Let’s revive our mangrove forests

WHILE t here are many reasons why we should revive our mangrove forests, there is only one reason why we are not doing it, and that is plain and simple apathy.

It seems that as much as we did not care to stop those who destroyed them, we also seem not to care to revive them.

It seems that common sense is not so common anymore, because very few among us are moving to revive our mangrove forests, even if it is common sense to do so.

While it is true that mangrove reforestation has long term benefits such as carbon capture and climate change adaptation, the short-term benefits are even more valuable, because it has directly something to do with our food security and our human security, the latter pertaining to increasing our defenses against storms and even tsunamis.

This might sound as if it is coming out of a kindergarten lesson, but if we revive the mangrove forests, the planktons will come back. When the planktons will come back the small fish and the shrimps will come back. When the small fish and the shrimps will come back, the big fish will come back.

Believe it or not, even the dugong will come back! As a bonus, the crabs will also come back.

There are actually other plants and trees that are not true mangroves, but are considered as “mangrove associates”.

One such associate is the nipa palm, a species that is touted by some scientists to be a source of fuel.

LET’S APPOINT A GARBAGE CZAR

Depending on who is looking at it, garbage could either be a problem or an opportunity. For sure, it is an opportunity for the poor people who are able to make a living by gathering recyclable and marketable materials from the garbage dump. As a matter of fact, some businessmen have become rich by simply looking at garbage not as garbage, but as recyclables.

I do not know if it is still there, but I visited a very successful Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Los Banos not just once, but twice. That is so because I was very impressed by what they were doing. They were doing everything right, such that only a small percentage of what was supposed to be garbage ended up as non-recyclables.

To cut a long story short, the real recyclables such as paper, plastic, glass and metal were sorted out and were sold for their market value, which is probably the reason why they were able to maintain the operating costs of their MRF.

The rest of the organic waste was either fed to the earthworms to produce vermicast, or were converted directly to organic fertilizers. Why do we need a garbage czar? The first reason is because the management of garbage cuts across many government agencies and there is really no government agency that is on top of everything. For example, no one is looking at the potential of garbage as a source of renewable energy or of organic fertilizers.

The second reason is to implement recycling laws, including the MRFs./