Rescue groups begin “rescue” of burned areas of watershed

From one of the articles at website of Baguio City

Sun, 05/16/2010 - 21:43 — p_rillorta

 

The city’s rescue groups are trying to stave off a possible disaster, using their rappelling skills and equipment to replant precipitous areas of the Busol Watershed which were damaged in three fires last summer. Former city administrator Peter Fianza quietly led volunteers of the City Disaster Coordinating Council (CDCC) and the Kabalikat Civicom in last Friday’s second wave of planting and watering fast-growing calliandra and ipil seedlings.

Fianza, the action officer of the CDCC, admitted it’s his way of thanking the city’s voters for electing him to the city council, saying he couldn’t afford to host a feast to celebrate the victory. With about five hectares burned, Fianza said it will take sometime before the work is finished, even with the support of 40 students replanting on less inclined portions under the city’s Special Program for the Employment of Students

Most of the seedlings destroyed were planted by children under the city’s on-site Eco-Walk environmental learning program.

In taking on the less dramatic task, the city’s volunteer rescue and emergency response groups may yet succeed in bringing to the fore the need to expand the official view of disaster seen as myopic by environmentalists.

Most often, disasters are only deemed as such if they have direct impact on human life and property, not when thousands of trees are lost in a fire, noted an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“A community is declared a calamity area based on human lives and properties lost or damaged, but not when a forest is lost,” the official said. Declaration of a calamity area allows government agencies and local government units to use funds for rescue, relief and rehabilitation work.

“The members of the CDCC and other rescue groups see the rehabilitation of our watershed as crucial in the long run as their saving lives during emergencies,” Fianza said.

Groups which would like to sign up for the reforestation work may call the CDCC at 442-1900 to 5 or the information division of the city mayor’s office at 442-2502. Seedlings used in the forest rehabilitation are provided by the city environment and parks management office through its nursery at Pacdal. – Ramon Dacawi.

Source: (http://www.baguio.gov.ph/index.php?q=content/rescue-groups-begin-%E2%80%9Crescue%E2%80%9D-burned-areas-watershed)