Culajao Mangrove Ecopark
History
It was yet in1994 when a fisheries technician of the City agriculture Services Office of Roxas City LGU visited Brgy. Culajao to
include its coastal resources in the preparation of the City's Fishery
Profile as Seafood's Capital of the country. It was then that she meet
former Brgy. Captain Villagracia who accompanied her take the boat
through Culajao river to the mangrove area and told her the stories of
how they defended it from adjacent fishpond owners who wanted to extend
their dikes to include the area. She take note of it until 2001 when as
CRM Coordinator she spearheaded the formulation of the city's coastal
zoning plan and the New Fishery and CRM Ordinance. It was yet in1994
when a fisheries technician of the City agriculture Services Office of
Roxas City LGU visited Brgy. Culajao
to include its coastal resources in the preparation of the City's
Fishery Profile as Seafood's Capital of the country. It was then that
she meet former Brgy. Captain Villagracia who accompanied her take the
boat through Culajao river to the mangrove area and told her the stories
of how they defended it from adjacent fishpond owners who wanted to
extend their dikes to include the area. She take note of it until 2001
when as CRM Coordinator she spearheaded the formulation of the city's
coastal zoning plan and the New Fishery and CRM Ordinance.It took
persistence until the LGU was finally convinced of hiring community
organizers to do ground work in target areas to ensure sustainability of
CRM project. A community organizer was finally deployed in Culajao
starting January 2007 with the aim of organizing and empowering fisher
folks as partners and project beneficiaries of the city
government. Katunggan sa Culajao Salbaron Association, Inc. (KACUSA) was
organized with 19 fisher folk members in January 27, 2007 and
registered with SEC on September 19, 2007. KACUSA, Inc. was organized
primarily to protect the mangrove reservation zone in Brgy. Culajao. The
CRM coordinator organized mangrove seminars and exposure trips to
mangrove projects where they saw the potential of an eco-park. She
conduced strategic planning workshop with the group that they were led
to craft their vision for the project to become a mangrove laboratory
and an eco-tourism destination that would spur economic activities in
the area and provide alternative livelihood to members and other
barangay residents. When the new Local Chief Executive assumed office,
they invited him to see the mangrove trees
they planted beginning April 2, 2007 and they were ready to present
their plan for a mangrove ecopark. The Mayor then offered to appropriate
an initial amount of P100,000 for the construction of ecopark
facilities. The CRM Coordinator provides the direction in the ecopark operations requesting technical assistance and provisions in kind from related agencies/institutions as needed.