Protecting Cebu's forests

When people I meet learn that I am from Cebu, they usually say nice things about it. I am so used to hearing about how beautiful our beaches are, how good and cheap the food is, and how much they enjoyed themselves when they visited. I was taken aback when someone asked me where Cebu is getting its water considering that its forest cover is less than one percent of its total land area.

When you love something, you tend to see it through rose-colored glasses. I love Cebu. I was in no hurry to find out what was wrong with it. My colleague’s question gnawed at me for days. It reminded me of how the water that came out of the faucet in my aunt’s house in Bonifacio Street in the 1980s was salty and slippery and could not be used for cooking or drinking. I decided to be brave and to find out about Cebu’s water supply.

Thanks to Google, I learned that Cebu sources its fresh water from groundwater. My curiosity piqued, I continued searching for “Cebu watersheds” and “Cebu forest cover.” The official Cebu City website (www.cebucity.gov.ph) was surprisingly candid about the city’s watersheds. It stated: “The increasing urbanization of the city now leads to the increasing use of its land for housing, commercial, industrial, institutional and other related activities. Farmlands remained only in the upland or hilly land areas of Cebu City. Presently the city’s upland areas and watersheds are mostly covered with grass and shrubs with patches of corn, coconuts, bananas, cassava and vegetables. Fruit trees are also planted, notably the exotic mango, which is an export product of Cebu. Very little (9.6%) of the natural forest are left in the upland areas of the city. Even the city’s watersheds are lacking in trees that are necessary for their protection.”

The website pointed out that while Philippine laws allow only lands with 18% slope or less to be declared as alienable and disposable(where human settlements and cultivation of land are allowed), in Cebu City only 28% of the land is within the 18% slope or less range but about 64% of the city’s lands are classified as alienable and disposable. The steeper the land is, the more prone to erosion it is. Thus, there is a need for more forest cover. Scientists have estimated that given its slope, the ideal forest cover for the Philippines should be at least 40% to sustain ecosystem services. Other studies state that it should be at least 54%.

From the website, I learned that Cebu City has 76.3% of its land covered under the NIPAS or Nationally Integrated Protected Areas System. Under Republic Act. No. 9486, the Mananga, Kotkot and Lusaran watersheds, the Central Cebu National Park, Sudlon National Park and Cebu Watershed Reservation (Buhisan) were declared as part the Central Cebu Protected Landscape. The protected area covers not only Cebu City but also the cities of Talisay, Toledo and Danao and the municipalities of Minglanilla, Consolacion, Liloan, Compostela and Balamban.

Cebu’s forest ecosytem transcends the political boundaries of its LGUS. While I read a news item about a June 10, 2011 memorandum of agreement between the Cebu City government and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to prepare the city’s Forest Land Use Plan (FLUP), I haven’t found articles about the FLUP of other cities and municipalities. I just hope that the Central Cebu Protected Landscape Management Board does it job. It is a multi-sectoral policy-making body whose members include mayors of the LGUs covered by the protected area.

Cebu needs its forests to ensure adequate fresh water supply in the future. No forests, no water.