What is Environmental Planning?

The law that defines environmental planning is of 1978 vintage. This is Presidential Decree no. 1308 entitled “Law Regulating the Environmental Planning Profession in the Philippines” and promulgated on 02 March 1978 by then President Ferdinand Marcos.

Environmental planning is defined as “activities concerned with the management and development of land, as well as the preservation, conservation, and rehabilitation of the human environment” (Sec. 2[a]). The practice of environmental planning covers professional services in the form of technical consultation, plan preparation, and/or implementation involving the following:

(a) Development of a community, town, city, or region;

(b) Development of a site for a particular need such as housing, centers for activities concerned with research, education, culture, recreation, or government, industrial estates, agriculture, and water resources, including creating a spatial arrangements of buildings, utilities and communication routes;

(c) Land use and zoning plans for the management and development preservation, conservation, rehabilitation, and control of the environment; and,

(d) Pre-investment, pre-feasibility, and feasibility studies. (Sec. 3).

It is unlawful for any person to engage in the practice of environmental planning without having been registered pursuant to P.D. no. 1308.