GETAFE, Bohol—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is eyeing to expand within the year by 400 more hectares the mangrove plantations in Banacon Island through the P1-billion Mangrove and Beach Forests Development project.
This after the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released an initial amount of P400 million for the massive rehabilitation of mangrove and beach forests nationwide after the devastation caused by Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in November 2013.
The expansion project is on top of the 100 hectares of mangrove plantations successfully established by the DENR in the island this year under the National Greening Program (NGP).
Bohol Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Nestor Canda said the expansion will be implemented in partnership with fishermen in the town of Getafe.
He said the beach and mangrove forests in the province have cushioned the impact of Yolanda when it struck Central Philippines in November 2013, underscoring the need to sustain the mangrove rehabilitation efforts in various parts of the province.
The DENR in Region 7 is also targeting to establish 1,000 hectares of forest and beach forest plantations in other sites in Bohol: 1,550 hectares in Cebu, 140 hectares in Negros Oriental and 125 hectares in Siquijor.
Hundreds of fishermen in Getafe and other coastal towns in Bohol have benefited from the project and became more productive because of the implementation of the massive beach and mangrove reforestation in the island that started as early as 1957.
“In other areas, fishermen have experienced dwindling fish catch. We are not affected here in Getafe because of our mangrove forests. We also earn extra income because of the NGP,” Banacon Fisherfolks and Mangrove Planters Association (BFMPA) President Dioscorro Canlubo III said.
BFMPA has an existing Community Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA) with the DENR, covering a total of 1,700 hectares in various parts of Getafe and nearby towns in Bohol. In Banacon Island, its CBFMA covers around 13 hectares, which they continue to plant with native mangroves and protect them against destructive human activities.
Aside from fish, fishermen also benefit from crabs, seashells and other marine food products that abound in the mangrove plantations in the island.
Fishermen also engage in growing milkfish through fish cages and generate extra income through tourism.
Canlubo said their 120 members are paid P1.50 per piece of planting material which they pick from the plantations, plant in other targeted areas, and nurture under the NGP contract awarded to them by the DENR since 2013.
The DENR has allotted P11,000 for every hectare of mangrove plantation to be established under the NGP.
Even before the NGP, he said their group has been nurturing the mangrove plantions in the island, now considered as the biggest man-made mangrove forest in Asia, which covers a total area of 425 hectares.
Banacon Island Mangrove Forest is now a popular ecotourism destination in Bohol because of its lush vegetation, offering tourists a trip inside the mangrove forest and experience the aesthetic beauty that can only be found in the island.
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I hope the COA and the Ombudsman carefully examine these reforestation projects, because they cost billions, and the money could fall into the wrong hands so quickly….and discreetly