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STOP PLANTING MANGROVES ON SEAGRASS BEDS _ A CALL TO ACTION
We, marine scientists and coastal NGO practitioners attending the Workshop on Building Resilience in
Marine Protected Areas in Cebu City, note that ecological sins are being committed in the name of
coastal resilience, specifically mangrove planting of the WRONG species * bakhaw Rhizophoro - instead
of piapi Avrcennia marina and pagat?at Sonnerotia albo in the WRONG sites - particularly on seagrass
beds * instead of abandoned fishponds (which mangroves formerly occupied).
Seagrass beds are important as habitats in themselves. They provide nursery and feeding grounds to the
iconic marine turtles, seahorses, dugong and most coastalfishes and shellfishes. Aside from being highly
productive ecosystems, seagrasses also buffer waves, stabilize substrates and improve water quality.
Although mangrove hectarage has doubled from -120,000 hectares !n the mid-1990s to some 250,000
hectares by 2000, a big part of this increase has been due to the misguided practice of transforming
to mangroves. Field visits and presentations during conferences and workshops indicate that
many mangrove plantations (e.g., Banacon in Bohol, Bantayan in Cebu, and Nueva Valencia in Guimaras)
are on seagrass beds.
seagrasses
ln March 2072, over 7,000 volunteers planted one million bakhaw propagules in Ragay, Camarines Sur
primarily for a new Guinness record and secondarily for the environment. The multi-million peso
Philippine National Aquasilviculture Program of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR)
and the multi-trillion peso National Greening Program of the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources (DENR) and similar initiatives continue to plant bakhaw in the wrong sites {see attached
photos).
And the ecologically incorrect practices continue, in light of the millions and billions of pesos released to
mangrove programs after Super Typhoon Yolanda. An article in the 5 November 2014 issue of Business
World Online reported the DENR planting of 23 million mangrove trees in 38,200 hectares in Leyte Gulf
to be followed by another 42 million seedlings. This is based on the DENR-ERDB claim of 1,700 hectares
of mangroves damaged by the storm in Samar-Leyte which is way above the 100-200 hectares estimated
by a composite science-NGO team that surveyed these provinces in January and March 2014. The same
team observed that bakhaw plantations were devastated while natural stands remained largely intact.
This means that such misguided planting using bakhaw does not even achieve its goal of coastal
protection. Another gross overestimation of mangrove damage is the reported mortality of 328
hectares of plantations plus another 115 hectares of natural stands in Cordova, Cebu caused by an oil
spill, according to the DENR. This is in contrast to less lhan% hectare of damaged mangrove actually
surveyed by U.P. Visayas scientists.
Reiterating previous calls of the Philippine Association of Marine Science in 2003 and 2005, we therefore
call on the DENR/BFAR/other nationalagencies, localgovernments, NGOs, academe and the corporate
sector to STOP mangrove planting on seagrass beds, and to STOP seafront planting of bakhaw.
lnstead, we strongly recommend the:
a) propagation and planting of piapi A. marino and pagatpat S. alba in appropriate sites, following
protocols in the 2012 Manual on Community-based Mongrove Rehabilitation in the Philippines, and
b) immediate enforcement of policies (e.9., DENR orders that date back to 1990) that mdndate reversion
of abandoned ponds to their original.mangrove condition, and
c) legislation to protect seagrass habitats.
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Mangrove planting on seagrass beds as part of "rehabilitation" of
oilspillin Poblacion, Cordova, Cebu. Dec. 19,2013
Signed this 17th day of February 2015:
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