City wetlands vie as an emerging tourism site

THE 35-hectare mangrove wetlands in Barangay Ingore, La Paz district is slowly but surely becoming Iloilo City’s additional tourism site with 14 flourishing mangrove species and thousands of migratory and endemic birds.

Currently known as the Iloilo City bird sanctuary and wetland park, the area is being developed by Global Business Power Corporation, through its subsidiaries, Panay Energy Development Corporation and Panay Power Corporation in a public private partnership with the City Government and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog hailed the partnership and presented the five-year project to President Benigno Aquino III when he was in the city last June 1.

Tourists and environmentalists also started to look at the city’s wetlands as part of an overall development intervention on climate change and environmental conservation.

More than 100 national and international delegates of the first Philippine International River Summit visited the mangrove park as part of the eco-tourism destination in the city.

Similarly, members of the Iloilo City Hall Press Corps recently visited and documented the mangrove park project and conducted mangrove-planting activities.

The five-year project is a part of Global Power’s Carbon Sink Project that aims to sequester carbon emissions given off by its power plants.

Among the proposed features include a mangrove nursery, mangrove park gazebo, bird watching deck and a jetty port for possible river cruise.

Mabilog said the bird sanctuary and wetland project is the first established by the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). Other mangrove areas earmarked for development are the 15-kilometer stretch along the Baluarte Molo coastal area and the Sooc mangrove area in Arevalo district.

The city mayor said the mangrove projects are part of the total plan in making Iloilo an environment-friendly green city and its residents being environmentally aware. (LCP/Sunnex)