A small island that thinks big

BACOLOD CITY—An island in the country’s biggest marine reserve in Negros, which was lashed by Super Typhoon Yolanda four years ago, has received an award for creating community-based eco-tourism initiatives.

The Suyac Island Journey: Coastal Communities Resources Advocacies to Boost Sustainability, a project of the community of Suyac Island in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, is the grand winner this year of the Pearl Award for Best Practices on Community-based Responsible Tourism Category.

The award was presented by the Association of Tourism Officers of the Philippines (ATOP) and Department of Tourism (DOT) in Iloilo City last Saturday, during the annual gathering of all tourism officers in the country.

This is the second time Suyac garnered the award, the first being in 2015, and Sagay City’s head for Information and Tourism Helen Cutillar said it only proves that communitybased eco-tourism has the power to transform communities.

The island, which is around 20 minutes away from Barangay Tabaao in mainland Sagay, has been known for its century-old mangroves.

Suyac’s almost 700 residents were protected by this floating forest of mangroves from the storm surges that were whipped up by typhoons Yolanda and Basyang in 2013.

Now they learned its importance of taking care of the mangrove forest to the environment and to the community, she said.

“The people of Suyac became champions of the environment and the community through this project where they got to protect it and promote it as well,” Cutillar said.

The process of community development was taking a lot time, until they opened the island to tourists, she said.

The mangroves became one of the big attractions in Suyac, apart from the fact that the island is within the 32,000-hectare Sagay Marine Reserve, the largest marine reserve in the country.

Suyac is part of one of Old SagaySuyac-Carbin Reef tourism loops, which has been one of the major destinations of Sagay, earning for the city the title “Garden City of the North.”

More community-led eco-tourism sites are planned in Sagay to help empower communities, Cutillar said.