Conservation of resource-rich Davao Gulf pushed

DAVAO CITY — An environmental sensitivity index (ESI) mapping project has been launched here in an effort to protect and sustain the resource-rich Davao Gulf, also considered to be among the country’s busiest hubs serving several international shipping lines.

The Mapping for Conservation is a three-year project that aims to identify, assess and spatially present land, coastal and marine conditions as well as highlight degraded areas and hotspots in need of immediate attention.

Davao Gulf’s long coastline of 464 kilometers encompasses 18 municipalities and five cities within Southern Mindanao, where several marine species are known to thrive.

The Gulf is a known feeding and rearing ground for Whale Sharks, Dugongs, five marine turtle species and 11 cetacean species, including Sperm, Beaked and Killer Whales.

However, concerns have been raised on the vulnerability of the gulf to pesticides, mine tailings and other forms of marine pollution because of the fact that Southern Mindanao is also a largely agriculture based economy as the country’s leading export producer of banana, mango and coconut.

The problem on the impact of the agricultural wastes and industrial effluents to the Davao Gulf paved the way for the conservation mapping project, which also involves the ranking of groundwater, soil and watershed resources according to their sensitivity to pesticides and other toxic substances.

The mapping project shall also rank the shoreline types and marine habitats according to their sensitivity to oil spills as it shall also identify and assess communities according to the extent of impact from pollution sources.  

A pollution management framework is expected to be among the outputs of the project that shall serve as a guide for applying mitigating or restrictive measures to vulnerable areas without interfering in the lesser vulnerable places within the Davao Gulf.

The project is a cooperative effort of the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC), the World Wildlife Fund Philippines and the Davao Gulf Management Council.

"HSBC is pleased to be able to play a part in helping raise the awareness of the environmental challenges faced by the Davao Gulf and to work with the WWF and the Davao community to achieve more sustainable practices," said HSBC Phils. CEO Warner Manning. — Edith Regalado