Capitol Continues Efforts to Safeguard Cebu’s ‘Karst’ and Key Biodiversity Areas

To continuously safeguard key biodiversity areas in Cebu, an ordinance for the conservation of special landscape areas, referred to as ‘karst areas’ shall be crafted following Capitol’s efforts to gather inputs from environment experts.

“Landscape in karst areas is extremely sensitive, so they need to be protected,” said Bill Grandert, executive director of Soil and Water Conservation Foundation Inc., (SWCFI).

SWCFI, a non-government organization assists the Provincial Government in managing its soil and water resources.

According to SWCFI, karst areas are landforms formed to greater solubility of certain rocks where solutional cave system often form underneath. Its hollow nature may result in high pollution since contaminants can travel with speeds up to hundreds of meters and even kilometers per day affecting springs and wells in the vicinity.

To encourage local government units to come up with a “biodiversity conservation plan for karst landscape”, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (Penro) with Grandert, organized a field trip/training last Mar 9 on karst areas in southern Cebu, with representatives from the Provincial Engineering Office, Provincial Planning and Development Office and the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO).

According to Grandert, the proposed measure, once approved, would serve as a guide to planners, developers and policy makers who wish to conduct any activity in Cebu’s karst areas.

These activities include tourism and cave visits; farming; engineering works; sanitation and water extraction.

“Karst landforms can be very difficult for civil engineers, who construct buildings and roads and can be risky to people in the community,” as stated in the SWCFI kit.

During the field trip, Granert showed recurring cracks on roads and also enumerated instances of repeated landslides on “trimmed” mountains to give way to roads.

He also showed and explained the damaging effects of pesticides sprayed on these plants as its toxic residues passes through the soil surface of vegetable farms on karst areas and contaminates the aquifer.

“Chlorinating the (potable) water will not remove pesticides,” he said.

Granert said the proposed measure spells conservation of key biodiversity areas in Cebu, a host of several fauna and flora species that are only found here and nowhere else in the world. This includes the Cebu mistletoe, which is seen only in the Nug-as forest and was described as new species in 2016; the Cebu black shama and the Cebu hawk owl, which are endemic to Cebu and considered distinct species in 2013.

In the end, each LGU will come up with an action plan that details what needs to be done and the resources needed to successfully implement it.

Protecting the environment and managing risks brought by disasters and climate change is one of Gov. Hilario P. Davide’s six key development agenda.  (Oscar Pineda)

www.cebu.gov.ph