In Indonesia, the WMO (2014) installed a so-called Climate Field School to bring climate information
into the field, where also people from the Philippines participate.
Regarding the topics of this chapter, a lot can be found in the report of the IPCC (2014). Many
researchers from the Philippines contributed to the report and are also cited in this report: R.
Wassmann, R.D. Lasco, M.L. Perez and F.P. Lansigan. In IPCC (2007) J. Pulhin contributed as leading
author to one chapter. Further publications of Allen (2006), Peras et al. (2008), Huigen and Jens
(2006), Dawe et al. (2009), Peng et al. (2004) and reports of the Asian Development Bank can be
found in the reports (IPCC, 2014; IPCC, 2007). We recommend these publications.
5.2.5
Impact on coastal areas
This chapter deals with the following issues: coral reefs and mangroves and the corresponding
impacts of climate change, coastal erosion due to SLR and the following land losses, saltwater
intrusions as result of SLR and/or anthropogenic engagement, coastal wetlands and the impact on
economics and tourism, as well as some facts for adaptation, which are taking place or could be an
option in coastal regions.
One important feature of the coastline of the Philippines is the abundance of coral reefs. The
Philippines have 26,000 km² of coral reefs, which is a large share of the coral reef area of the coral
triangle (96,000 km²). Rising levels of carbon dioxide and the resulting changes in climate present a
large burden for the corals with impacts like ocean acidification and, increasing frequency and
duration of ocean temperature anomalies. Additionally, the corals are stressed by destructive human
activities (e.g. fishing and coastal development) (Burke et al., 2011). In view of the several major
ecosystem services the coral reefs provide for the Philippines, this is large problem. They serve as a
source of food, medicine and tourism revenues and they reduce wave energy and can therefore
represent a natural protection of the coasts (Burke et al., 2011). Although only occupying a small
share of world’s oceans, they provide habitat for a very large biodiversity leading to high productivity
in a relatively low nutrient water region.
Populations living along reef coastlines depend heavily on these coral services, i.e. the Philippines has
1 million-reef fishers (without aquaculture) (Burke et al., 2011). The corals as a source of food will be
affected, in the way the species distribution will change. Cheung et al. (2010) analyzed the projected
changes in catch potential out of 2055 and found for the area north of the Philippines a slightly
increasing trend and for the south a stronger decreasing. The method was applied on a global scale
and it is therefore hard to interpret the results on such a local scale. The World Bank (2013a) added
also criticized the failure to include hypoxia and acidification which would lower the catch potentials.
In the fourth report of the IPCC (2007), they added among other points the fact that the SLR
occurring at a temperature increase of 1-3°C leads to increased bleaching events and coral mortality.
In World Bank (2013a), various studies can be found that discuss the impacts on corals for different
levels of CO2 in the atmosphere and the importance of warming water. So for example, McLeod et al.
(2010) analyzed the impact of SSTs in the coral triangle and found that the Philippines are the most
threatened in that region. Arceo et al. (2001) analyzed the correlation between coral bleaching in the
Philippines and SST anomalies that occur in the waters around the islands. Penaflor et al. (2009)
23
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents