Guidelines on Delineating Foreshore Lands and Profiling Occupants and Improvements Therein

DENR Administrative Order No. 2025-21

Subject: Guidelines on Delineating Foreshore Lands and Profiling Occupants and Improvements Therein

Signed: May 29, 2025 . Published: Daily Tribune, June 11, 2025 . Acknowledged: ONAR, U.P. Law Center, June 2025

Legal Basis

Commonwealth Act No. 141 (Public Land Act), as amended; PD 1067 (Water Code); Executive Order No. 192; DAO 29-91 (inventory and sketching of foreshore areas); DAO 2004-24 (administration of foreshore lands); and DAO 2021-07 (legal easements along seas, rivers, lakes, esteros, and creeks).

Objectives

Define precise foreshore boundaries; inventory improvements and occupants; generate projection maps as the official reference for foreshore surveys, leases, and permits; update the foreshore database (existing, expired, and pending instruments and undocumented improvements); support accurate fee determination; identify open areas for investment; and guide policy.

Scope

Foreshore lands nationwide, except the Cordillera Administrative Region and BARMM. Foreshore land is the part of the shore alternately covered and uncovered between highest and lowest tide (PD 1067).

Organization

Each Regional Executive Director creates a Foreshore Delineation Team (a PENRO/CENRO geodetic engineer as team leader, technical staff, and a GIS operator) and designates focal persons from the Surveys and Mapping Division and the Licenses, Patents and Deeds Division. An LMB Monitoring Team oversees implementation.

Delineation Procedure

1. Preliminary activities: coordination with LGUs and agencies; inventory of references (land classification maps, CLUPs, ICRMPs, protected area and forest land use plans, CADTs/CALTs, MGB geohazard maps, NAMRIA tidal data, LAMS cadastral data, and existing, expired, and pending foreshore instruments); consolidation into a GIS preliminary map in PRS 1992.
2. Survey: reconnaissance; at least two new reference points per barangay; and ground survey of the Mean High Water Line under NAMRIA AO 2023-02 and of the Mean Lower Low Water Line using NAMRIA tide tables, validated by NAMRIA.
3. Aerial survey: approved flight plan with 80% forward and 60 to 80% side overlap; at least five ground control points; drone imagery covering at least 200 meters landward from the shoreline; orthoimage processing per LMB Technical Bulletin No. 2, s. 2017.
4. Foreshore Delineation Map (FDM): shapefile layers for foreshore boundaries, MHWL and MLLWL, 20/40-meter salvage zones and easements, orthoimage, cadastral lots, land classification, tenure instruments, undocumented improvements, and accretion. Printed per barangay, approved by the RED, integrated into LAMS, and numbered with the survey symbol "Fds" (for example, Fds-02-123456).

Regions may outsource surveys for lack of manpower or equipment, or where more than 10 barangays are targeted (Annex D terms of reference). Erroneous surveys are corrected through an investigation team and an Order of Correction.

Profiling of Improvements

Enumerators ground-validate all improvements with geotagged photos using the Annex A census form, recording occupant, rights claimed, permits held (ECC, foreshore or miscellaneous lease, revocable permit), payment of occupation fees, and whether the area lies within critical habitats (mangroves, seagrass, corals) or marine protected areas. Previously unrecorded improvements are digitized as undocumented improvements.

Adoption, Monitoring, and Updating

Approved FDMs are deemed adopted and furnished to LGUs and agencies for coastal management, hazard reduction, land use planning, and public access. Regions report quarterly to LMB and submit a project completion report. FDMs are re-assessed every five years; the database is updated as needed.

Effectivity

Takes effect fifteen (15) days after publication and upon filing with ONAR.

Signed by Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga. Summary prepared by EnviSynergy from the official DENR issuance; refer to the full text for binding provisions.