RDC-7’s TWG organized to manage Danajon Bank

CEBU, Philippines - A technical working group, under the Economic Development Committee, has been organized to manage the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, or the Danajon Bank in Bohol.

Danajon Bank, an enormous 90-mile reef system, spans 19 towns and cities to include Bien Unido, Buenavista, Calape, Clarin, Inabanga, Getafe, Pres. Carlos P. Garcia, Talibon, Trinidad, Tubigon, and Ubay — all in Bohol; Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova in Cebu; Matalom, Bato, Hilongos, Hindang and Baybay City — in Leyte; and Maasin City in Southern Leyte.

Composed of two sets of large coral reefs, it is the Philippines’ only double barrier reef and one of only six documented double barrier reefs in the world. The “center of the center” of marine biodiversity, it is considered one of the most important marine ecosystems in the entire Pacific Ocean.

The Regional Development Council-7 has issued recently a resolution creating the TWG, which serves as a technical arm of the Cebu-Leyte-Bohol-Southern Leyte (CeLeBoSoLe) for the reef’s management.

RDC Resolution 29, series of 2015, was approved last June 26 by Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto, RDC chairperson, and attested by National Economic Development Authority-7 Regional Director Efren Carreon, vice chairperson.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7 has welcomed and lauded the initiative of RDC-7.

In a letter dated July 22 addressed to DENR-7 Regional Director Isabelo Montejo, the RDC-7 said: “The CELEBOSOLE Project has been adopted as a special project of the Visayas Regional Development Committee, chaired by Leyte Governor Leopoldo Dominico Petilla, and the RDC chairs and co-chairs of the Visayas regions as members.”

Under the EDC-TWG, the DENR-7 serves as co-chair with Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources-7. The members are the Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Tourism, NEDA, the private sector, civil society organizations and academe.

Montejo said the project will reduce and reverse degradation of Danajon Bank, and that the TWG will coordinate and manage certain programs and activities like enforcement, livelihood and food security options, and other socio-economic development initiatives.

Montejo said the Danajon Bank covers a total area of 272 square kilometers or 27,200 hectares with a total coastline of 699 kilometers including 40 islands located off Northern Bohol. “This is a priority area for the conservation of reef fishes, corals, mangroves and mollusks where a large, generally poor human population is highly reliant on its fishery production,” he added. (FREEMAN)