FILE PHOTO: Mangrove in Brgy Umapad.
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu—Personnel of the Mandaue City Government conducted an inventory of the city’s coastal areas in preparation for its plan to develop a mangrove eco-tourism site.
Heads of the different offices such as the City Agriculture, City Legal, City Environment and Natural Resources, among others visited on Wednesday, the coastal barangays, especially their mangrove areas.
They inspect the areas’ assets and assess what are the things that could still be done that could transform the area into an attraction.
No tourist destination
After the inventory, they will formulate a blue economy map that is part of the integrated management coastal plan.
The city has 72 hectares of mangrove areas located in barangays Umapad, Labogon, Jagobiao, and Paknaan.
The city having, no tourist destination, wants to utilize resources it is abundant with, that’s why it wanted to transform the mangrove area as an eco-tourism park.
READ MORE: Mandaue City eyes mangrove swamps as eco-tourism sites
“Wala baya ta’y murag tourist destination sa Mandaue, so hopefully mabuhat ni nato,” said Sharon Mangadlao, in-charge of the City Agriculture Office.
(We don’t have a tourist destination in Mandaue, so hopefully we can do this.)
Apart from different department heads, the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce Industry (MCCI) and environmental advocates also joined the tour on Wednesday.
“It’s good because we in Mandaue, we are industrial, commercial city and it’s surprising that we have this asset within our city boundaries, especially now that climate change is such an issue, protection of what is left is very important,” said MCCI President Kelie Ko.
“We have a lot of potential here in Mandaue City. We are trying to see this so called blue economy, sustainability in our coastal, marine, and offshore areas, we have to take at look at environment we have a natural assets here,” said Dr. Michael Abundo, Ocean Pixel Chief Executive Officer.
/bmjo