Rey Anthony Chiu

Tourism or environment? Take your pick.

In Bohol, where many people have seen the lure of easy money in tourism, environmentalists find it hard to convince communities about planting mangroves, it reducing the “come-on” of white sandy beaches. Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) sources hints the issue as communities into beach tourism accordingly turn away from the plusses of mangroves because it can make their beach fronts dirty. People do not want mangroves in their coastlines because it can make the sea muddy, Juliet Paler of DENR said over Kapihan sa PIA Thursday. The mud however, is an indication that the mangroves were able to stop the mud eroded from the mountains, she quickly added. Paler explained that the soil eroded from the hills due to unrestrained human activity tends to go downhill and cover the seagrass beds and reef areas which are the feeding grounds of fish and other marine resources.

On the other hand, the same DENR source admit that people tend to look at the tourism added value of the mangroves in boardwalks as the better money source. This is over the benefits the mangroves can give to the communities. Mangroves, added Bohol Coastal Resource Management Coordinator Adlefa Salutan, are keys to maintain a healthy balance of marine resources. Aside from providing shelter to spawning fish, regulating water temperatures for the fry to grow and providing the detritus for the fingerlings to survive, mangroves are also hosts to wildlife, endemic and migratory birds, Salutan added. Also, mangroves have the most pollutant absorptive capacity among plants, considering their dark green leaves, quipped in Paler who went on to say that mangroves take in massive amounts of carbon dioxide and egests them out as oxygen. But the most people see in mangroves forest is a boardwalk where tourists can get a closer look at the ecosystem. In Bohol, functional mangrove boardwalks included in the tour packages are the San Vicente Mangrove Association (SAVIMA) and Abatan Lincod Maribojoc Nipa Growers Organization (ALIMANGO), Panadtaran Mangroves in Candijay, Panggangan Calape Causeway and the famed Banacon Mangoves Eco-Tours.