Investing in the future of Olango

Cebu Daily News staffers plant mangroves to enrich island’s marine ecosystem

To grow a coastal forest, you start by bending over and planting in the soft, wet mud of  tidal flats as if you’re “planting rice.”

Staff  members of  Cebu Daily News  did just that yesterday in  sitio Tapon, barangay San Vicente in Olango Island, a sanctuary for marine life and migratory birds.

The planting of 3,000 propagules or seedlings of bakhaw (species Rhizopora) adds to an existing  mangrove patch that over time will reach full growth in 15 to 20 years.

Mangroves provide a rich ecosystem for fish, crabs, seashells and other marine live as well as a trap for carbon.

A 1.5-hectare area is being rehabilitated  by the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) – Visayas, of which  CDN is a member. Volunteers are welcome to plant, while the local community maintains the site and harvests the propagules for future planting.

Over 30 CDN staff members from different departments walked about 100 meters from the coastline  and treaded into the shallows and sometimes knee-deep mud.  It took only half an hour to plant the pointed pods  in evenly spaced rows as Rey Perez, PBSP project officer called out “Plant!” then “One step backward” to keep the group planting  in unison “just like planting rice”. Each hectare of mangrove can provide  100 kilos of fish catch in the area.

The Olango planting  is part of CDN’s  advocacy of environment stewardship and one of a series of activities marking the  paper’s 15th year.

The CDN team led by vice president for operations Imee Alcantara and publisher Eileen Mangubat was joined by  62-year-old Pentti Aarnimetsa, who is visiting Cebu from Finland where he lives with his Cebuana wife.

¨I’ll definitely come  back here and join again,” he said. /Correspondent Tweeny Malinao