Monday, July 21, 2008 Editorials: Not just for bats only
FLOWER-LIKE lace, draperies and canopies.
Icicles, trees and stately columns.
These are the imaginative names given to the natural deposits that form on cave walls, ceilings and floors. Even among scientists, whose discipline eschews wild flights of imagination, speleothems are christened with names that vainly attempt to come close to the strange, even unearthly beauty of cave formations.
But what nature—the slow drip of water in caves, the type of rocks lying undisturbed for aeons, air flow and the amount of moisture passing through these subterranean passages—takes time creating, people destroy from greed or apathy.
It takes a hundred to 150 years to produce an inch of speleothem. But just a few years of unregulated commercial exploitation now threaten the rich natural and cultural heritage of the country’s estimated 1,500 caves.
Rape of caves
Modern trends in lifestyle, not just a certain caped comic book hero, has popularized caves, used in ancient times as shelters, burial grounds, even places of worship.
The fitness fad has upped the prices of organically grown vegetables. Correspondingly, harvesting guano (bat dung prized as natural fertilizers) is lucrative for communities like the mountain barangays of Alegria, which has an estimated 58 caves.
Other enterprises, such as the collection of edible birds’ nests, mining for phosphate, illegal collection of wildlife and harvesting of marble for interior design and landscaping, challenge the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 9072, also known as the National Caves and Cave Resources Management and Protection Act.
It is not just the livelihood demands of local residents that encroach on the protection and management of caves. Treasure hunters have vandalized and damaged caves through their illegal excavations. Even development has brought unanticipated harm, with ecotourism attracting some spelunkers and other adventure trip enthusiasts who explore caves without coordinating with local officials, resulting in risks to their own lives and harm to the local environment.
Collective commitment
Realizing their constraints in manpower and resources to monitor caves and enforce RA 9072, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) partners with local government units (LGUs) and nongovernment organizations (NGOs) to educate the public on the heritage of caves and promote community-based cave management.
Since 2007, three of Alegria’s 58 caves have been mapped for its potentials for tourism promotion. In July 2007, acting on a request made by committee on tourism and heritage chairperson Verna Magallon, the Cebu Speleological Association Inc. (Speleo Cebu) partnered with local residents to survey the caves of Salay, Kambusay and Kantayong.
Acting on the study’s technical description and maps of the caves and recommendations on cave values for potential benefits, the local council led by Mayor Raul Guisadio passed ordinances banning cave littering and extraction of stalactites and stalagmites. The town also funded the training of local residents as spelunking guides.
DENR 7’s recently activated Regional Cave Committee assists LGUs and NGOs in analyzing and classifying caves according to RA 9072. Twenty-two percent of the nation’s 1,500 caves are located in the Visayas.
Gelena Asis, Speleo Cebu president, says that gathering baseline data about local caves is essential for planning their proper use and management.
According to DENR, Class I caves with fragile geological formations should be limited only to mapping, photography, education and scientific purposes.
Due to their hazardous or sensitive environments, Class II caves should be closed to public access and made open only to experienced cavers or guided education tours to protect their sensitive geological, archaeological, cultural, historical and biological values.
Class III caves are generally safe to inexperienced visitors, who do not threaten the cave’s wildlife, archaeological and geological features. Alegria’s Salay and Kantayong caves have been declared by DENR as open to the public.
Asis, whose group of cave and karst researchers and enthusiasts has assisted local governments in Lamac, Pinamungajan and Tabuelan in cave mapping, pins her faith in local communities to preserve caves for future generations. “Let others enjoy what you now enjoy.”
