Various stakeholders, community leaders, Bantay Bukid members, students, and members of private organizations actively listened to various studies on environmental impacts and community-based initiatives for the protection of the environment during the Watershed Summit 2024 held at Almendras Gym on Thursday, November 21, 2024.
Watershed Management Council (WMC) Secretariat Atty. Karmela Tongo, in an interview during the event, said that this year’s summit seeks to give chance for the stakeholders to appreciate the findings of the research of students showing the situation of the environment on the ground.
“Naa ta’y mga research conducted by college students with regards sa environment so ang focus karon nga program mag-present sila sa ilahang research about environmental impact sa different locations in Davao. Ang scope sa ilang research are somewhere sa Paquibato panaog sa Punta Dumalag (We have research conducted by college students with regards environment so the focus of our program is for them to present their research about the environmental impact in different locations in Davao. The scope of their research starts from Paquibato going down to Punta Dumalag),” Tongo said
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The four studies presented include Discharge -Sediment Yield Analysis at Lasang River, Mindanao Philippines; Water Quality Assessment of Upstream Matina River at New Carmen Tugbok District Davao City: Basis for Policy Direction towards Water Quality Management; Predicting Sediment Delivery Ratio of Land Classes within Talomo-River Watershed, Davao City; Marine Shelled Gastropods in Punta Dumalag Marine Protected Area, Davao City, and A Community-Centric Wildlife Conservation Program to Bolster Resident’s Intention to Participate in Conservation Efforts for Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga Jefferyi) in the face of Ex-situ Breeding in Barangay Malagos, Davao City.
She added that these studies will be a very good input as they are currently in the process of amending the Watershed Management Code which was created in 2007.
Meanwhile, apart from students, representatives from the Department of Natural Resources also presented their key findings on the fitness of Mt. Makaayat in the Paquibato District to be declared as a protected area.
DENR Representative Ronald Baguiohanon said that Mt. Makaayat passed the criteria of irreplaceability, socio-economic importance, naturalness (closed and open forest cover), uniqueness (the quality of its peaks), and abundance (high concentration of species).
Baguiohanon added that Mt. Makaayat is one of the last forests of Davao City and to protect it from degradation, a declaration is important. He also discussed the remaining challenges faced for its full declaration.
Datu Lipatuan Joel Unad, an Obu-Manuvu chieftain also presented their tribes’ initiatives in environmental protection. He showed the participants their mini Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan, which they seek to implement with the tribal philosophies “Pusaka” and “Mohingod.”
Unad, in an interview, said that Pusaka refers to the natural environment, which includes the watersheds, and Mohingod is the community that protects it.
Unad said that with these philosophies, the members of the tribes themselves come up with their own rules and regulations guided by their tribes’ procedures for protecting the environment.
“Ang community mismo naa sila’y accountability and responsibility because kana siya kultura na siya nga pilosopiya nga naa silay dakong parte nga magbantay, maghimo og action og initiative sa atong gi-declare nga watershed area (The community itself, they have the accountability and responsibility because it is their culture’s philosophy that they have a huge part in protecting and in taking actions in the areas declared as watershed areas),” Unad said, adding that part of their ways forward is for their policies to be adopted by the Watershed Management Council and the Sangguniang Panlungsod.
He also wished for the harmonization of the mainstream policy and cultural policies.
Meanwhile, Tongo said that they welcome suggestions from the community in terms of environmental policies because they are much more knowledgeable about the situation in their areas.
Tongo said apart from the summit, the WMC’s goal is to expand information dissemination on the Watershed Management Code to barangays so that they can create their watershed management councils. CIO
