DENR prepares rehab of oil spill affected areas
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Region VI had finished its Work and Financial Plan for the assessment and rehabilitation of the Mangroves and other Marine Ecosystems. Regional Executive Director Julian D. Amador said that while the job of cleaning Guimaras shorelines from the fatal oil spill caused by the sunken oil tanker Solar I is now about to end, the big job of the DENR had just begun.
The plan includes the assessment of affected mangrove areas in the Taklong-Tandog Island Landscape and Seascape including those outside of the reserve area, rehabilitation of damaged area after the assessment, continuous monitoring of the mangroves and other marine habitat like corals and seagrasses, and research studies on blue and brown environment.
The research entitled "identification of livelihood options for Community-Based Forest Management residents in Guimaras affected by oil spill" will identify alternative livelihood options to Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) affected families so that proper recommendation for what type of livelihood can be funded to augment the income of affected communities adjacent to the mangrove areas. RED Amador said that the focus of the DENR livelihood projects will be on the communities organized by the DENR who took care and protected the mangroves within the marine reserve and other areas of concern. "The other affected communities in Guimaras is being taken cared of by the local government in terms of livelihood projects. What we need here is the survival of the beneficiaries of CBFM while they cannot make their normal economic activities in the seas because of the oil spill," Amador added.
Amador also stressed that a continuous monitoring and evaluation of the mangrove is needed so that we will know the extent of the damage on periodic schedules. Rehabilitation will only be done on damaged areas but those areas where mangroves had naturally survived will be monitored in terms of soil and water quality.
The job of the DENR does not stop upon giving an area with a clean bill of health. It will continue restoration of the damaged environment thus it will take years to finish the job. Livelihood projects to be given to the communities directly affected by the oil spill should complement with the rehabilitation activities. Thus, RED Amador said that organized communities can avail of contracts from the DENR like mangrove nursery establishment, mangrove tree planting and assist in the assessment and monitoring of the area. The DENR should also be equipped with its own water transportation like paddled banca for terrestrial areas where motorized bancas are not allowed and a motorized banca that can ferry evaluators from one island to the other. These transportation can also be used by the CBFM later on in its protection activities within and outside of the Marine Reserve. Aside from this, it is also proposed that the DENR should established its own bunkhouse near the Marine Reserve so that evaluating teams can stay there for a longer period for monitoring purposes.
Meanwhile, the DENR had also attended a People's Consultation at Brgy. Cano-an, Estancia, Iloilo to present the situation of the oil spill in Guimaras and how people can claim from the damages. Regional Technical Director of the Ecosystems Research and Development Services of the DENR, Alicia Lustica, attended it. After the dialogue, the barangays affected like Tagbak, Plandico, Bagongon, Polopiña, Botlog, Tambaliza and Nipa Concepcion presented 1,000 sacks of collected oil debris for collection and hauling at Petron.
Red Amador was apprised of the situation in Estancia and Concepcion and commented that these areas were also included in the rehabilitation plan by the Guimaras Task Force.
(rac/DENR)