Mangroves mommas

Mother Nature is getting help from real mommas in sustaining the nurturing power of the environment in the face of persistent pollution and human exploitation. Women leaders are driving public and private campaigns to build up mangroves which are natural storm surge barriers that can save lives and serve as source of seafood.

Million trees

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte celebrated her birthday last 31 May by planting 1,000 mangrove seeds or propagules at the Aboitiz Cleanergy Park in Punta Dumalag, Matina Aplaya, Davao City through the help of volunteers. The planting activity is part of the Office of the Vice President’s (OVP) PagbaBAGo “Million Learners, Million Trees” campaign that aims to plant one million trees and mangroves nationwide.

The propagules were provided by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (DENR-CENRO) and planted by volunteers from the Office of the Vice President-Davao Satellite Office, Vice Presidential Security and Protection Group, Davao Light and Power Company Inc. which manages the Cleanergy Park, DENR-CENRO, City Environment and Natural Resources Office and Media and Public Relations Department-Davao.

Simultaneous with the mangrove planting were the planting of 150 seedlings of guyabano, lemon, calamansi, tabebuia and banaba at the Aguho Elementary School, P. Manalo Elementary School, Pateros Elementary School and Pateros Linear Park in Pateros.

Also, 250 seeds of different trees were planted in Dimapatoy watershed in Barangay Lomboy, Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte by volunteers from the (OVP) Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) satellite office, Metro Cotabato Water District and BARMM’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources and Energy.

Mangroves mapping

The DENR and the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) have established the Nationwide Mangrove Mapping (NMM) initiative, which utilizes the National Mangrove Map 2023, a satellite-derived map designed to detect and validate mangrove cover in the country for disaster risk reduction purposes.

DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga is harnessing the power of citizen science for the initiative by involving the public in tracking and protecting mangroves. Volunteers dubbed BakaJuan can use the ODK Collect app to verify the presence of mangroves in coastal barangays and send drone-taken photographs to PhilSA.

The NMM aims to finish the field validation of over 600 sites and 30,000 validation points around the country. DENR recently posted on its Facebook page that it has completed Phase 1 of the project or the validation of 6,000 soft target to date.

According to the DENR, validating the NMM is critical for appropriately assessing the country’s natural resources, which contribute to climate resilience and sustainable development.

Loyzaga works with local executives to integrate hazard maps into decision-making to avert disasters and protect lives and livelihoods.

“A hazard does not have to become a disaster,” she said, emphasizing the need for data-driven indications for early warning and response, such as the exceptionally heavy rainfall.

Bakhawan stewards

One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the corporate social responsibility arm of Meralco, helps local governments and peoples’ organizations regrow their forests as part of its environmental sustainability program dubbed One For Trees (OFT). On the occasion of World Environment Day last 5 June, OMF recognized the efforts of exceptional women green defenders who guard and expand wetland forests, for living up to the theme of the worldwide celebration, “Our land. Our future. We are #GenerationRestoration.”

Delailah Lacadue of Aringay, La Union; Retchie Sacapaño of Ibajay, Aklan; and Gina Barquilla of Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte involve their communities in planting, nurturing, and watching over mangroves with support from OMF. Lacadue leads the Dulao Fishpond/Fishpen Producers Cooperative in taking care of the mangrove forests in Barangay Dulao in Aringay. The coop has planted 25,000 mangrove propagules to expand the mangrove site under their care to two hectares.

Sacapaño is the treasurer of Bugtongbato Fisherfolk Association (BFA) which manages the Ibajay Mangrove Forest or what locals call Katunggan It Ibajay located less than an hour away from the resort paradise of Boracay. OMF, through the local government of Ibajay, extended assistance to BFA and funded the planting of 50,000 mangroves in KII.

Meanwhile, Barquilla is the Del Carmen Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer who helps patrol Siargao’s 4,800-hectare mangrove forest against poachers and help prosecute destroyers of the wetland. She also convinced poachers to join people’s organization Kaanib ng mga Mangingisda at Magsasaka ng Numancia Aqua-Agrikultura (Kamamana) and become protectors of the bakhawan. OMF funded the planting by Kamamana members of 125,000 mangrove propagules in three sites covering 50 hectares.

To date, OMF’s OFT program has planted more than 2.3 million trees, of which more than 300,000 are mangroves. These wetland and coastal reforestation sites include mangroves in Toledo, Cebu managed by the Meralco PowerGen Corporation Global Business Power; Siniloan, Laguna; San Miguel, Bulacan; various towns in Bohol; Lambunao, Panay; Iloilo; Pangantucan, Bukidnon; and Butuan, Agusan del Norte.