DENR-7 to get P300M for watershed project in Bohol

CEBU, Philippines - The DENR-7 will get more than P300 million budget for the 5-year Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management (INREM) project for the Wahig–Inabanga Watershed in Bohol.

DENR-7 regional executive director Isabelo Montejo said the fund was part of the P7.24 billion endorsed by the NEDA Board, using the INREM approach, which will be implemented within the priority watersheds of four critical river basins in the country from 2013-2018.

These four are the Chico River Basin in Cordillera Administrative Region; the Bukidnon River Basin in Northern Mindanao; the Wahig-Inabanga River Basin in Central Visayas; and the Lake Lanao Watershed in Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao.

The 62,793-hectare Bohol project, straddling four towns and 130 barangays and covering four watersheds, will provide incentives to local communities, local government units, and the DENR for improving natural resource management and generating economic benefits.

Payment for ecosystem services will be tested in these four sites as a strategy for sustainable funding, said Montejo, adding that the project will reduce and reverse degradation of watersheds and associated environmental services caused by forest denudation and unsustainable farming practices.

Montejo said the protection and conservation of watersheds is important because these are sources of better quality water for domestic use, electricity, and food security through irrigation and fishpond.

“Watersheds also prevent soil erosion, landslide and flashflood, provide habitat to wildlife flora and fauna, promote higher biological diversity and stable ecosystem, and stabilize extreme climatic changes,” he said.

Watershed is an area where water drains down from its tributaries and accumulates into a common outlet such as dams, oceans or lakes, he added. (FREEMAN)