Cleaning up the riverbank of Aklan River along C. Laserna St., Brgy. Poblacion, Kalibo, Aklan in support to the Clean Up Panay Project – a priority project of DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu./ DENR-PENROAklan

About 480 participants composed of the 4Ps beneficiaries, local government unit of Kalibo, Barangay Councils of Poblacion, New Buswang, and Pook, Kalibo Municipal Police Station, Philippine Army reservist, local residents, and a private company (Mabuhay Maritime Express Transport Incorporated) joined the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), PENRO Aklan in cleaning up of Aklan River, streets and thoroughfares, and coastal areas in three barangays of the Municipality of Kalibo, Aklan last August 17, 2019.

The clean up activity collected a total of 273 sacks with estimated 6,825 kilograms of residuals comprising single use plastics, PET bottles, styrofoams, diapers, and many more which were mostly dumped indiscriminately in river, streets, thoroughfares and coastal area.

During the Climate Reality and Environmental Forum held on August 22, 2019, OIC PENR Officer Merlene B. Aborka encouraged the local government units and barangays officials to help the government in the mobilization of their respective communities to participate in the Clean Up Panay Project by cleaning up their respective areas of responsibility as a “way of life” or In a regular basis such as every Friday or Saturday to sustain the clean up efforts.

Francisco E. Milla, Jr., Regional Executive Director of DENR Western Visayas expressed his gratitude on the active participation and support of the public in cleaning up the riverbanks of Aklan River.

“It is important that we help clean up and free our rivers from garbage to avoid contaminating and polluting our source of clean water,” he said.

The Clean-Up Panay Project is a priority project of DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu that took inspiration in the recent rehabilitation of Boracay Island and Manila Bay and ordered DENR in Western Visayas to take the lead in the cleanup of rivers and shorelines in Panay Island./DENR-PENROAklan

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Category: Regional Releases

Published: 09 October 2019

To protect and conserve the local biodiversity, The DulunganYouth in coordination with Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO)-Culasi in Antique, Youth Environment Schools Organization (YES-O), Northern Antique Vocational (NAVS) Chapter, and barangay officials of Brgy. Magsaysay, Culasi, Antique, volunteered to conduct replanting activity at the 2013 National Greening Program (NGP) site near the Dulungan(Rufous headed Hornbill) habitat. Thus,a total of one hundred fifty seven (157) native fruit trees were planted by the volunteers.

Dulungan Youth is a youth-led environmental organization that is committed in creating environmentally conscious youth leaders that seeks for the conservation and protection of biodiversity in the province of Antique./DENR6-CENROCulasi

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Published: 09 October 2019

A Brahminy kite eagle, locally known as Dapay, and a Visayan Tarictic Hornbill locally known as Tariktik were turned over to the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Guimbal last July 26, 2019. The said species’ were voluntarily turned over by Mr. Reyme C. Gallarda, Teacher I at Iloilo National High School, La Paz, Iloilo City.

Held in captivity inside the “Rainier’s Park” of the school, Mr. Gallarda revealed that the species were taken cared by him for years already after the previous owner, Mr. Rainier Apistar, died 8 years ago.

Upon verification, it was found out that the school has no legal documents for possessing the species, hence the school principal voluntarily turned over the wildlife to CENRO Guimbal Wildlife Traffic Monitoring Team for safe keeping at the Wildlife Rescue Center.

 In his message, DENR 6 Regional Executive Director Francisco E. Milla urged the public to turn over any wildlife species when it is accidentally capture.

 “Anyone who accidentally capture any wildlife species, please turn over and report to DENR to have an immediate action,” he said.

TheBrahminy Kite (Haliasturindus) is listed as least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) but the noted that its population is declining, especially in Southeast Asia. While the Tarictic Hornbill (Penelopiespanini) is listed as endangered per DAO 2004-15 Establishing the List of Terrestrial Threatened Species and Other Categories and the List of Wildlife Species pursuant to Republic Act No. 9147, otherwise known as the Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act of 2001.

Pursuant to Republic Act No. 9147, the seized wildlife species under the category of endangered and critically-endangered species without corresponding authorization documents in the act of trade, transport and possession should be confiscated by the government./DENR6-CENROGuimbal           

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Published: 09 October 2019

The Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) in Bago City recently spearheaded the 7th cleanup of Sum-ag River in Brgy. Sum-ag, Bacolod City, Negros Occidental.

One hundred eighty five (185) participants from the Philippine Coast Guard, Sum-ag Elementary School, PCG Auxiliary, City Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council(CFARMC) Guardians Emigrant and barangay officials and residents joined the Sum-ag River Cleanup and gathered a total of forty three (43) sacks of assorted garbages.

DENR 6 Regional Executive Director Francisco E. Milla, Jr. thanked stakeholders for helping cleanup Sum-Ag River. He also appealed to the community to observe proper solid waste disposal and management.

“The Environment Department is very thankful for your active support in helping to improve the quality of our water bodies. Whatever we do to our environment will eventually affect us in many ways”, he said.

RED Milla also underscored that the conductof cleanup drive will need the involvement of community for them to realize the need tO reverse the worsening condition of rivers and other water bodies.

Clean Water is one of the ten (10) priority programs of DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu which aims to improve water quality of priority rivers and other critical water bodies including lakes and bays through continuous massive clean up, monitoring of industries and rehabilitation of esteros and rivers./DENR-CENROBago

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Published: 18 September 2019

Apart from helping combat the effects of climate change, bamboo can also help increase the country’s forest cover, said Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu in his Keynote Speech during the Opening Ceremonies of the 1st ASEAN Bamboo Congress held at the Iloilo Convention Center in Iloilo City on August 12 to 16, 2019.

Bamboo, touted as the Earth’s tallest grass, has great potentials to pull the countryoff its environmental woes, especially as a strategic tool for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

“Bamboo has been proven to adapt well to the changing climatic conditions of the world and has made significant contributions to mitigate the causes and effects of climate change,” said Cimatu.

The environment chief said increasing bamboo plantations and making Panay Island the Bamboo Capital of the Philippines in terms of manufacturing engineered bamboo will ease the pressure on the country’s forests. He added that engineered bamboos are as sturdy as the lumber products.

Among the South East Asian nations, the Philippines ranked lowest in terms of forest cover, with an estimated 7,014,155.71 hectares or 23.38 percent of its official total land area of 30 million hectares covered with trees.

“Bamboo reduces the need for timber resources, enhances carbon sequestration, biodiversity preservation and low-cost rehabilitation of degraded lands. We envision producing engineered bamboo products as a substitute for actual lumber requirement of our country, instead of cutting trees from our forests,” Cimatu said.

Engineered bamboo, he said, will slowly increase the forest cover of the Philippines for the next several years or decades.

“We have already conducted surveys as to the available areas which are potential for bamboo plantations in the region. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Region 6 has also allotted a budget of Php 10 million for this year to implement the plan,”said Regional Executive Director Francisco E. Milla, Jr.

The 2019 Php 10-M budget targets to prioritize the planting of bamboos under the Enhanced National Greening Program (ENGP) implemented by the DENR. The budget includes the expenditures for establishing three nurseries for priority provinces namely: Iloilo, Negros Occidental and Capiz; production of 100,000 bamboo seedlings; and capacity building for priority stakeholders and DENR personnel.

The bamboo industry has been considered a “sunset industry” but with the government’s plan to revive it, hopes are high that it will again prosper.

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Published: 16 August 2019