A SCIENTIST in Agusan Del Norte said flooding in towns of Agusan del Sur and Butuan City can still worsen unless authorities address protection and conservation issues at the Agusan Marsh Wildlife Sanctuary.
“The flooding along the communities surrounding the Agusan Marsh, its river tributaries and the Agusan River will get worst unless the protection and conservation of the marshland and its rainforest will seriously addressed,” said Dr. Jurgenne Honculada Primavera, Academician of the National Academy of Science and Technology and chief mangrove scientific advisor of Geological Society of London.
Primavera described the Agusan Marsh as a giant sponge that helps to regulate the water that goes to the communities surrounding the marsh and the Agusan River before exiting to Butuan Bay.
“The water in the Agusan Marsh goes up or is high during rainy season but then it absorbs the excess water acting like a giant sponge. It soaks up excess water from mountains during rainy season, creating a huge area for wetland wildlife and protecting its surrounding communities, downstream towns, cities including Butuan, from catastrophic floods. Unfortunately, the Agusan Marsh that used to protect us is not anymore functioning to its fullest potential due to man’s own doing,” Primavera said.
Primavera further explained that the Agusan Marsh is part of the Agusan River Basin, Butuan Bay and the Agusan River serves as the lower basin, the Agusan Marsh as the middle basin, and the upper basins are comprised of the Diwata Mountain Range to the north-east, the mountain ranges of Davao and Agusan del Sur in the south and the rainforests of Bukidnon to the west.
“Unfortunately, we took for granted the forest that surrounds the Agusan Marsh, there was really no serious deforestation campaign by the government. So the result is that when heavy rain falls into the watershed, since it has been heavily logged and deforested, there is nothing to hold the water so it directly goes to the marsh,” Primavera said.
“Several parts of the marsh have also been converted to agricultural plantation areas such as palm oils, what used to be cavities that hold water in the marsh were drained to open for fields for plantations and other agricultural products. Forest is being cleared, marsh is being drained, then the capability of the Agusan Marsh to act as a sponge has been greatly compromised. If deforestation will not stop, this is going to get worst,” Primavera added.
In 2013, a study titled "Agricultural development and habitat change in the Agusan River Basin in Mindanao, Philippines" by Rowena Varela, Eve Fernandez and Engineer Julie Rose Degamo of Caraga State University, the vast land and fertile soil in the basin had attracted many people to use the land for tree and agricultural plantations.
The authors said that at present, oil palm and falcata tree plantations are very common sceneries along the basin.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported in 2010 that over 216,000 hectares of land adjacent to the marsh are planted to Falcata and other fast-growing species. Rice, corn and other short-term crops can likewise be seen during the drier months of the year. Expansions of banana plantation and rubber have also reached the peripheral areas of the basin.
All these developments do not augur well for the marsh, the study said.
The study concluded that agricultural plantation development has already encroached into the natural habitats in the Agusan River Basin, posing a real threat to the biodiversity of the area.