More to join June’s Coral Triangle Day

CEBU, Philippines - More are participating in this year’s observance of the annual Coral Triangle Day on June 9, with organizers saying activities would now be at a region-wide level.

Last year’s celebration was focused on Mactan-wide beach clean-up, mangrove planting, and different workshops given to the various resorts there.

United States Coral Triangle Initiative  program specialist Astrid Lim told an Association of Government Information Officers-7 forum yesterday that they will just simplify the event by focusing on beach clean-up and mangrove planting.

However, she said, the whole region would be joining this time, with the private sector already expected to join in the event.

Hotels, such as Crimson Resort and Spa, Shangri-la Mactan, Imperial Palace and Plantation Bay, would host various marine-themed activities for children, such as photo contests, poster–making contests, short story writing contest and exhibits. These activities are spread out in the entire month of June.

The Cebu Provincial Government is also joining along together with several partners and marine conservationists around the Central Visayas, to highlight the importance of marine conservation and to raise awareness on this global center of marine biodiversity.

Lim said they are also hoping to push through conducting trainings the   departments or core groups of resorts’ staff on how to rescue marine mammals, since the stranding of marine creatures is a “big” issue in Cebu.

June is also Environment Month, while May is being observed as Ocean Month.

The Coral Triangle is a six-million-square-kilometer ocean expanse covering six countries that contains the highest number of reef-building corals on the planet.

“Its spectacular coral reefs systems are home to thousands of whales, dolphins, rays, sharks, and six of the world’s seven species of marine turtle,” said Lim.

She said Central Visayas lies at the epicenter of the Coral Triangle.

Just recently, the Province of Cebu, through Resolution No. 899-2014  authored by  Provincial Board Member  Thadeo Z. Ouano, urged all local government units under its jurisdiction to join the whole of Central Visayas  in this annual celebration.

However, since June 9 is a Monday and first day of classes for many academic institutions in the province, CTI National Coordinating Committee through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and municipalities under the CTI Local Government Network, agreed to hold the province-wide beach clean-ups and mangrove planting on June 7, a Saturday.

Aside from Resolution No. 899-2014, Ouano also proposed an “Ordinance Declaring June 9 as ‘Coral Triangle Day’ in the Entire Province of Cebu.”

Sec.3 of the proposed measure says that the province shall celebrate the “Coral Triangle Day” with a variety of activities aimed at “promoting the protection, conservation, rehabilitation, and management of Cebu’s Diverse marine ecosystem and coral resources.”

It added that the province “shall conduct information and education campaigns on conservation and protection measures of Cebu’s marine biodiversity.”— (FREEMAN)