Cebu pilot site for foreshore master plan

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu is among the three pilot areas in the country in the implementation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)'s master plan for foreshore lands.

Foreshore lands are those that are part of the shore between the water and occupied or cultivated land. It is the area of a shore that lies between the average high tide mark and the average low tide mark.

DENR Regional Director Isabelo Montejo said the master plan articulates the country's vision and management objectives for the foreshore with very clear strategies and actions while defining and delineating the roles of DENR and other stakeholders.

The master plan, Montejo said, shall consider the comprehensive land use plans, local climate change actions plans, and local disaster risk reduction and management plans of the local government units.

"It should also include the ancestral domains sustainable development and protection plans of indigenous people, and the national integrated coastal management programs," Montejo said in a statement.

Rolando Pablo, chief of the Land Administration and Utilization Division of the Land Management Bureau, also underscored some issues and challenges in the management and utilization of foreshore lands.

These problems, he said, include unauthorized or illegal reclamation, wrong development of improvement from foreshore to offshore, massive landfill as these areas have been used as sink of human refuse and wastes, berm damaged, and uncontrolled influx of informal settlers or encroachment.

"With the establishment of a plan, our foreshore lands would be properly conserved, developed, managed, and sustainably utilized," Pablo said.

The plan to be formulated, according to DENR-7, should be legally permissible, ecologically viable, economically feasible, socially acceptable, politically viable, and compatible with adjacent uses.

More than 80 participants, mostly from the local government units in Cebu province, national government agencies and other stakeholders recently attended the two-day regional consultation workshop on the formulation of the foreshore area master plan.

Meanwhile, DENR-7, through its Forest Management Services also conducted a three-day seminar workshop on the environment and natural resources laws for forest protection officers or 'Bantay Gubat'.

The said activity aimed to provide more information on our forest protection officers on the relevant laws, rules and regulations on forestry, wildlife protection and conservation, cave resources, wildlife identification, and handling.

Around 50 'Bantay Gubat" were hired this year to augment the forest protection efforts and patrolling from the four provinces, as Montejo indicated the importance of having a forest protection officer particularly on National Greening Program sites to prevent illegal cutting of trees or illegal logging.

"We have been confronted with so many issues and challenges in forest protection and by employing at least or increasing the number of personnel who will monitor our forests, our objective of ensuring the protection or even conservation is met with the help of the communities," Montejo added. (FREEMAN)