MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines ranked 42nd among 132 countries as a “strong performer” in environmental policies, outranking Australia, United States, Singapore, and Bulgaria, in the latest biennial Environmental Performance Index (EPI) conducted by Yale and Columbia Universities in the US.

“We are pleased that the international community has recognized our efforts on environmental protection and management,” Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje said.

“We would like to share this achievement with all the sectors and stakeholders, including other agencies of the government, who have collaborated with us in our programs, particularly in cleaning the air and water, forest protection, national greening program, biodiversity conservation, and other environmental protection initiatives,” he added.

Based on the study, the Philippines jumped eight places, from its 50th rank in 2010.

It retained its ranking of eighth in the Asia-Pacific region, higher than South Korea, Australia, and Singapore which ranked ninth, 10th and 11th.

For 2012, the EPI ranked 132 countries on 22 performance indicators across 10 policy categories under two policy objectives--Environmental Health and Ecosystem Vitality.

Yale and Columbia noted that these indicators provide a gauge of how close countries are to achieving environmental policy goals.

The Philippines gained perfect scores in the indicators for outdoor air pollution, change in forest cover, and growing stocks in forests.

Australia was ranked 48th, the US 49th, Singapore 52nd, and Bulgaria 53rd, all under the “modest performers” category.

A higher EPI rank indicates that a country or region is close to achieving its established goals in environmental policy.

The "strongest" performers that ranked first to 10th are Switzerland, followed by Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, Costa Rica, France, Austria, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

The EPI, prepared in collaboration with the World Economic Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Joint Research Center of the European Commission in Italy, studies data to analyze how the global community is doing on particular policy issues against environmental pressures, and is used to steer individual countries toward environmental sustainability.