DENR strengthens management of protected and coastal areas
The Protected Areas and Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management Services (PAWCZMS) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resource, Region VI under Regional Technical Director Arlene T. Dalawis had conducted a management conference at the Residence Hotel to strengthen the management of the Protected Areas and Coastal areas of Western Visayas.
The two-day conference included the review of new policy issuances and updates, reorientation of the guidelines on the establishment and management of critical habitat; rules and regulations governing special uses within the protected areas, and management of overlapping protected areas and its buffer zones as between ancestral domains/lands. It will also clarify issues on the guidelines on treasure hunting in caves and the national policies on the coastal and marine environment and resources.
The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers (PENRO), the Community Environment and Natural Resources Officers (CENRO) and their PAWCZMS specialists in the field attended the conference. The conference shall also tackle issues that had not been addressed ever since like the jurisdictional boundaries of the Protected Areas and some developmental projects within its buffer zones, conflicts between the DENR and National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) as to the management of the areas involved.
Regional Executive Director Lormelyn E. Claudio, in her message to the participants said that "now is the time for us to look into the possible partnership with the local government units in protecting and conserving our natural resources especially those that had been declared as protected areas under the NIPAS (National Integrated Protected Areas System)". These protected areas are under the management of the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB). Director Claudio also appreciated the move of RTD Dalawis to once and for all orient the DENR field offices of their roles and responsibilities in protecting our natural resources especially the forest because it is the habitat of wildlife and serves as the carbon sink that will help abate global warming.
Regional Director Bienvenido Lipayon of the Environmental Management Bureau also graced the affair and gave his message that the strengthening of the management of our natural resources could greatly help in the abatement of climate change.
The conference is expected to produce an output that will make the Operational Action Plans of the DENR provincial offices to address the backlogs and implementation of the 2008 targets of the sector. At present the protected areas that are being managed are Bulabog Puti-an Natural Park at Dingle-San Enrique,Iloilo; Maasin Watershed Forest Reserved at Maasin, Iloilo; Sibalom Natural Park, Antique; Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park, Aklan and Antique; Aklan River Watershed Forest Reserve, Aklan; Pan-ay River Watershed Forest Reserve, Capiz; Taklong Island National Marine Reserve, Guimaras; Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park; Sagay Marine Reserve, and Northern Negros Natural Park, all three under Negros Occidental Province.
Once the management of the Protected Areas can be strengthened, this will become the pillar of our country in the preservation of our last frontiers and may also insure the protection, rehabilitation, and equitable sharing of benefits for those who are at the forefront of its development.