[ Manila Bulletin Online ] April 19, 2008
By MARS W. MOSQUEDA JR.
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol — Four Visayas provincial governors have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) on Friday to jointly protect, preserve, and manage the Danajon Double Barrier Reef, the only documented barrier reef in the country and in the Southeast Asia region.
Governors Gwendolyn Garcia of Cebu, Carlos Jericho Petilla of Leyte, Erico Aumentado of Bohol), and Damian Mercado of Southern Leyte signed the MoA during the CeLeBoSoLe Growth Quadrangle Convention on Poverty, Population and Environment held in Tagbilaran City.
Located off northern Bohol and surrounded by the provinces of Cebu, Leyte and Southern Leyte, the 272- square-kilometer Danajon Bank is blessed with rich and diverse marine flora and fauna, besides having Southeast Asia’s largest man-made mangrove forest, located on Banacon Island off the shores of Getafe town in Bohol.
It sprawls across 16 municipalities and two cities in the four Visayas provinces which, however, is also precariously within the bastions of the so-called "Millionaires’ Club," in terms of population.
Over the years, the condition of Danajon Bank has been in an alarming state due to the extremely high fishing pressure, rapid population growth in the coastal towns surrounding it, and the inefficient coastal resource management programs and and ineffective policies.
The signing of the MoA automatically created the CeLeBoSoLe Council and Technical Working Group, both of which is an inter-regional, multi-province, and multi-agency body.
The agreement aims to address the issues and concerns affecting food security, poverty reduction over population, maintenance of the biodiversity at the Danajon Bank Barrier Reef, and the enforcement fishery laws through a participatory-convergence approach of stakeholders of this rare natural asset.
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