Rehabilitating Marine Resources in the Philippines

Rehabilitating Marine Resources in the Philippines Correspondent: To see if abaca will work in new uses companies like Chrysler want to know if abaca is strong enough. Will last long enough and be grown in sufficient quantities supply what could be a massive market. It could make a big difference in replacing pretty toxic materials that are used today. Time will tell. Meanwhile what about the people trying to survive off the coast on those idyllic looking islands -- harbor of Western Leyte supports 600 people. Typically in the path of typhoons and El Nino effects that increasing these stress the crucial corals that surrounds them. These tiny islands still produce enough vegetables for the 115 households but fish the staple part of the dire was disappearing fast. This desperate situation was solved by Aid from a European charity called Euro Nature. The first thing was to generate income so people could feed themselves. The islands grow screw pine or pandan indigenously. Fortunately they have leaves that can be coned and woven into mats, hats and pillow cases. The Apid Women’s Livelihood Association now export to all over the world making enough for the men not to have to go off to none existent fish. They now make boats to take visitors to explore the coral reefs and they rare pigs. Life is possible again on what’s left of the biodiversity of the reefs is being preserved. Liza Dadole (Apid Women’s livelihood Association): This kind of processing of pandan leaves has been here since they lived. They planted here, there’s planted leaves and they’ve been doing this ever since. They got this pandan leaves on the upper side of the mountains of the island process this into strips into this kinds of strips. They sell it to the mainland every Sunday the ones who are buying this leaves are the people on the other barangays of ilupatan. Correspondent: Off the Harbor there’s now marine sanctuary where fishing has been agreed not to happen and there’s big factory trawlers aren’t allowed either but nobody knows how long the coral reefs will take to recover if ever. Prof. Freidhelm Goltenboth (Hohenheim University): Well this entire area is now a protected area. All the families are still on the islands. They have not to migrate to the mainland and thirdly those people are now very proud of being a part of consolation of their own environment and already two years after the first marine sanctuaries have been created they got as well unsubstantial increase in fish yield outside of those protected areas. Correspondent: So far the transformation of Leyte into an eco paradise has relied heavily on aid mainly German. Some say it isn’t sustainable either economically or environmentally while the agency supporting the projects claim farmers already earn 10 times the income they got from coconut plantations that’s not what the economist who have looked to the books. Relying on growing hardwoods for 25 years is to provide an income isn’t going to work, they say. What is needed is some added value and in rainforests on the other side of the world there might just be the answer. Costa Rica is now saving its spectacular forests after losing nearly half of them to logging. By charging for what forests give instead of taking them fore granted you make it hard to cut them down. Things like greenhouse gas saving water source protection biodiversity even natural beauty could all be charged for. Jose Campos (Centro Agromico Tropical de Investigation y Esenanza): By paying this first owners this environmental services then you are making this lands competitive are gains the other users like converting this lands into pasture, agriculture and we think that by managing this forest by one product alone we wouldn’t get enough economic value to make this activity competitive but is in the diversity of goods and services that they provide where we’re going to make the best economic use of this forests. Mohamed El-Ashry (Global Environment Facility): If there’s truly a global service here for climate for biodiversity and for other things then perhaps there ought to be a fee for that service the question becomes who collects that fee and who gets that fee and shouldn’t the communities that live around the forest be the first ones to benefit from this effort. Correspondent: Only time convincing the world to pay for forests and the pragmatism of the farmers will tell whether the tarsiers survival will be in their hands the battle for sustainable living isn’t yet assured despite over a decade of effort. Paying for forests is a big question something earth report will return to soon.