Mangroves and Beach Forest Greenbelts

Mangroves and Beach Forest Greenbelts

Towards a Culture of Safety for Philippine Coastal Communities

        

             Mangroves are trees and bushes that are planted in marine coastal areas where these plants are standing out of the water during high tide. I learned from Dr. Primavera that these mangroves could be used as a protection of the coastal areas from future typhoons and storm surges. They serve as barriers and natural walls, shielding the houses of the people near coastal areas from the strength of the typhoon. The surge can only destroy the leaves but they cannot uproot the mangroves because they are deep rooted and strong as said by Dr. Primavera. In addition, mangroves are also good in capturing carbon, a major greenhouse gas that causes global warming here on Earth.

          Aside from the protection that mangroves give, they can also increase production because they provide nursery grounds for sea creatures. More over, they can also clean the dirty water especially when they are located near the factories. These are some uses of mangroves that were discussed during the forum; and out of curiosity, I researched more about mangroves and found out that there are some other uses besides protection coastal areas from storms.

These information about mangroves that I got are factual because they have evidences when Typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines. It was mentioned in the forum that there were mangroves planted in few parts of the coastal areas of Tacloban. The speaker mentioned McArthur area had mangroves and after the typhoon, the area was not as devastated as the others. And this just proves that the protection that mangroves give is really true.

I’m glad that the DENR has allocated 347 million pesos for the restoration of mangroves areas and beach forests in coastal areas that was hit by the typhoon. I hope that they would not only do it in the areas that were badly hit but also for the other parts of the country so that they will also be protected from these kinds of calamities.

          I’ve read an article stating that Environment Secretary Ramon Paje is preparing the program, which will include the no – build zones in coastal areas. Paje also added that they would be starting planting soon since these mangroves will take 5 to 7 years to grow fully. The DENR is also hoping to convert ponds into mangrove forests because according to the speaker of the forum, ponds are threats to mangroves. I guess this is a good sign that the people in the government and the citizens have awakened to face the reality. These projects of the government would be a good start in the restoration of the damaged places.

      According to Filiberto Pollisco, a research specialist of ASEAN Center of Biodiversity, mangroves are one of nature’s best ways for combating global warming. So now that we know about these facts, we better start planting mangroves in the coastal areas to prevent the area from getting damaged. 

Sources: 

Presse, A. “PHL to plant more mangroves in wake of super typhoon Yolanda”. GMA News Online. 25 Nov. 2013. Web. <http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/336965/news/nation/phl-to-plant-more-mangroves-in-wake-of-super-typhoon-yolanda>

Ranada, P. “Mangroves are PH’s best shield vs climate change”. Rappler News. 22 Nov. 2013. Web. <http://www.rappler.com/science-nature/40420-ph-mangroves-climate-change>

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/292188/quezon-seen-as-ph-mangrove-haven