GUV Signs PENRMO-GTZ MOA Establishing The SL Mangrove Greenbelt Project
By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.
Maasin City, Southern Leyte-The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Management Office(PENRMO) and GTZ(in literal English equivalent : German technical Assistance/Cooperation)has jointly formulated a Memorandum of Agreement for a project dubbed as “Southern Leyte Mangrove Greenbelt Project” with a funding of P1.5M. A resolution was passed authorizing Governor Damian Mercado to sign the MOA.
This was the disclosure of PENRMO head Eva Abad during the SP’s recent session held at SP session hall. She said that the P1.3M will be a grant from GTZ, the P263, 000.00 will be the counterpart of the province. While the P32, 000.00 counterparts will be shared by the involving 8 municipalities, which is for the hauling of seedling production from the sources to the sites.
Abad pointed out that the province’s counterpart is already part of the provincial government’s Annual Investment Program for 2011 under the PENRMO Coastal Fisheries Resource Management.
The PENRMO head also stressed that the amount of P263, 000.00 will be used for the technical trainings and information education program to the concerned barangays and municipalities. Whereas the GTZ funds will be for buying the materials and cash payments for the beneficiaries who will engage in seedling production and planting.
Earlier, she further informed the SP members that a resolution is needed authorizing Governor Damian Mercado to sign the Financial Agreement or MOA, which she said, is substantial and binding, so that the project can be implemented at the soonest possible time.
She clarified that with the greenbelt project, the provincial government thru her office is responsible in implementing in the municipal level. While the municipalities that are involved will assist the Barangay Councils in the selection of beneficiaries’ lists based on the established criteria.
Specifically, she emphasized that the role of the province in the project is to supervise, monitor and access the funds for them to really implement the mangrove rehabilitation program.
The places involved are one city and 7 municipalities, namely, Maasin City, which has the biggest mangrove area of the province, Macrohon, Padre Burgos, Bontoc, Sogod, Libagon, San Juan and Silago.Two other municipalities that are going to be involved in seedling production only are Liloan and St.Bernard.
Furthermore, another PENRMO staff has divulged that the MOA was finally signed by the incumbent Governor and that recently the SLMGP project will be implemented sometime in February of the current year.
According to Abad the objectives of the project are the following: 1) To promote the mangrove resources that are the major source of foods of fishes in the coastal zone. Lots of mangrove trees can produce more foods for our fishes;2)To mitigate the effect of climate change which is globally a major threat to human life; 3) More mangroves trees in coastal areas will protect coastal communities from typhoon surges, tsunamis and other impact of climate change; 4)To promote awareness in our communities on the importance of our environment and active involvement in our EFOs in the government side.(Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)
Postcript: One of the measures to mitigate the effects of climate change is to plant, not only mangrove trees along the coasts of each province nationwide, but also forest trees in our denuded forests in the country. Another measure is to strictly ban the cutting of all remaining trees in our bald forests for six decades in order to restores its former state of lush vegetations and to prevent flashfloods that were and are wrecking havoc on our people. To have some sources of construction materials for building residentials and commercial buildings, the DENR should encourage farmers and planters nationwide to plant in hectarages all kinds of forest and hardwood trees on the plain and lowland lots for harvesting after the plants become mature for cutting for sale as building materials. In this way, our illegal and legal cutters in the forests can have another means to get money for their livelihood.
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Internal Medicine-Cardiology
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R.K. Kangleon St., Mantahan, Maasin City, So.Leyte.
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