How to grow a clean, green rural city in Phl: A brief story of San Fernando, La Union

I thought about the vision for the San Fernando, La Union (SFLU) “The Botanical Garden City” — a healthy city and the springboard for regional progress. The symbolism of a garden city was to recognize that it wants to be known as a clean and green city. Moreover, it aspires to be an environment-aware community, which harnesses the ecological services of functioning natural ecosystems.

My host, Mrs. Mary Jane Ortega, the former mayor of the city, took us to various projects which she had initiated. Together with retired Professor Asuncion Raymundo of UP Los Baños, who hails from SFLU, we visited the sanitary landfill, which demonstrates effective collaboration with international funding bodies. They had created an appropriate cost-effective municipal solid waste management and materials recycling facility. The appropriate use of synthetic liners and leachate collecting system has doubled the operational life of the facility from the initial projected 15 years to cater to San Fernando’s requirements. Furthermore, it was pleasant due to the absence of flies and offensive odors in the landfill area.

We then proceeded to the coastline and their colorful pebble beach harvest area near Luna, the site of a historic Spanish era watchtower. Conflicting resource use was destroying this historical landmark so strategies are being developed to address this pressing issue. We were told about the research by the National Institute of Geological Sciences, UP Diliman, funded by the SFLU city government, on coastal erosion vulnerability mapping along the southern coast of La Union province. We then went to the city’s botanical gardens and the nearby City Science Centrum and Museum. Both were wonderful cultural and scientific assets. The gardens also informed us about environmental issues, which we face in this 21st century.

Lastly, we visited the new livelihood program of Ar-arosip (sea urchin) aquaculture for fisherfolk living in an informal settlement at the Poro Point Special Economic Development Zone. One of the local women explained that since typhoons “Milenyo” and “Ondoy,” they had lost half of their sea urchin cages. There is an assistance package to help them. I was, however, impressed by that woman as she described the process of restocking their cages to build up the juveniles, which would eventually be released to feed on the coral reefs in the San Fernando Bay.  She explained the timing of egg release, fertilization and spawning which was critical for restocking the reefs. These people had been previously practicing dynamite and cyanide fishing which was deleterious to the fragile coral reef ecosystem. This was their only option for a livelihood. Since a concerted effort had been put into motion a decade ago to address this destructive form of fishing, the corals have been reported to be slowly recovering these past seven years.

I had never eaten fresh urchins and one of the young fishermen swam out to one of the designated areas in the reef to collect some of the sea urchins. Once he returned with the catch, a woman proceeded to split some open and I was taught how to eat it with freshly squeezed kalamansi. She then explained that they do not normally harvest the sea urchins until they were bigger than their hands. Another local delicacy I was offered was the green algae-sea grapes (Maratangtang).

The SFLU LGU experience in facing serious environmental problems appears to be a good example in addressing the complex human issues that can hamper environmentally sustainable urban development. A recent report entitled “Nature plus Nurture” from the Asian Development Bank in 2009 featured the reality of poverty and the environment. The report stated that overcoming environmental degradation is necessary if we are to reduce poverty. This is especially true in Asia and the Pacific, where two thirds of the world’s poor live. I was impressed by the carrot rather than the stick approach, which had been employed to reduce the incidence of the use of dynamite and cyanide. This obviously required the fishing community and the Coast Guard to have a concerted and united effort. The fisherfolk were given access to finance and training in order to raise high-value species like the sea urchins and eventually sell them. We were told that the coral reefs in San Fernando Bay were essentially dead a decade ago. The mitigation strategy not only allowed the reef to gradually recover and make the corals re-establish. It also essentially provided an avenue to solve the dilemma of the “tyranny of biomass needs” (food) of a hungry populace over the necessity of safeguarding the ecological services provided by a functional and resilient ecosystem such as the reef.

I was encouraged by the various environmental strategies that had been implemented over the last 12 years.

Their clean and green programs are worthwhile enumerating as these show that this rural city is capable of maintaining and growing its social resilience in order to respond to the disruptions caused by natural hazards. The project includes: a clean air program; a coastal resources management program which includes a 30-hectare marine protected area; the sea urchin grow-out culture; a mangrove rehabilitation and management program at Carlatan creek; a coastal coconut tree planting program; a re-greening and forest resource management program which includes a one-million tree project; reforestation of the city watershed; establishment of a 20-hectare bamboo plantation; setting up of plant nurseries and a comprehensive tree parenting program; and finally, a water and sanitation program ECOSAN which utilizes ecologically sustainable sanitation procedures.

In closing, one of the features of their botanical garden which strongly caught my eye was a sign with the translation in Ilokano of the well-known poem by the American poet Joyce Kilmer “Trees” — “I think I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree…” It brings to mind another well-known phrase by Fyodor Dostoevsky — “Beauty will save the world.” Perhaps it is in the understanding of the richness of this passage that the city leaders have been able to sustain their vision of creating a clean and green city.

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Augustine Doronila, Ph.D., a “Balikscientist,” is a research fellow at the School of Chemistry of University of Melbourne, Australia. His expertise is environmental science, phytoremediation, restoration ecology, post-mining reclamation and biogeochemistry. You can learn more about his work through a recent webcast: http://upclose.unimelb.edu.au/episode/216-tailings-tidy-up-how-bioremediation-can-repair-damage-done-mining. His e-mail address is [email protected].