Considered as the nation’s last ecological frontier, Palawan is endowed with rich natural resources and highly diverse flora and fauna which are essential to a balance and stable ecology. It has a vast mangrove stand that serves as pollutant sink and life support system for a variety of marine organisms. Also it is blessed with highly diverse coral reefs which aside from being favorite dive sites are home to numerous marine fish species including invertebrates. The Palawan reefs are said to account for 36.30 percent of the total reef area in the Philippines. Moreover, Palawan’s seagrass meadows which serve as feeding grounds for the rare and endangered species of marine turtles and sea cow or dugongs also abound in Palawan. Endowed with a productive marine ecosystem, it is thus believed that approximately forty percent (40%) of the country’s fish production comes from the 176 fishing grounds in Palawan.
Palawan’s unique and fragile environment provided the basis for the formulation of the Strategic Environmental Plan/SEP for Palawan and its subsequent adoption as a law (Republic Act 7611) that would govern the mode of development in the Province. The main implementing strategy of SEP is the Environmentally Critical Areas Network (ECAN). In support to ECAN as a support mechanism is the Environmental Monitoring and Evaluation System (EMES).