Las Piñas–Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area

Also known as: LPPCHEA — the standard abbreviation · Freedom Island — the common name of the Parañaque-side island, often used for the whole sanctuary · Las Piñas–Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP) — the park styling of recent years · Ramsar Site No. 2124 — the international designation

Society

Definition

The Las Piñas–Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) is the protected coastal wetland on the shores of Manila Bay spanning the boundary of the cities of Las Piñas and Parañaque in Metro Manila — a sanctuary of two islands, Freedom Island to the north (an artificial island formed between 1973 and 1985 during the construction of the Manila–Cavite Coastal Road, running along Parañaque from barangay La Huerta to San Dionisio) and Long Island to the south under Las Piñas jurisdiction — proclaimed a critical habitat and ecotourism area by Proclamation No. 1412 of April 22, 2007, over an initial area of about 175 hectares of mangrove forest, tidal mudflats (about 114 hectares), ponds and lagoons, salt marshes, and mixed beach forest. (Wikipedia — Las Piñas–Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area) Administered by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it is the only Ramsar site within the Philippines’ National Capital Region: designated Wetland of International Importance no. 2124 on March 15, 2013, recognized for the at least 5,000 migratory and resident birds it supports — among them about 47 migratory species, including the vulnerable Chinese Egret, and the vulnerable Philippine Duck, which breeds at the site — and legislated as a protected area under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act (Republic Act No. 11038) of 2018. (Ramsar Sites Information Service — Site no. 2124)

Identities

Authority	Value
Wikipedia	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Piñas–Parañaque_Critical_Habitat_and_Ecotourism_Area
Wikidata	Q18356372 (label “Las Piñas–Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area”; alias LPPCHEA; Ramsar site since 15 March 2013, Ramsar ID 2124)
DBpedia	http://dbpedia.org/resource/Las_Piñas–Parañaque_Critical_Habitat_and_Ecotourism_Area
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A (no headword for the sanctuary; checked this session)
Library of Congress Subject Headings	N/A
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	N/A
Google Scholar	Las Piñas Parañaque Critical Habitat LPPCHEA Freedom Island Ramsar 2124 2013 Manila Bay wetland migratory birds reclamation protected area RA 11038
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

LPPCHEA — the standard abbreviation
Freedom Island — the common name of the Parañaque-side island, often used for the whole sanctuary
Las Piñas–Parañaque Wetland Park (LPPWP) — the park styling of recent years
Ramsar Site No. 2124 — the international designation

Examples and Analogies

A wilderness the city accidentally built: Freedom Island is an artificial island — the spoil and barrier of a 1970s–80s coastal road project — so the sanctuary works like a garden planted by a bulldozer: infrastructure’s unintended byproduct becoming Metro Manila’s last mangrove frontier and its only Ramsar wetland.
An airport city’s bird airport: on the East Asian–Australasian Migratory Flyway, the mudflats function for migratory birds the way a transfer terminal functions for travelers — the August-to-April season bringing species from China, Japan, and Siberia down to rest and feed between hemispheres, inside sight of the metropolis’ runways.
Verified site data (as documented in the record):
Designation instruments: Proclamation No. 1412, April 22, 2007 (critical habitat and ecotourism area, ~175 ha); Ramsar designation March 15, 2013 (site no. 2124; 175.0 ha in the Ramsar register); Republic Act No. 11038 (2018), legislating and expanding the protected area to 181.63 ha
Geography: coordinates 14°29′N 120°59′E; Freedom Island (~74 acres) the northern barrier island in Parañaque; Long Island the southern island under Las Piñas; about 114 ha of tidal mudflats and roughly 30–36 ha of mangrove forest in the several accounts
Biodiversity: at least 47 migratory bird species in the Ramsar record (the English record gives at least 41); at least 5,000 individual birds recorded; the site the only known breeding ground of the Philippine Duck in Metro Manila; 11 mangrove species recorded, among them the Nilad; 2007–2011 records showing at least 1% of the flyway’s Black-winged Stilt population

Usage Scenarios

1. Birdwatching and Environmental Education

The site is Metro Manila’s accessible introduction to wetland ecology — the August–April migration season, the mudflat and mangrove trails, and, since February 2, 2024, the Wetland Center Museum inaugurated on World Wetlands Day by Parañaque’s mayor and Senator Cynthia Villar with DENR representation, a facility envisioned as a focal point for education, research, and awareness. (The Philippine Star — Wetland Center Museum inaugurated)

2. Studying Urban Conservation

LPPCHEA is the standard Philippine case of a protected area inside a megacity — a Ramsar site hemmed by reclamation, port, and residential pressure — used in conservation curricula to test whether international designation can hold against local land economics.

3. Researching Reclamation Policy

Because the wetland sits squarely in the Manila Bay reclamation zone, it anchors the legal and policy literature on the bay’s future — the interplay of the critical-habitat proclamation, the ENIPAS statute, and the reclamation agreements of the surrounding cities, the record the veto controversy of 2025 concentrated.

Strategies

Anchor claims in the instruments: cite the site’s status to its documents — Proclamation 1412 (2007), the Ramsar register entry (site 2124, 175.0 ha), and RA 11038 (2018) — rather than to campaign or tourism copy, since the area figures differ across sources (175 against 181.63 hectares).
Use the flyway frame: for research and advocacy, the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, the August–April migration season, and the 1%-of-population waterbird threshold are the technical grounds on which the site’s international importance is argued — stronger footing than scenic or sentimental appeals.

Security and Safety Measures

Legal protection by layered designation: the site is protected three ways — the 2007 critical-habitat proclamation, the 2013 Ramsar inscription, and its 2018 legislation as a protected area under the Expanded NIPAS Act — the legal stack that conservationists invoke against encroachment.
Pollution is the standing hazard: the Ramsar record lists coastal waste accumulation, heavy metals and organic pollutants from effluent, and mangrove cutting among the site’s threats — volunteer programs are organized substantially around cleanups.
The aviation-safety argument cuts both ways: the 2025 veto debate showed the bird population being argued as a hazard (bird-strike risk near NAIA) as well as a treasure — a reminder that safety and conservation framings of the same wetland can be marshaled on opposite sides.

Historical Context

The sanctuary’s ground is younger than the republic’s highways: Freedom Island rose between 1973 and 1985 as the coastal road’s artificial barrier, and the mangroves and mudflats colonized the sheltered shore behind it. Proclamation No. 1412 (April 22, 2007) declared the two-island area a critical habitat and ecotourism area; the Ramsar inscription of March 15, 2013 made it the world-registered wetland of a national capital; and Republic Act No. 11038 (2018) legislated it into the national protected-area system at 181.63 hectares. The surrounding contest is older than the designations — Manila Bay’s reclamation frontier advancing on the wetland for two decades, with the February 2019 announcements of a wave of bay reclamation projects and, in 2025, a Las Piñas congressman’s declared push to reclaim within the wetland park itself. That contest reached the presidency: on September 25, 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vetoed the consolidated bill (House Bill 11421 and Senate Bill 1536) that would have expanded the Las Piñas–Parañaque Wetland Park with a 1,128-hectare seaward buffer zone and banned reclamation within it — the veto message citing the nullification of existing reclamation agreements of the Philippine Reclamation Authority and the two cities, the effect on titled PRA properties, the encroachment on the cities’ prerogatives, and the bird-strike risk a bird-attracting buffer would pose near NAIA. (Rappler — Marcos Jr. vetoes bill expanding Las Piñas–Parañaque Wetland Park) The park’s current frame remains the 181.63-hectare protected area, including 36 hectares of mangrove forest, described in the veto-era reporting as Metro Manila’s last coastal frontier.

Challenges and Controversies

Reclamation Versus the Wetland

The permanent controversy is land: the reclamation projects planned and contracted around the bay press directly on the site, and the 2025 veto — whatever its stated grounds of property, prerogative, and aviation safety — left the reclamation agreements standing rather than the buffer zone the bill would have legislated, keeping the wetland’s long-term security a question of executive discretion rather than statute.

The Numbers of the Site

The record’s figures do not agree with each other: the proclaimed area (about 175 ha), the Ramsar register (175.0 ha), and the legislated protected area (181.63 ha) describe different moments and instruments; the mangrove forest is given as about 30 hectares in one account and 36 in another; the migratory species count is “at least 41” in the English record and “about 47” in the Ramsar record. Careful citation names the instrument behind each figure.

Waste and Water Quality

The Ramsar record’s own threat list — accumulating coastal waste, heavy metals, organic pollutants — documents a sanctuary whose ecological character is degraded from the city side even where no reclamation proceeds, making cleanup and wastewater management the site’s continuing, less dramatic struggle.