THE Davao City Council Tuesday, June 4, passed a law amending the zoning ordinance for eco-tourism and agro-tourism activities in Marilog and Paquibato districts.
The ordinance will amend Artilce 4, Section 2 and Article 12, Section 2 of the City Ordinance No. 0546-13 or known as “The Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance of Davao City To Delineate Areas For Eco-Tourism and Agro-Tourism Activities in Marilog and Paquibato Districts, This City”.
There will be two Conservation Zones under the ordinance: Conservation Zone 1 (CZ1) and Conservation Zone 2 (CZ2). Each zone will consist a total area of 62,469 hectares.
These zones will be identified and declared as Environmentally Critical Areas (ECA) in the Watershed Code of Davao City and declared areas by laws as national parks, watershed reserves, wildlife preserves and sanctuaries.
Allowable uses and activities will be imposed in the following:
CZ1 will have a development and maintenance of the Mt. Apo National Park; preservation of existing cultural settlements; improvement and maintenance of all waterway easements; reforestation development projects; and preservation of biodiversity areas.
CZ2 will have the same implementation with CZ1. However, it will have limited eco-tourism activites. These include a maximum of two percent concrete construction footprint measured by the cumulative total of ground floor areas covered by concrete as against the total area under tenurial agreement wherein structures should be no higher than eight meters from the ground; and no clearing of trees nor slope alteration will be undertaken.
The ordinance also covers the rights over ancestral domain of the indigenous peoples as covered by the Indigeneous Peoples Rights Acts (Ipra) of 1997.
This Ordinance states it “strongly supports the protection of the rights of the indigenous peoples to their ancestral domains to ensure their economic, social and cultural well-being; and the recognition of the customary laws governing property rights in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domains”.
The ordinance was the city government’s win-win solution for both affected business establishments and the city after 30 inland resort establishments in Marilog and Paquibato District were ordered for closure last year.
The closure affected workers and resort owners have been worried about losing their livelihood. RGL