The Philippines is one of the “strong” performing countries this year in terms of environmental protection, a study by two American universities showed.

In a biennial report prepared by Yale and Columbia Universities, the Philippines was ranked 42nd out of 132 countries in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI)—a measure of countries’ performances in terms of environmental protection developed by Yale and Columbia Universities.

The current ranking is a slight improvement from 2010, when the Philippines ranked 50th in the EPI.

This year, the Philippines also managed to outrank the United States of America and some of its neighbors in Southeast Asia, such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Viet Nam. All of these countries were named “modest performers” in the EPI ranking.

The Philippines particularly did well in the agricultural policy subcategory, where the country got a performance score of 33.3 out of 50. It, however, scored low –31.8 percent — in terms of vitality in water ecosystems.

Switzerland, meanwhile, was identified as the top performing country in terms of environment protection, followed by Latvia and Norway.

The EPI aggregates scores from 10 policy categories — including environmental health and vitality of ecosystems — to come up with the country rankings.

Source: Andreo C. Calonzo, GMA News