lakes are among our most vital natural resources, providing freshwater for people and livelihoods while supporting biodiversity and helping sustain healthy ecosystems.

For today’s #𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰, the National Museum of the Philippines highlights the country’s 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐥𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬—massive freshwater basins shaped by volcanic activity, shifting faults, and ancient geological processes.

1️⃣ 𝐋𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐧𝐚 𝐝𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐲 (𝐋𝐮𝐳𝐨𝐧) | ~𝟗𝟎𝟎 𝐬𝐪 𝐤𝐦
The largest lake in the Philippines, this shallow lake (2.8 meters average depth) is bounded by Metro Manila, Laguna, and Rizal. Laguna de Bay was once a marine arm directly connected to Manila Bay before sea-level changes and tectonic uplifting isolated the depression, gradually transforming it into a freshwater basin. Its central lobe is actually a caldera formed by massive prehistoric volcanic eruptions.

2️⃣ 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐨 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞 (𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐨) | 𝟑𝟒𝟎 𝐬𝐪 𝐤𝐦
Located in Lanao del Sur, Lanao Lake is the second-largest lake in the Philippines. It is one of the world’s 17 ancient lakes, estimated to be about 10 million years old. It formed when ancient lava flows dammed a tectonically formed basin.

3️⃣ 𝐓𝐚𝐚𝐥 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞 (𝐋𝐮𝐳𝐨𝐧) | 𝟐𝟑𝟒.𝟐 𝐬𝐪 𝐤𝐦
The third-largest lake in the Philippines is Taal Lake in Batangas. It hosts the active Taal Volcano. Taal Lake occupies a large caldera formed by a series of massive eruptions that caused an ancient volcanic complex to collapse inward, creating a basin that filled with rainwater over time.

4️⃣ 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭 (𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐨) | 𝟏𝟕𝟑.𝟒 𝐬𝐪 𝐤𝐦
Bordered by Agusan del Norte and Surigao del Norte, Lake Mainit is the fourth-largest and the deepest lake in the Philippines, reaching a maximum depth of 223 meters. Activity along the Philippine Fault Zone caused the crust to pull apart and subside, creating a deep depression that gradually filled with water.

5️⃣ 𝐍𝐚𝐮𝐣𝐚𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐤𝐞 (𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐨) | 𝟖𝟏.𝟐𝟓 𝐬𝐪 𝐤𝐦
The fifth-largest lake in the Philippines, Naujan Lake is in the northeastern part of Oriental Mindoro. It is considered to have formed when volcanic activity created a natural barrier across a coastal embayment, isolating the depression from the sea.

These lakes are more than remarkable geological features—they are vital freshwater ecosystems that tell the story of our dynamic and continuously evolving archipelago. Visit the National Museum of Natural History to learn more about our country’s rich geodiversity and biodiversity!