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By Nora O. Gamolo Senior Desk
Editor
People who have not earned a
graduate degree, did not do well in school, or perhaps are less
schooled probably find it intimidating to be professional partners
of scientists.
But there is no reason to shun
scientific company. Most scientists value ordinary people’s
participation in their work.
Understanding pollution
How polluted an area is—like an
abandoned mine or an oil-spill tainted beach—is better studied by
scientists. Residents of Barangay Bagacay in a town in Samar and of
towns of Guimaras province learned this to be fact.
The researchers explained to the
Bagacay residents that traces of mining pollutants eventually
penetrate the soil and cause geochemical “neo-anomalies.” These
contain up to 1,000 times the normal trace element, most often
toxic, and pollute the environment.
In a report submitted to the
Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources
Research and Development, the researchers recommended revegetation
of the areas and establishment of soil erosion control structures to
prevent pollution of rivers and adjacent agricultural fields.
The researchers recommend the
planting of fast-growing species, such as acacia, agoho, bitaog and
even bamboo. These species have a high litter-fall turnover and fast
decomposition and drought rate. They are also acid and saline
resistant. Endemic fruit trees, such as duhat and camachile, can
also be planted.
Reversing lahar degradation
A posthumous award was lately
given to Dr. Wilfredo Barraquio, a former professor of University of
the Philippines Diliman’s Institute of Biology who was conferred
the Hugh Greenwood Environmental Science Award recently by the
National Academy of Science and Technology.
Dr. Barraquio used microbes to
clean and restore the damaged environment of areas surrounding Mount
Pinatubo that spewed several billion cubic meters of lahar and other
volcanic debris and turned wide swathes of land in Central Luzon
ashen, but it is the farmers and agricultural specialists who
validated and propagated his research.
He found out that these micro-
organisms, called arbuscular mycor-rhizal fungi, live in wild sugar
canes growing along the Pasig-Potrero River in Barangay Maniag-Pasig
in Pampanga. Despite the dry, lahar-strewn environment, these fungi
thrive in wild sugarcane and also support the growth of legumes.
Dr. Barraquio concluded in his
research that reviving vegetation around Pinatubo could be spurred
by planting sugarcane on a wider scale to encourage the growth and
proliferation of the fungi, and by planting legumes alongside the
sugarcane to play up the “complex biological interaction among
plants, microorganisms, and the environment.”
Rehabilitating forests
The country’s 22 million upland
dwellers are blamed for the depletion of forest resources, but
forestry researchers also discovered they who dwell in the forests
are the best partners to revive and rehabilitate them.
Several government and non-
government groups, including the Department of Science and
Technology’s Forest Products Research and Development Institute
and its partners, no longer view upland communities as ecological
nuisance, but as partners in forest rehabilitation and protection.
Institute researchers surveyed
and trained forest dwellers in provinces of Aurora, Western Samar,
Surigao del Sur and Palawan. They documented the communities’
economic activities, especially how they collect, process and market
non-wood forest products such as rattan, vines, bamboo, erect palms,
honey and almaciga resin.
“We wanted to better understand
upland people, because we want to help them take better care of the
abundant resources within their reach,” said Arnaldo Mosteiro,
project leader.
The research team discovered that
the upland dwellers, many of them natives, were dependent of the
yield of the forest, producing all sorts of handicrafts—mats,
hats, fans, bags, brooms, house decors—from every available raw
material.
Ignorance, however, stifles
productivity and jeopardizes their raw material base, as the farmers
used very crude methods to tap resin, a raw material for varnish
taken from almaciga trees. The trees are maimed and killed in the
process.
The Institute managed the
situation by training upland dwellers on the wise use of non-wood
forest resources and shared technologies to improve their product
quality and productivity. New livelihood skills were also shared to
lessen the upland dwellers’ dependence on the forest.
In other areas, like in Samar and
South Cotabato, the Forest Products Research and Development
Institute helps wean uplanders from destructive forest use practices
like kaingin or swidden farming.
Making creative use
of janitor fish
In another instance, it took
scientists to develop new ways of dealing with the invasion of the
country’s water systems by the janitor fish: as food, a fishmeal
source, fish leather making (because of its unique and
hideous-looking skin) and as discovered by a Marikina high-school
student, as an alternative fuel additive.
The fish is an imported
freshwater catfish species native to South America introduced in the
1990s by the local ornamental fish industry. It cleans up an
aquarium by feeding on algae growing on its sides. It was previously
bred in ponds in Laguna but has escaped into Laguna de Bay and
nearby river systems.
Managing the fast-growing fish is
important for the fishers since they are caught in, and destroy nets
with their spines and teeth-filled jaws.
Community-based
disaster management
Disaster management is high on
the agenda of both government and civil society groups. A lot of
training courses are being given on hazards mapping; critical
climatic and environmental episodes like storm surges, landslides
ground rupture and shaking; earthquake-induced landslide,
liquefaction, and tsunami; and early warning systems, among others.
Specialists like geologists,
meteorologists, and climatologists conduct the training courses for
heads of local government units, barangay councils, farmers and
fishermen and other community stakeholders. Trainors come from
government and nongovernment groups.
Lately, the government decided to
install a tsunami early warning system for coastal communities of
Metro Manila, making use of wet sensors located on islands near
potential tsunami zones linked through a reliable communication
system to an information receiving center at the Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology’s main office in Quezon
City.
The project is special since
high-risk coastal communities facing the Manila Trench (western side
of the country), particularly coastal towns of Metro Manila are
currently outside the coverage of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center
and the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
The P2.2-million project will
enable the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to
train authorities and community leaders on tsunami warning systems
so they could implement proper responses and emergency procedures
like evacuation of the population to higher, safer grounds.
Scientists are also expected to
help monitor the effectiveness of the tsunami early warning system
to be set up.
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