Wednesday, November 07, 2007 BFAR implements new program to boost fisherfolks' income By Joy Romares-Sevilla
THE regional office of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Southern Mindanao, will start to implement a new program that will boost the standard of living of fisherfolks in the poorest coastal communities in Davao Oriental.
This was bared by BFAR assistant regional director Fatima Idris, saying that the program, dubbed as the Integrated Coastal Resources Management (ICRM), will be implemented by BFAR and DENR for five years.
"The program started in September this year and it will run until 2012," Idris told Sun.Star Davao Tuesday.
Idris added that the ICRM program will be implemented in five regions in the country -- Regions 2, 3, 5, 7, and 11.
"In Region 11 (Southern Mindanao), only Davao Oriental was chosen for the project implementation. The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which provides the funds, had a mission earlier and based on their evaluation, Davao Oriental has the greater number of poor families," Idris explained.
On the other hand, Idris failed to reveal how much was allocated for the program and how much a region can possibly get for the project implementation.
Idris said the program has four components, which include the policy and institutional and strengthening and development; the ICRM and biodiversity conservation; the enterprise development and income diversification; and the social environment and facilities.
"As of now, BFAR is tasked to establish the technical working group (TWG) and we will be the one to design the module which will be used in different seminars. Among the four components, BFAR will focus on the enterprise and income diversification, while DENR will focus on the social environment and facilities component," Idris said.
Idris said the main role of BFAR in the program is to increase the income for coastal communities and to generate more environment-friendly projects in these areas.
"We had a meeting yesterday (Monday) and we will have a roadshow before this month ends," Idris concluded.
