Fifteen kilometers of riverbank for riparian zone re-vegetation (RZR) is being eyed this year by the Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO), a senior PEMO official disclosed.
Forester Mary Jane Manlisis, PEMO’s Forest and Inland Water Division (FIWD) chief said that the targeted area for RZR is Safali River that covers 14.78 kilometers of river bank and located at Barangays Poblacion and Edwards in the municipslity of T’boli.
Manlisis added that part of the program include the establishment of a 20-hectare bamboo plantation to be use as RZR planting materials at Barangay Buenavista in Surallah.
“The bamboo plantation will be established during the first quarter, while RZR will start from June until December of this year,” Manlisis further added.
Meanwhile, PEMO-FIWD will also monitor the proposed Bamboo Hub project of Surallah National Agricultural School (SUNAS) which they expect to be operational by the third quarter of this year.
The project intends to refurbish the existing bamboo hub building inside the SUNAS campus that will be both use as a production and training center with a proposed project cost of more than P800,00.00.
The province provided funds to purchase the bamboo hub equipment worth P2,000,000.00 that is now currently housed inside the bamboo hub building.
During the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing between South Cotabato Bamboo Industry Development Council (SCBIDC) and SUNAS late last year, Governor Daisy P. Avance Fuentes, in her capacity as SCBIDC Chair, assured financial assistance of P1 million to SUNAS in the form of “soft loan” and as a start-up in the bamboo hub operation.
, Part of the “soft loan” condition for SUNAS is to provide the province with bamboo chairs and tables in the equivalent amount that will be distributed to different schools province-wide as part of its school-building program.
.
The Department of Trade and Industry through its Rural Micro-Enterprise Promotions Programme and Shared Service Facility also bought earlier two bamboo nodes that are now currently used by artisans of the Banga Kawayan Arts Associations (BKAA) in San Vicente, Banga and Crossing Palkan Care Group (CPCG) in Palkan, Polomolok.
