by Lorie Ann A. Cascaro
About five hours by bus ride from downtown Davao City, a community of diverse cultures welcomes every visitor with pride for its success stories yet to be told by the people themselves. As part of the struggle for sustainable development, they had proven that unity can move mountains.
Wao, Lanao del Sur is one of the eight municipalities in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) which were cited as Galing Pook winners by the Department of Interior and Local Government and Galing Pook Foundation last December. The award recognizes their “remarkable innovations and initiatives in good governance.”
A settlement area in the past, Wao today is a community with a population of 42,100 that is dominantly Ilongo and Maranao, and settlers from Batanes, Pampanga, Ilocos and Zamboanga among others. Despite their cultural diversity, they were able to act as one in implementing programs on watershed co-management and integrated solid waste management (SWM).
“Nakasabot na gyud ang mga tao (the residents finally understand what this is all about),” said Elvino B. Balicao, Jr., the town mayor. “We invested so much in IEC (information education campaign). Mao gyud ang pinakadako nga gasto.” The local government began educating its people on protecting the environment since 2003, building linkages with institutions, associations, barangay officials and other groups, he added.
Wao Vice Mayor Mary Ruth C. Catalan also said that the people had long ago understood the importance of taking responsibility in preserving their forests, probably learning from the flashfloods that occurred there on October 9, 2008 that wiped out the homes of 38 families out of a total of 70 households affected. “Siguro nakasabot sila nga kinahanglan wala nay ikaduha mahitabo (they realized that it shouldn’t happen a second time),” she said.
Wao was one of the first recipients of technical assistance from the Philippine Environmental Governance Project (EcoGov) in forest/forestlands management that involved the formulation of a Forest Land Use Plan (FLUP). EcoGov is a program of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
EcoGov also assisted Wao in developing its 10-year Integrated SWM Plan, which made it the first and so far the only municipality in the ARMM to construct a sanitary landfill.
Solid waste management
Started operating in July 2006, the sanitary land fill has a life-span of 15 years, accommodating only residual wastes because the people, according to Catalan, already segregate their wastes at source. Biodegradable wastes go to vermi-composting facility while recyclable ones are deposited at the material recovery facility (MRF).
An officer of the municipal environment and natural resources office (Menro), Lominog Polayagan, said a community-based orientation made their programs different from that of others. They involved the people in the process from planning and mapping stages to IEC.
Strong political will and community participation were the keys to the successful ISWM program of Wao. Aside from an intensive information program, strict law enforcement had also made it effective. In fact, the people themselves helped in enforcing the anti-littering law by texting the authority to apprehend violators in the act. Polayagan said the number of apprehensions decreased from 372 in 2007 to just 50 in 2010.
This proved that people in Wao have already accepted the fact that solid waste management is everybody’s concern, and that they are willing to pay for such services. In return, the local government has additional source of revenue from environmental management fees, garbage penalty fees, tipping fees, sales of recyclable wastes, and sales of vermi-cast (organic fertilizer).
Watershed co-management
Meanwhile, upland settlers hold the same view with the rest of the people in Wao, especially those who used to earn income from logging. They already understand the importance of conserving watersheds as their water supply is declining. Wao’s watersheds supply five river systems and can potentially irrigate 19,000 hectares of farmlands within Wao and five other adjacent municipalities.
With an economy that depends so much on water, Wao gets its water supply (for drinking and irrigating farms) from its springs, Bongol and Diomel. Thirty years ago, Diomel spring used to discharge 100 liters per second (lps) during the rainy season. But, after drought hit in 1983, it has been discharging only 15 lps, but only five lps in the dry season. Bongol discharges 90 lps in the rainy season, and 55 lps during the dry season.
The culprits: massive kaingin (slash and burn system of land preparation) and illegal logging operations in the watershed area. To rehabilitate its forestlands, the local government assigned the settlers who depend directly on forests for livelihood as stewards of the forests instead of driving them away.
Executive assistant to the municipal mayor, Al B. Belotendos, an engineer, said the local government came up with a plan on how to create a sustainable income for the farmers, diverting their mindset to agro-forestry.
Since 2006, almost half of the upland settlers, 183 out of some 300, were issued with individual property rights (IPR) agreements providing them security of tenure and making them partners of forest management. Out of the 2,184-hectare co-management area, 240 hectares have been developed into agro-forestry for corn, coffee, rubber, and fruit-bearing trees. Issuance of IPR is still on-going, in fact last February 1, another batch of 50 settlers was provided with IPR.
Each farmer will be provided with at least one hectare of land for agro-forestry activities for 25 years, as well as planting materials (seedlings). Each recipient will pay land improvement tax only after the harvest. In other words, it is a “Plant now, pay later,” program.
Balicao said their payment will be used to provide planting materials to other IPR holders. Alloting P1 million annually for the forest management program, Wao implemented a Payment for Environmental Services (PES) scheme to support the implementation of the program to augment its limited resources.
While waiting for the enactment of PES, the Wao Water District donated P75,000 for the community watershed program while the Wao United Truckers Association committed to contribute P10 per load of agricultural products. Wao Development Corporation also contributed planting materials and workforce for technical assistance. A mountain spring resort (still under construction) committed to share some of its proceeds to the program.
There is absolutely no more logging operations, legal or otherwise, in Wao which still has 12,000 hectares of forest cover, “virgin and mossy,” according to the mayor. Anyone who wants to cut down a tree must seek permission from Menro to avoid being penalized according to law. “People now learn how to plant trees instead of cutting them down,” Polyagan said.
“We are doing all these to protect our environment, to prevent flood and to conserve our water supply. Basin moabot ang panahon wala nay mainom ang mga tao(otherwise the time will come when the people will not have any water to drink),” Balicao said.
Fer Esguerra, Mindanao regional manager of USAID-EcoGov, earlier said, “Wao’s laudable achievement sets a model for other LGUs in Mindanao and the whole country on good eco-governance. Even a small municipality like Wao can make a big difference in mitigating climate change and conserving our biodiversity.”
