Butuan City & Taguibo Watershed Mngt Councils to jointly hold Consultative Planning Workshop

By Jennifer P. Gaitano

BUTUAN CITY, Aug. 16 (PIA) – The Butuan City Watershed Management Council and the Taguibo Watershed Management Council have joined hands to fashion out a common blue print of action that would ensure continuous water flow for a sustainable future. For this purpose, both councils will be holding a joint Consultative Planning Workshop on August 22, 2013 at the Grand Palace, Diversion Road, this city.

Said activity is in collaboration with the Enterprise Works Worldwide Philippines (EWWP), a European Union (EU) funded non-government organization partner that is implementing natural resource governance and biodiversity conservation project in the Philippines.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Regional Executive Director Nonito Tamayo bared that the Taguibo watershed is presently exhibiting higher vulnerabilities to climate impacts – from increasing incidence of flooding, accelerated soil erosion, and the concomitant of its rivers and tributaries.

“For purposes of protection, maintenance and improvement of water yield Presidential Proclamation No. 1076 signed on September 4, 1997 by then President Fidel Ramos establishing the 4,367 heactares Taguibo Watershed Forest Reserve. The proclamation also provided for restraining mechanism for inappropriate forest exploitation and land-use practices inside the reserve,” recalled Tamayo.

Tamayo added that the administrative jurisdiction, supervision and control of the reservation was placed under the DENR, in coordination with Butuan City Water District (BCWD) and other government agencies with the objective of maintaining its usefulness as a source of water for domestic use, irrigation and other forestry purposes. “Pursuant to this mandate, the Taguibo Watershed management Council was created,” he said.

It was also learned that although the Butuan City Watershed Council is still on the process of crafting its Watershed Development Plan, the DENR and the BCWD had already completed the Sustainable Watershed Development and Management Plan of Taguibo 2003 and the Taguibo Integrated Watershed Development Plan of 2010, respectively.

“However, there is yet a need to interface the various interventions contained in these plans to ensure that they act in harmony with each other towards a common goal,” emphasized Tamayo.

To get a good grip with the local challenges that confront the city watersheds amid climate change, the two councils opt to solicit valuable inputs from its partner stakeholders during the consultative meeting and workshop.

The activity is anchored on the theme “Harmonized Climate Change-Adaptive Approaches towards Building Resilient Watershed Ecosystems for a Sustainable Future.” (JPG/PIA-Caraga)