Officials ink deal for Tacloban’s mangrove reforestation

TACLOBAN CITY, Aug. 9 -- Officials of the city government here and the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) signed a memorandum of agreement for the  mangrove reforestation project dubbed as "One Resilient Team Tacloban Project".

A foreign organization, Global Resilience Challenge Water Window funded the US$135,000 to reforest  15 hectares of mangrove area  in Nula-tula and New Kawayan districts.

Mayor Cristina Romualdez and PRA General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Janilo Rubiato signed the deal on Tuesday at the city hall.

The project will run for 18 months, focusing on the rehabilitation of the hectares of mangrove areas affected by the super typhoon "Yolanda" in 2013. It comes with livelihood and resiliency training for the host community as outlined in the Tacloban Disaster Risk Reduction Master plan.

“On that duration, the city government and the PRA with its partners will implement the project by restoring the mangroves in areas that are vulnerable to storm surges through plating mangroves as a soft protection,” Rubiato said.

Rubiato added the project is not only for this city, but also includes nearby Palo town, which is also badly hit by the super typhoon.

“If this project is successful, we will be replicating this in other areas in the eastern seaboard of the country like Surigao, Samar and Bicol region, which are along the typhoon belt,” Rubiato added.

“We are hoping that people of Tacloban will come together with the project so that we can show our funders abroad that we are doing well and for them to have confidence on giving us another grant for the benefit of other vulnerable places from this kind of projects,” he added. (Roel T. Amazona/PNA)