Volunteers monitor watershed violations

A number of violations were monitored by the Bantay Bukid volunteers in the city’s watersheds.

This was revealed during the 2nd annual event of Panagtagbo yesterday, February 15, 2019 at the Almendras Gym where some 200 Bantay Bukid volunteers gathered.

“Every year naa mi diri kay ang tanan na mga data nga gina-collect namo among ginapaabot sa NCIP (National Commission on Indigenous Peoples) or kinsa man ang naa diri (We are here every year because we report the data that we collected to NCIP, or whoever is here in the gathering),” Bantay Bukid volunteer and Manobo tribe member Loreta Landim said in an interview with Sunstar Davao yesterday.

She added that some of the violations they monitored were illegal logging activities, threatening incidents, conflicts between IPs, among others.

Landim said that their prime objective as volunteers is to preserve the forest so they hold biodiversity monitoring through foot patrol on threatened areas by the illegal loggers. Barangay Captain of Carmen Alfredo Austral Sr. confirmed that there were indeed some people who have been violating the preservation of these watersheds but they cannot do anything other than monitor their actions.

"Sa Sitio Tribal og Klatong namo, gi-destruct sa mga dayuhan nga mga tao. Gigalas nila. Gibahin-bahin nila ang yuta (At Sitio Tribal and Klatong, migrants destroyed the preserved land through distributing portions of land by selling)," Austral said, adding that these migrants have been exploiting the land and illegally cut big trees for 20 years already.

Meanwhile, Interface Development Interventions (Idis) executive director Chinkie Golle said that the gathering is a way of recognizing the efforts of the volunteers in protecting the preservation of watersheds. However, Golle said that the volunteers are a “bit dismayed” on the local government’s slow action on their report.

“Ang role lang sa Bantay Bukid is to monitor and report to the authorized, sa mga concerned agencies. Nahuman na nila nga task, it is now up to the government agencies and hopefully, ma-aksyonan na gyud na siya (The role of the volunteers is to monitor and report to authorized concerned agencies. They have done their part, it is now up to the government agencies how to address the matter and hopefully an action will be taken),” she said.