ILBM: The Laguna de Bay experience

The Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), in its four decades of existence, is the only lake management institution in the Philippines. It was created in 1966 through Republic Act 4850. Since then, several laws and decrees were passed that further strengthened the powers and functions of LLDA. This paved the way for the formulation of policies and in the implementation of plans and programs in accordance with its general mandate to promote and accelerate the development and balanced growth of the Laguna de Bay Region with due regard for environmental management. In 2003, the Laguna de Bay, through the efforts of the LLDA, was among the 26 case study lakes from different parts of the world in the international project: Towards a Lake Basin Management Initiative (LBMI): Sharing Lessons and Experiences from GEF and non-GEF Lake Basin Management Projects. This was implemented by a number of international institutions led by the International Lake Environment Committee Foundation with funding from the Global Environment Facility. The experiences and lessons of the LLDA in lake basin management, together with other key institutions and lakes from five continents, were shared to the international lake stakeholders in order to guide ongoing and future programs on lake management. Further into the evolution of the LBMI project is the development of the Integrated Lake Basin Management Approach (ILBM) by International Lake Environment Committee (ILEC) and Shiga University of Japan, of which the LLDA is again one of the key institutions chosen in the assessment and applicability of the ILBM approach. All the six pillars of ILBM, namely, Institutions, Policies, Participation, Finance, Technology, and Information (Fig. 1) are under the management of Laguna de Bay. Yet, the big challenge of integration and coordination were magnified when Typhoon Ondoy happened in 2009 (Fig. 2). The devastation in the watershed, the loss of lives and properties, the flooding caused by denuded forests, uncontrolled development, and blocked waterways have shown that while the six pillars are present, they are not of the same strength. This has prompted the LLDA to revise its Master Plan in 2011 under the ILBM approach to reinforce and strengthen the weak pillars, to address the current pressures in the lake and in the watershed, and to respond to opportunities for better lake basin management