Friday, June 01, 2007 S. Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat intensify efforts to conserve Allah Vallay By Allen V. Estabillo
THE Provincial Governments of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat plan to expand their ongoing conservation initiatives in the Allah Valley area through their newly-completed Geographical Information System (GIS) landscape map.
Abdula Bansuan, executive director of the Allah Valley Landscape Development Alliance (AVLDA), said the completion of the GIS landscape map practically strengthened their operations, especially in the identified critical areas.
"We now have established the appropriate and functional mechanisms for the sustainable management of natural resources within the Allah Valley landscape using a watershed management approach," he said.
AVLDA is an environmental agency formed by the local governments of South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat tasked to manage the areas traversed by the Allah River within the two provinces.
Bansuan said the GIS landscape mapping project was an offshoot of a memorandum of agreement forged by the AVLDA with Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) last year.
He said the agreement primarily covered the establishment of community-based resource maps of four AVLDA pilot areas in South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat provinces and the GIS landscape map of Allah Valley.
The AVLDA board of directors earlier approved an appropriation of P2.5 million for the implementation of the project.
ESSC, a non-profit research organization, implemented the one-year project starting February 1 last year. The project is worth P2.4 million.
Bansuan said the ESSC launched the landscape updating and mapping project using GIS and the Remote Sensing Technology.
He said it established data sets of information to characterize the Allah Valley landscape watershed relative to its biophysical circumstances, specifically the land forms, vegetation, forest covers, water resources and topography, through aerial validation and satellite imagery, interpretation and map analysis.
Bansuan said ESSC also conducted a community-based resource assessment and mapping project in the area to enhance AVLDA's capacity in determining their specific local watershed circumstances and capability to undertake doable actions that would improve the area's condition.
He said the community mapping and resource assessment employs the community-based resource assessment method, which facilitates the involvement of community stakeholders in the management and utilization of their resources.
Bansuan added that the community maps would serve as primary information source for its watershed management.
