Maiden’s dream turns islet into mangrove park

CALATAGAN, Batangas—It started as a young woman’s dream of a pristine coastline with lush mangrove trees in her town.

The dream of youth leader Hannah Esguerra has become reality and a source of pride for the residents of Calatagan, who are now fiercely protective of their mangrove forest.

It had never occurred to many of the town’s residents that mangroves could not only shield them from natural disasters but also give them additional income.

But through the rehabilitation effort initiated by Esguerra in 2009 and now funded by Conservation International (CI) –Philippines, a mangrove park is thriving in “Ang Pulo,” a tiny islet 30 minutes by boat from the mainland. And a mangrove belt along Calatagan’s coastal area now serves as the community’s natural defense from storm surges.

CI-Philippines came to Calatagan late in 2009. By then Esguerra’s mangrove rehabilitation effort had been underway in Barangay Quilitisan, the takeoff point to Ang Pulo.

Esguerra chaired the local Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) in 2007-2010. Then 18, she lobbied the barangay council to make Ang Pulo an ecological park.

The uninhabited 7.5-hectare islet was declared “Ang Pulo Mangrove Conservation Park” in December 2009.

From lush to barren

Esguerra said that when she was a child, her nature-loving parents told her about Ang Pulo and how, as the years went by, more and more mangroves were cut down and the once lush islet turned barren.

As she became involved in local politics with her election as SK chair, she was disturbed by the fishermen’s complaints of dwindling catch due to the damaged coastline.

Her dream of Ang Pulo as a conservation area became more fervent with the deepening fear that enterprising persons might claim it and eventually make it inaccessible to the community.

“Putting up resorts [in Ang Pulo] would have deprived the community of the benefits from the sea [surrounding the islet],” Esguerra said.

Having decided to rehabilitate Ang Pulo, the residents of Quilitisan now earn from the ecotourism activities at the park, according to Dionisio Gonzales, chair of Tagapangalaga ng Likas Yamang Dagat Mula sa Kilitisan.

And the fishermen now have better catch. “Since Ang Pulo was declared a protected area, crabs, shells and fish have been thriving,” Gonzales said.

CI-Philippines provided P300,000 and the municipal government a counterpart fund of P125,000 for the construction of a 1.241-kilometer walkway that allows guests to wander through Ang Pulo’s mangrove forest, up to the view deck, and down to the islet’s lone camp site.

These days, visitors explore the forest and get a chance to plant mangrove seedlings themselves in support of conservation efforts.

CI-Philippines has conducted a capacity-building seminar on how the community can directly manage and develop Ang Pulo as an ecotourism area, Gonzales said.

120,000 seedlings

In 2009, CI-Philippines put up a nursery and embarked on mangrove reforestation in a 9-ha area in Barangay Balibago on the mainland.

Virgilio Enriquez, president of the Calatagan Mangrove Development Alliance (Calmada), said 120,000 seedlings grown in the nursery had so far been planted in Balibago.

He said a business plan for managing the nursery had also been formulated with the help of CI-Philippines.

Calmada earns from the sale of the propagules at P15 each. The profit is used to maintain the nursery, purchase materials such as plastic bags for the propagules, and to pay the guards.

Apart from the livelihood generation and the protection of marine species in Balibago and Quilitisan, the residents have become staunch environmentalists, having realized how “cruel” they had been to Mother Earth, Enriquez said.

Both fishermen, Gonzales and Enriquez attributed the success of the mangrove rehabilitation project to the community’s newfound advocacy: environmental guardianship.

Municipal environment and natural resources officer Ma. Emelyn Custodio said the residents who used to cut down mangrove trees for use as charcoal and as materials to build houses and boats had become their fiercest protectors.

Verde Island Passage

The Calatagan mangrove forest is now a part of the globally important marine biodiversity conservation corridor called the Verde Island Passage, CI-Philippines said in the course of explaining the necessity of protecting the town’s mangroves.

Almost half of Ang Pulo has so far been planted to 15 mangrove species, according to Mau Cudiamat, environmental adviser of the Calatagan Mangrove Forest Conservation Park.

Ten species were destroyed in the rampant tree cutting in the past, Cudiamat said.

With the thriving mangrove forest, and with 26 bird species coming home to roost, there will soon be reason to invite bird-watchers, he said.

Moreover, with the construction of the walkway, and having become empowered to be directly involved in the operation of Ang Pulo, residents have made it a livelihood to ferry and guide visitors, engage in catering, and sell souvenir items.

The success of Calatagan has also resulted in the declaration of other protected mangrove areas in the towns of San Juan and Lobo in Batangas and in Calapan City in Oriental Mindoro.

Family approach

CI-Philippines said it succeeded in Calatagan by using “a family-approach strategy, banking on the concept of the Filipino culture of strong family ties.”

On the other hand, Evangeline Miclat, project manager of mangrove rehabilitation in Calatagan under the USAid-funded Coral Triangle Support Partnership (CTSP), attributed the success of the project to the residents’ spirit of volunteerism.

“There is inherent passion among the stakeholders to conserve nature; they are aware that a protected nature protects its people. There is also strong leadership and political will in the local government [led by Mayor Sophia Palacio],” Miclat said in a statement.

Being a coastal municipality, Calatagan is exposed to storm surges and the southwest monsoon. CI-Philippines recognizes that without proper coastal protection and with increased storm frequency and intensity brought about by climate change, Calatagan is vulnerable to coastal erosion and damage not only to coral reefs but also to fishing boats and equipment and coastal infrastructure.

Similar rehabilitation efforts are underway in other areas of the Verde Island Passage where communities are vulnerable to stronger wave action, rising sea levels and increased storminess, according to CI-Philippines.

Payback

As the residents of Calatagan have experienced, there is great payback in protecting and rehabilitating natural resources.

“There is much to be learned from this experience and also from the experiences of storm-ravaged coastal towns and cities like Manila,” Enrique Nuñez, Sulu Sulawesi Seascape manager of CI-Philippines, said in a statement.

Nuñez added: “The storm surges brought about by Typhoon ‘Pedring,’ which battered Manila last month, should remind us that coastlines of Manila Bay were once covered with mangroves, protecting villages from strong wave action. Manila, or Maynila, owes its name from what used to be an abundant mangrove species called ‘nilad.’”

“We are confident that the experience of Calatagan will result in reduced vulnerability to climate change among communities who depend on the health of mangroves for their livelihood. It will also enhance and improve the benefits from ecosystem services such as food security, aside from protection from storm surges.” With a report from Marrah Lesaba, Inquirer Southern Luzon