The rise in human population and human activities create
problems that have a far reaching effect on the environment. The need for
material resources resulted to the destruction of forests and erosion of mountains
and coastal areas. These problems are aggravated by the phenomenon called
climate change where weather pattern is disrupted and people experience natural
calamities such as flash floods, typhoons and drought. People have tried to
mitigate the affect of these events by reforesting mountains, planting trees in
urban and rural communities, regulating the extraction of mineral resources and implementing
proper waste and garbage disposal among other activities. In this article I
will focus my discussion on the activities that people or groups are doing
specifically the planting of mangroves to develop a forest of trees in the coastal
village of Bonbon, Cagayan de Oro City.
A shrub or a small tree, mangrove grows on the swampy part
of the sea shore that is inundated with the runoff of salt and fresh water from
the river or creeks during high tide. It has oval leaf and roots that project from
the sand or mud. Mangrove can survive in a highly saline environment because of
its ability to filter out salt water. It propagates itself through its fruit
called propagules which when mature fall into the sand or mud to grow into a
new plant.
Dense mangrove vegetation makes a forest that sustains an
ecosystem where different animals can live interdependently with one another
for their survival. On the forest floor, the rising water at high tide and the
residual water at low tide serve as sanctuaries and breeding, spawning and
hatching ground for small species of fish, a situation which can also provide
humans with foods. The sandy and muddy ground under the trees is a habitat for crabs,
oysters, shells, algae and other aquatic or amphibious creatures. The forest
also hosts different insects that are attracted to the tree flowers for their
food and reproduction. The availability of foods such as fish, insects, crabs
and worms make the forest an abode or hunting ground for some species of
migratory or resident birds.
Coastal erosion can be prevented with a forest of mangrove
on the shore because tree roots keep the sand and the mud from being washed
away into the sea. Over time, without the trees, the sea will gradually eat up
portions of the edges of the shore thus pushing coastal residents farther
inland. Mangrove forest can serve as the buffer between marine and terrestrial
communities thereby giving protection to people living in coastal areas during catastrophic
events such as typhoons, storm surges and tsunamis.
In Cagayan de Oro, a tract of the swampy shore in the
village of Bonbon is devoted to the growing and propagation of mangrove to turn
the area into a mangrove forest. The shore is located at the estuary of Cagayan
de Oro River where the salt water of Macajalar Bay meets the fresh water of the
river. A mangrove forest there can help stave off the destructive effects of natural
calamities such as typhoons. On 2011, the city experienced its worst natural disaster
in history when thousands of its residents who lived along the river banks were
killed when they were swept away by the heavy volume of water and sediments
that overflowed from the river during the onslaught of Typhoon Sendong.
With coordination from the City Local Environment and Natural
Resources Office (CLENRO) people from different walks of life, in their own
small way, have been coming to the place to contribute their fair share of
effort in greening the shore with mangroves. If a large percentage of what they
planted will survive, then the shore will turn into a large mangrove forest in
the future. The people or groups include members of the Armed Forces and the
police, business establishments, students from different schools and civic
organizations such as the Lion’s Club.
