Rationale: Coastal environments encompass different ecosystems such as shore lands, mangroves, seagrass beds and coral reefs. They are among the most productive and biologiocally diverse landscapes known to man. In an archipelagic country like the Philippines, where over 80% of the major settlements are located within ten or twenty kilometers from the shorelines, coastal environments are critical and often dominant ecological presuppositions of economic, social and cultural life. Thus, the protection and proper management of coastal environments are important concerns of the State and are explicitly mandated by the Constitution.