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Monday, March 20, 2006
Oledan: Tambongon folks showing the way
By Radzini Oledan
Slice Of Life
MANGROVES are disappearing more quickly and so far, with little public notice.
Unlike our rainforest, too little attention has been placed on the need to reforest mangrove areas. Blame it on the collective terrestrial bias, which has led the populace to take for granted the resources of the sea.
For too long, these vital wetlands have been undervalued, called mosquito-infested, muddy swamps, worthless and remote. They are being lost to industries and destroyed to give way to the construction of fishponds.
It was the same situation confronting Sitio Tambongon in Lasang. Several years ago, some residents of the community would cut down the mangroves and make a living out of selling wood. The entrepreneurial few partnered with businessmen in the construction of fishponds.
But that would change in 1999 when a group of fisherfolks was educated on the importance of mangrove in their own community.
Sitio Tambongon is one of the remaining five hectares mangrove forests, which is managed by the Association of Fisherfolks of Davao City, Inc. (AFCDI).
Since 1999, the AFDCI reforested and monitored 10 to 12 hectares of mangroves. It also planted 30,000 mangrove seedlings with an average growth rate of 10 for every three months period.
The reforested mangrove forest serves as a buffer for the community against high tide. The establishment of a mangrove nursery, which is operated by the community's Women Credit Cooperative also provides an extra income for its residents who have long subsisted on fishing.
Their mangrove nursery has also become a center for academic institutions and even other municipalities and cities that needs the seedlings for their own reforestation project.
Each seedling is sold at P5 to 10, half of which goes to the community monitoring fund and a peso for the association.
In instances when one organization would order 15-20,000 seedlings, the community would earn P20,000, which is then shared among the members of the cooperative.
Recognizing its importance for a healthy coastal ecosystem, other cities and municipalities have gone into mangrove reforestation. Mangroves, with their salt-tolerant trees provide nutrients for the marine environment and support immense varieties of sea life in intricate food webs.
Mangrove reforestation is a resource management option used to rehabilitate mangrove forest cover. It involves the planting of seedlings or transplanting of young mangrove species.
Today, the community is reaping the fruits of its effort. In several instances, residents would narrate they are able to get shrimps and crabs, which they not only use for their daily sustenance but also as additional income.
The Sitio Tambongon experience though outlines that what is needed to sustain bio-diversity effort is also to look into the tenurial rights, access and management control of the community over the mangrove resources.
It has not been an easy process, as the narratives of fisherfolks would show but underneath the seeming difficulties lay the joy of collectively ensuring that their community would become self-reliant.
They have taken the steps and they continue to hurdle the challenges. They have also shown that the pursuit for economic development and environmental protection need not be in conflict.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (March 20, 2006 issue)
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