Mangrove planting helps Filipino seaweed farmers in crisis

Dyborrhae Jewel M. Reyes, ABS-CBN Zamboanga 14 Feb 09;

ZAMBOANGA CITY -- Arnold Suyco has been a seaweed farmer for 15 years. This year, he noticed that demand for dried and fresh seaweeds from buyers has been declining.

As a result, Suyco said prices of seaweeds fell from P105.00 per kilo of dried seaweeds last year to P35 per kilo this week. At this price, he said he will not have enough income to support his daily expenses at home.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) earlier warned seaweeds would be one of the export industries that will be affected by the global economic slowdown other than the rubber and the coconut industries.

Fortunately for Suyco, concerned citizens have thrown him a lifesaver.

On Friday, Suyco thanked uniformed and civilian members of the Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS), plus members of an environmentalist group, who planted "propagules" of mangrove trees in a 5-hectare artificial mangrove area.

PCAS Chief Supt. Danilo Abadiano said their activity was a pre-Valentine offering for their love of nature.

"I guess you can call it that; that your concern for the environment benefits not only nature but also the people who live off these products from mangrove areas," Abadiano said.

Suyco said he is no longer worried about not being able to earn from his seaweed farm.

Because of the past rehabilitation efforts of the government and concerned civic groups to replenish the wetlands, they can still feed their families through other species found in mangrove areas.

Suyco said he has now learned that concern for the environment can be helpful during times of crises.

Kabuhi Mindanao, a non-government organization that attends to mangrove replanting, said the standard wetlands area of a city or a province only reaches to three to four per cent of its total area.

But through mangrove replanting, it said man is able to help replenish fish sanctuaries. Mangroves also help improve the quality of seaweeds and propagate fishpond products.

The artificial mangrove forest in barangay Mampang in Zamboanga City used to be a desert. But in the 1990s, the 5-hectare area was transformed into a productive area with hundreds of plant and animal species.