The Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Inc., along with its sister-company Smart Communications Inc. have partnered to protect one of the country’s most vital natural resources needed to fight climate change, its peatland, in the next three years.
Under the arrangement, the agency, through its attached agency, the Biodiversity Management Bureau in CARAGA, would work with PLDT and Smart to set up a program to protect, conserve and restore the Caimpugan peatland in the Agusan marsh wildlife sanctuary in Agusan del Sur.
The peatland holds the only recorded remaining intact peat swamp forest, the largest of its kind in the country.
Peatlands cover only 3 percent of the earth’s land surface. These are wetlands whose peat soils consist of carbon-rich dead and decaying plant matter.
DENR cited the peatlands’ crucial role in mitigating climate change and the huge costs that arise when these natural carbon sinks are damaged, remains largely overlooked.
“Little is known about our country’s peatlands. Now is the time to change the course of conversation, as well as the conservation of this natural treasure and steer our collaborative efforts towards creating a climate-resilient future,” Assistant Secretary for Climate Change and BMB director Ricard Calderon said.
“This peatland conservation partnership is our unique chance to secure that promising future for all,” he said.
The project also aims to engage wetland-dependent communities in a sustainable and biodiversity-friendly livelihood program.
