by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City-‘Coinciding with the culmination of the Ocean month of May, national government agencies, local government units, and Oceana international organization celebrated the “Panahon sa Panaon: Isaulog Nato (Season for Panaon: Let’s Celebrate)” right at Panaon Island, located southeast off the mainland of Southern Leyte province.
The celebration also marked the anticipation of stakeholders on the passage of Senate bill, declaring Panaon Island one of the country’s protected seascapes, which is vital in maintaining and preserving coastal and marine resources of the island.
Panaon Island, a 30 kilometer-long (north to south) island, surrounded by Sogod Bay, Surigao Strait, and Mindanao Sea, is home to four municipalities of Southern Leyte: Liloan, Pintuyan, San Ricardo, and San Francisco.
While rice and coconut farming, and fishing are the main livelihood of the island’s residents, scuba diving and whale watching are the main tourism activities there, as the island takes pride of its healthy coral reefs, mangroves, and rich biodiversity.
It also hosts many threatened or endangered marine species such as whale sharks, sea turtles, rays, the endemic Philippine duck, hundreds of fish species, and vibrant corals, making the island a national concern and focal point for ecosystem’s protection and conservation.
During the celebration, LGU and Oceana officials, students, and other stakeholders discussed the importance of declaring Panaon Island a protected seascape to address, in part, the island’s concern on food, nutrition, and livelihood.
With the event’s theme, “Develop a Sustainable and Equitable Blue Economy,” officials also talked on ways to address the threats the island has been facing such as illegal fishing, marine pollution, and climate change.
These threats make the protected seascape declaration a must to save the island from eventual destruction of its marine resources.
“The declaration of Panaon as a protected seascape will strengthen the island’s protection, and help the LGUs here in warding off threats against marine biodiversity, and let the island’s ecosystem thrive in abundance,” said lawyer Gloria Estenzo Ramos, Oceana’s vice president.
Oceana was the event’s organizer in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Region 8, which had been highlighting the importance of the country’s marine resources in sustaining human life, and vice versa.
“There is a direct correlation between marine life and human life on land; the survival of one depends on the other,” said DENR Secretary Ramon Paje during the Ocean month celebration earlier.
Once declared as a protected seascape, Panaon will be under the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System law (E-NIPAS). Prior to it, is the need to formulate a management plan to fully protect the island.
“The management plan ensures the protection and proper management of the island’s resources by all stakeholders for the benefit of the people of Panaon,” said lawyer Rose-Liza Osorio, senior director of Oceana’s Campaigns, Legal, and Policy.
Liloan Mayor Joanna Adan, said all the stakeholders gathered in the event “to emphasize and raise awareness on the need of maintaining and conserving our coastal and marine resources, as well as managing them effectively.”—Miriam G. Desacada