Juju M. Empuerto
CEBU CITY, June 20 (PIA) – The Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR-7) in Central Visayas introduces innovative planting
design for mangroves and beach plantations in the region.
DENR-7 regional edirector executive Dr. Isabelo Montejo said
there is a need to innovate our planting designs as there is a need
to densify our planting of trees especially in mangrove and beach forest which
are largely established for protection and ecological services to cope with the
adverse impacts of climate change.
The new suggested planting design released by the DENR-7 shall be
introduced in the implementation of its one billion mangrove and beach
forest project that aims to reforest and establish around 3,454 mangrove
and beach forest plantations in the region to provinces affected by typhoon
‘Yolanda’ in 2013.
“We opted to use the cluster planting design to ensure higher
success in mangrove and beach forest development, number of seedlings per
cluster may vary according to species but our goal is to plant 2,500
propagules per hectare,” Montejo explained.
As specified in the mangrove and beach forest planting design,
implementers or the people’s organizations with the technical assistance of the
Provincial and Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices, should
ensure even spacing between clusters. The cluster sizes for mangroves may vary
from 2x2 meters to 5x5 meters or larger to suit conditions of the planting
site.
On the beach forest plantation on the other hand, requires
even space planting of 2x5 meters between seedlings at 1,000 seedlings per
hectare.
According to Montejo, beach forest planting should be done a few
meters above the high tide waterline to avoid conflict with traditional use of
beach by the community, usually it is established along the easement zone
designated under the Water Code of the Philippines.
“It should be emphasized here that mangrove planting will not
happen over seagreasses areas,” Montejo added.
One billion mangrove and beach forest is another project of the
administration to rehabilitate coastal forests in line with the commitment of
providing better and safer coastal communities against storm surges, coastal
flooding and other adverse impacts of climate change. (mbcn/jsme/PIA7-Cebu/with
reports from Dr Eddie Llamedo/DENR7)