06/08/2026
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Last year, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources quietly signed a memorandum that threatens to unravel decades of mangrove protection in the Philippines. The public was kept in the dark for four months, and as of August 2026, the policy remains untouched. Here is the timeline, whatβs at stake, and how you can take action.
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October 8, 2025βThe DENR signed an "Interim Operational Guidance and Conditions on the Earth-Balling and Relocation of Mangroves in Exceptional Circumstances," circulated internally to all Regional Executive Directors.
February 2026βThe public only learns the memo exists. The Global Mangrove Alliance Philippines (GMAP) publicly calls for its review and substantial revision, warning that its "exceptional circumstances" clause of earth-balling for DEPDev-endorsed "infrastructure flagship projects" is a loophole wide enough to justify mangrove removal anywhere in the country. Respected mangrove scientist Dr. Jurgenne Primavera adds her voice, calling on DENR to rescind the memo outright.
March 2026βAt the Philippine Mangrove Conference, DENR-BMB shares its intention to convene a Technical Working Group (TWG) to review the memo, pending completion of the ERDB survival-rate study, the same study the memo was supposed to wait for before it was signed.
August 2026βAt present, there is no public confirmation that a TWG has actually been formed, no membership, and no timeline. Crucially, the memorandum was never suspended. It remains an active DENR policy today, and applications are still being proposed and processed under it.
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The memo's own text says mangroves "shall not be removed or disturbed" as a rule, then carves out an exception for infrastructure projects, provided the proponent simply certifies that mitigation options were "thoroughly exhausted and found unworkable." That's a self-assessed bar, evaluated by the very party with an interest in getting the permit. It was issued before the ERDB completed the survival-rate study that was supposed to inform it. And earth-balling's track record on mangroves specifically, a coastal wetland ecosystem whose survival depends on precise zonation, tidal, hydrological, sediment, salinity, and root-system conditionsβis not encouraging.
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Since the memo was circulated to DENR regional offices, earth-balling proposals have reportedly started moving. We don't yet have a full public accounting of how many applications are pending or approved nationwide. DENR itself has not disclosed this, but one case is already visible: in Cancabato Bay, Tacloban, where community groups have spent over a decade replanting mangroves that were wiped out by Super Typhoon Yolanda, local advocacy group Save Kankabatok Advocacy has reported that around 80 mangroves have already been earth-balled. This is the same bay whose mangroves are already contending with a controversial causeway project.
If a decade-long, internationally documented community restoration success story isn't safe from this memo, what is?
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More than 12,000 people have already signed GMAP's petition urging DENR to revise or repeal the memorandum. DENR has twice, in public forums, expressed its intention to convene a TWG. Twice, that intention has produced no confirmed TWG, no members, and no timeline.
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DENR must place the memorandum under an immediate moratorium while the ERDB study and TWG review are pending, not keep issuing permits under a policy it has publicly admitted is incomplete.
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The TWG must be convened transparently and on a public timeline, with scientists, LGUs, civil society, Indigenous Peoples, and coastal communities at the table, not indefinitely deferred.
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DENR must publicly disclose how many earth-balling applications have been filed, approved, or are pending under this memo since October 2025 and the status of the mangroves already relocated, including in Cancabato Bay.
Mangroves are not movable infrastructure. They are living ecosystems that took years, in most cases generations, to establish, and they protect the very communities this memo claims to serve.
Sign and support the petition; click here: https://www.change.org/p/urge-the-denr-to-revise-or-repeal-harmful-mangrove-memorandum
