A TOTAL of three hectares of coral reef areas in Davao Region were successfully rehabilitated, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Davao Region (DENR-Davao) reported in its year-end report.
In its Facebook post, DENR-Davao said coral reef area rehabilitation started in 2012 wherein the agency implemented the Sustainable Coral Reef Ecosystem Management Program (Scremp).
Scremp is a national program that develops and conducts strategic, sustainable and ecosystem-based approach in protecting and rehabilitating the country’s coral ecosystem.
The environment department said the rehabilitated sites have 87 percent survival rate proving the viability of the method used to restore coral reefs in the area. These areas cover the Pujada Bay Landscape and Seascape in Davao Oriental, and the Mabini Landscape and Seascape in Compostela Valley, which are included in the National Integrated Protected Areas System (Nipas), and the Island Garden City of Samal (Igacos), the program’s pilot area in 2013.
As of 2018, the agency said Davao Region has approximately 7,622.045 hectares of coral reef areas, a combined total of 1,512.65 hectares or 20 percent of the region’s coral reefs cover the region’s Nipas.
DENR-Davao’s report showed that Pujada Bay has 25 percent coral cover which falls in fair category, while Mabini has an excellent coral cover of 54.22 percent.
“The rest of the coral cover outside Nipas areas were generally deemed to be in fair category and were identified at risk of continuous degradation,” DENR-Davao said.
The department noted various threats ranging from natural phenomena to abusive human activities as contributors to the destruction of coral reefs.
“Global warming, pollution, damaging fishing techniques, and coral mining are among the rampant factors that disrupt the reef ecosystem,” DENR-Davao said.
The program piloted in the protected seascape of Igacos where 41 percent of its 717.521 hectares of coral reefs is already degraded.
DENR-Davao said the program is currently being implemented by the Coastal Resource and Foreshore Management Section. Among its actions to rehabilitate the coral reefs include installing modular frames as artificial substrata and transplanting coral fragments or asexual reproduction.