DENR urged to act vs. mangrove destruction in protected Tañon Strait area

Environment groups have appealed to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to stop the apparent destruction of mangroves in Barangay Tangil-Tapon in Dumanjug, Cebu.

In a letter dated Thursday, Oceana Philippines, the Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc., and the Environmental Legal Assistance Center cited reports of a DENR-issued earth-balling permit for some 930 mangroves in the area.

Earth-balling is a method of transferring trees by digging in a circle around them to keep the roots mainly intact when they are uprooted. 

The letter alleged that residents have reported dead and dying mangroves that had been uprooted via the method and "just dumped in the area."

Oceana Philippines included this photo of mangroves in Dumanjug, Cebu in its appeal to DENR to stop the earth-balling of the plants in the area. Photo: Gloria Ramos/Oceana Philippines

The groups demanded to know the reason why the permit to earth-ball the mangroves was issued, and appealed to DENR officials, including Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, for immediate action.

They stressed that Dumanjug is part of the Tañon Strait protected seascape, which is "one of the country's biggest protected seascapes where tens of thousands of fisherfolk depend on thriving marine ecosystems such as mangroves for their livelihood."

"Cutting and destroying mangroves is a crime in our county under various laws,"  their letter said, citing among others the Forestry Reform Code, Republic Act 11038 or Act Declaring Protected Areas and Providing for Their Management, and the Expanded National Integrated Protected System Act.

They added, "A state agency is never allowed to legitimize the destruction of our vastly threatened life support systems, and specifically, our mangroves, especially as we are one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change."

"Clearly, the permit should never have been allowed, in Tañon Strait, and anywhere else," the letter said.

The letter was signed by Estenzo Ramos of Oceana Philippines, Rose Liza Eisma-Osorio of the Philippine Earth Justice Center, Inc., and Jocelyn Caseres of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center.

GMA News Online has reached out to DENR officials for comment. — BM, GMA News