EDITORIAL — Environmental offenders

Illegal logging, illegal mining, wildlife trafficking, the violation of protected areas such as Bohol’s Chocolate Hills – the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has a lot on its plate in its mission of protecting the environment. Climate change has brought greater urgency to the mission of the DENR.

Yesterday, the DENR signed an agreement with the Department of Justice to strengthen the prosecution of environmental cases, with the DOJ extending the scope of its investigative authority to environmental crimes.

Under the agreement, the two departments will draw up joint policies to ensure that environmental offenders will be held accountable and punished. This entails the proper gathering of evidence that will be admissible as evidence and will establish a prima facie case with reasonable certainty of conviction.

DENR lawyers may be deputized by the DOJ as special prosecutors in wildlife and forestry cases. Environmental crimes may also be linked to money laundering, the DOJ said.

The DENR needs legal expertise in going after environmental offenders. Between 2010 and 2022, the DENR filed 170 cases against 549 environmental violators caught in 264 wildlife enforcement operations. So far, only 42 have been convicted.

Of 6,446 environmental crime cases recorded by the DENR as of October last year, 27.2 percent are being evaluated by public prosecutors, 22.5 percent are being tried in court, 7.2 percent have been dismissed while 38.6 percent led to convictions.

The DENR has yet to conduct an honest-to-goodness crackdown on reclamation activities that are destroying marine and aquatic ecosystems. The Supreme Court has found it necessary to step in and order the executive branch to preserve and protect Manila Bay. In Laguna de Bay, a source of fresh water and fish for Mega Manila, the DENR seems helpless in stopping the frenzied reclamation for commercial purposes particularly along the lakeside of Taguig.

This election season, the Commission on Elections may also partner with the DENR in cracking down on the anarchy in the display of campaign materials. Local government officials, who are mandated to enforce local anti-pollution laws and prohibitions on harming trees, are often among the biggest offenders.

It would be impossible to go after all environmental offenders across the country. But the DENR and DOJ, in coordination with other agencies and civil society groups, can conduct random operations. What’s important is for the people to see that environmental offenders can be caught, prosecuted and punished.