International conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) lauded Saturday President Arroyo’s signing of the Republic Act 10067 or the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park Act, which will improve the capability of the park to protect its marine resources.

WWF-Philippines said RA 10067, which was signed last April 6, provides for more permanent local management structures, fiscal autonomy and steeper penalties for violations of the park’s rules.

The Act will vastly improve the park’s capability to protect its marine resources and help improve catch rates in the Sulu Sea, the group said.

“Tubbataha is the first and only purely marine UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) World Heritage Site in Southeast Asian seas. Although the park has long been protected by a Presidential Proclamation and a determined but rather tenuous thread of stakeholder collaboration, its protected status has now been cast in stone, under the full force of a Republic Act. After years of deliberation, the final pieces have come to play,” WWF-Philippines vice-chairman and chief executive officer Lory Tan said. (Ellalyn de Vera)