Don’t commit “ecological sins” for resilience – group

Marine scientists and nongovernment coastal practitioners noted “ecological sins” being committed in the name of coastal resilience by planting wrong species of mangroves and planting them on wrong sites.

During a recent workshop on Building Resilience in Marine Protected Areas in Cebu City, the groups stressed that bakhaw (rhizophora) were planted in areas where piapi (avicennia marina) and pagatpat ( sonneratia alba) should have been planted.

Jurgenne Primavera, a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation and co- chairman of IUCN Mangrove Specialist Group, said that the "Call to Action" from marine scientists and coastal NGO practitioners is aimed to stop planting mangroves on seagrass beds, and to stop bakhaw planting along the seafront.

The "Call to Action" was signed by 40 participants from the academe and the NGO community.

Reiterating previous calls of the Philippine Association of Marine Science in 2003 and 2005, the group calls on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, other national agencies, local governments, NGOs, academe and the corporate sector to stop mangrove planting on sea grass beds, and to stop seafront planting of bakhaw.

Instead, the group strongly recommends the propagation and planting of piapi marina and pagatpat alba in appropriate sites, following protocols in the 2012 Manual on Communitybased Mangrove Rehabilitation in the Philippines.

The group pushes for the i mmediate enforcement of policies, like the DENR orders that date back to 1990, which mandate reversions of abandoned ponds to their original mangrove condition. Further, i t also hopes for legislation to protect sea grass habitats.

The group said that sea grass beds are important as habitats t hemselves as t hey provide nursery and feeding grounds t o marine t urtles, seahorses, dugong and most coastal fishes and shellfishes.

Aside from being highly productive ecosystems, sea grasses also buffer waves, stabilize substrates and improves water quality.

Although mangrove hectarage has doubled from 120,000 hectares in the mid1990s to some 250,000 hectares by 2000, a big part of this increase is reportedly due to the misguided practice of t ransforming sea grasses t o mangroves.

Field visits and presentations during conferences and workshops indicate that many mangrove plantations like Banacon in Bohol, Bantayan in Cebu, and Nueva Valencia in Guimaras are on sea grass beds.