MANILA, Philippines — The Coral Triangle Initiative (CTI) and other regional cooperation, which are seen as key to preserving the Philippine marine resources, are expected to attract more than $350 million in financing from multinational institutions.

This was the raised by experts during the recently-concluded global conference on Land-Ocean Connections.

Experts said that capacity building, access to tools such as spatial planning, and co-financing are among the benefits of regional cooperation.

Marine spatial planning, for one, enables countries within a region to have an access to a more cost-effective tool on coordinating the use of ocean in relation to energy, transport, and industries.

It enables planning on how shipping interferes with wind farms or wind farms with tourism, and on economic and environmental planning in a regional scale.

CTI is one regional cooperation the Philippines is participating in. It also involves Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste.

The CTI is an umbrella program of the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that aims to sustain biodiversity in the so-called “Nurseries of the Seas”.

The Coral Triangle is called such since it “harbors 75 percent of all known coral species, more than half of the world’s reefs, 40 percent of the world's coral reef fish species, and six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle, the GEF said.

Important, the Philippines has been recognized to be the center of the center of this globally important marine biodiversity resource.

The GEF program aims to ensure provision of food for some 120 million people depending on the Coral Triangle coastlines for food.

Another partnership the Philippines has is with Malaysia on the Turtle Islands Heritage Protected Area (TIHPA).

“We have an exclusive agreement with Malaysia on the Turtle Islands-- six islands with us, and three islands are with Malaysia. These are a sanctuary for breeding of valuable turtle species,” said Environment and Natural Resources Sec. Ramon J.P. Paje.

The islands are a nesting ground for green turtle and hawksbill turtle and produce one to two million turtle eggs annually.

Moreover, the Coral Triangle supports the largest tuna fishing industry in the world, generating billions of dollar, and its reef ecosystems ”buffer coastal communities from cyclones and tsunamis.”

The Asian Development Bank is co-financing the CTI as part of more than $350 million co-financing program, while GEF has committed $63 million.