This Manual was originally published in Filipino in 2009, bearing the title Pagsasanay sa Disaster Preparedness at Contingency Planning. The publication in Filipino was intentional. The targeted users of the manual were high-risk communities and local authorities in the Philippines. Moreover, the choice made by CARE and the Corporate Network for Disaster Response to propagate the community-based approach to disaster risk reduction dictated that the manual be published in Filipino.
Much has transpired since the manual’s publication in 2009. The manual was a product of the Strengthening Assets and Capacities of Communities and Local Governments for Resilience to Disasters (ACCORD) project. Two follow-up community-based disaster risk reduction projects have since been completed, also supported by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). A five-year community-based disaster risk reduction programme was also started in 2011, with funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Netherlands. These projects have served to enrich the content of the training manual.
Aside from the foregoing explicit DRR projects, other projects implemented by CARE and partners CNDR, Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CorDisRDS), Agri-Aqua Development Coalition (AADC) and Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD Inc.) have used Pagsasanay sa Disaster Preparedness at Contingency Planning. Five emergency response projects since Ketsana (Ondoy) and a food security and livelihood project funded by the EuropeAid have used the manual as a means for mainstreaming DRR in emergency response. This experience likewise contributed to the enrichment of Pagsasanay.
Over three years of practical experience later, frameworks, approaches and concepts have clarified and evolved. Tools and learning methodologies have vastly improved. These developments required that Pagsasanay be updated. An updated Pagsasanay would feature the addition of sessions on climate change adaptation and ecosystem management and restoration. This is in recognition of present realities – that disasters are becoming more frequent and more destructive because of climate change and environmental degradation. These aspects were not present in the original manual. Other additions are the sessions on relevant DRR and CCA laws and the organization of functional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Councils (DRRMCs). There were two push factors for these inclusions. One is the passage of the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act and the Climate Change Act.
The second factor is closely linked to the first: village, municipal and school authorities wanted to know more about the new laws and are requesting assistance for them to be able to comply with the provisions of the laws. So then why an English edition? Early on, there was already a demand for an English edition from those who do not read and speak Filipino. The lack of an English edition prevented the dissemination of the manual on a wider scale, within the Philippines and beyond.
Training on Disaster Preparedness and Contingency Planning is the response to the oft-received request for an English translation of the manual. Updating of the original manual in Filipino, and its translation and publication in English are a fulfillment of the obligation of CARE and partners to share what has been developed from experience and collaboration amongst high-risk communities and local authorities.
View and download the first module here.
By Merdi Jean Arcilla
Originally Written: September 27, 2014
If you want to develop your barangay early warning system for floods, it should be taken in the context of the Tullahan River basin” was the expert piece of advice that Susan Espinueva gave to the group that was seeking PAGASA’s technical assistance. That was in July 2013.
Ms. Espinueva was then Chief of the Hydrometeorology Division of PAGASA. Barangay Potrero in Malabon City was planning to improve its early warning system (EWS) as part of enhancing the community’s preparedness, and the Partners for Resilience program was keen on providing ample support.
Potrero is downstream of Tullahan River
Rain or shine, there are floods in Malabon. News on television has frequently shown Malabon with above ankle-deep flood water due to high tides even during clear skies and good weather. During the typhoon and monsoon rains, of course the situation worsens considerably.
In 2009 during Typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), residents of Barangay Potrero in Malabon were startled that the water kept rising faster than normal and eventually reached the second floor of some homes. Some 6,000 families were affected. Some of these were trapped inside structures, in need of rescue support and emergency provisions. Three years later in August 2012, the same communities were again affected by floods due to heavy monsoon rains that lasted for several days.
The largest of Malabon’s 21 barangays is Potrero. With a population of around 54,000, it has been one of the most affected by the worst floods in the city. Sections of the barangay lie along the downstream of Tullahan River that stretches from Quezon City to Valenzuela City. Runoff starting from upstream La Mesa Dam in Quezon City, heavily silted and clogged Tullahan River and the frequent occurrence of high tides further contribute to the frequent floods in the area.
Potrero is one of the seven urban barangays where the Partners for Resilience (PfR) has been operating the program since 2011. It was specifically chosen because it is susceptible to floods and the affected populations mostly belong to the urban poor. The PfR program engages the Potrero barangay local government to enhance its preparedness for emergency response and work towards disaster risk reduction incorporating climate change and ecosystems management and restoration.
The road to September 2013
In the ensuing discussions with PAGASA, the group settled that to work on the EWS of Potrero it has to deal with the current status of EWS for floods in the river basin and the affected stakeholders. The Tullahan River basin covers Quezon City and the CAMANAVA area – the cities of Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas and Valenzuela.
All five cities contend with the problem of floods especially in the communities that lie along or are near the Tullahan River and its waterways.
While each has ways and actions to manage the risk, the general picture is that they do not necessarily link together to address the problem. There are EWS facilities that line the river at different points. These are basically water level and rain gauges. The La Mesa Dam Authority notifies LGUs and the public on the level of dam water. PAGASA consolidates the information that is generated from some of the EWS facilities and can make these available to LGUs. Pumping stations, river walls, dikes and other protective structures have been built in selected areas to protect specific segments of areas that are high-risk to floods. Each city issues alerts and warning based on information they are able to access.
“The floods are a problem caused by several factors in the river basin. Why don’t we call a meeting of the cities, concerned agencies and other groups who have a stake in drawing up solutions?” Once again, Susan Espinueva was forwarding sound guidance.
In September 2013, PAGASA and PFR spearheaded the first meeting of stakeholders to discuss issues on EWS for Quezon City and CAMANAVA. PAGASA defined the scope of the Tullahan River basin and traced the flow of floodwaters from upstream passing through the five cities and exiting at Manila Bay. It also showed the existing facilities for drawing up the river basin-wide EWS and pointed out that the work still has to be done to have an integrated EWS for the whole river basin. And this needs the participation of the various stakeholders.
The LGUs attended, all represented by their DRRMOs. Other agencies like the MMDA, DILG-NCR which issues the guidelines for the DRRM plans of LGUs in Metro Manila, NDRRMC which manages a big DRR project for UNDP, Ipo and La Mesa Dam authorities participated to share how they were contributing to the provision of information and shared experiences relating to flood risk management. The meeting ended on a positive note that the discussions would continue towards harmonizing the EWS for the Tullahan River basin.
The partnership gains momentum
The partners’ initial step was to survey the long stretch of Tullahan River, and see the river situation and the existing EWS facilities. In the debriefing, each partner also shared how they are doing flood mitigation measures through projects and programs within their geographical boundaries. The group also visited the Pampanga Flood Forecasting and Warning System to look at a model of an integrated EWS for a river basin that gathers information, processes this and issues warnings based on the result of the data analysis. One of the good insights that came out of these activities is that the participants themselves appreciate the continuing dialogues. They even proposed that for purposes of continuity and understanding, the same individuals be officially assigned to sit in these coordination meetings.
The most recent gathering they took part in was the presentation of the results of the risk assessment covering the whole Tullahan River basin. They expressed that information sharing that serves to enrich their basis of risk reduction actions are very much needed.
For Malabon and Valenzuela, a step further was taken when they concurred and got involved in the tree planting in the upstream La Mesa Watershed. The location is beyond their geographical boundaries and yet they recognize that this is a mitigation action that will definitely benefit their communities in terms of improved urban forest cover and protected watershed or source of water for the metropolis residents.
Moving forward
Let us look at other organized groups of LGUs who have the good practice of working together to reduce the risk of floods and other hazards and learn from them,” was the common call in the last gathering of these stakeholders in September 2014. It was a year after the initial meeting of stakeholders in the Tullahan river basin. The risk assessment was done by a group composed of individuals knowledgeable in history, biology and environmental science. More and more, they are convinced that they need multi partnerships and multi disciplines to proceed with a good analysis of the risk situation they are facing and hence need the same methods to forward an integrated plan or solutions to pursue in their next steps.
View, read, and download a PDF version of this article here.
When Typhoon Monang battered the coastal village of Sabang in1993, massive swells from the ocean engulfed houses near the shore and killed scores of residents. One local recalls fleeing her home under the heavy downpour together with her cousin, and losing grip of the other girl as raging flood waters swept them away. Her cousin wasfound dead the next day. This grim episode in the villagers’ collective memory has left them fearful of news of approaching storms. Preventing such tragedies was ACCORD’s mission in Calabanga, a municipality in Camarines Sur that is home to 11 storm surgeprone coastal villages, one of which is Sabang. This was done by implementing a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) program complemented by an Ecosystem Management and Restoration (EMR) strategy.
This approach requires the active and meaningful participation of local communities. Empowering them to become active participants rather than victims means equipping them with the proper tools to assess their risks and vulnerabilities, and guiding them through capacity trainings and education. This will help them plan courses of action that are well-adapted to existing hazards and their own social context. Incorporating EMR into the process will augment the overall results of the program, for instance, by creating healthier ecosystems which may decrease disaster risks in both coastal and upland communities and also contribute to creating sustainable livelihood opportunities.
ACCORD supported building the capacity of residents against climate and disaster risks while mainstreaming the protection and management of natural resources in communities that are located near the shores and in upland areas. Part of its DRR program in Barangay Sabang is the introduction of mangrove reforestation as a small-scale mitigation measure to help reduce the adverse impacts of disasters in this time of anthropogenically-induced climate change.
A similar approach of rehabilitating ecosystems to complement disaster risk reduction and management was introduced in barangays and municipalities of Davao de Oro and Agusan del Sur. ACCORD and CARE implemented EMR activities such as riparian reforestation using indigenous tree species, slope erosion mitigation, and tree planting in portions of the upper Agusan River basin, and the Agusan Marsh.
Years after the implementation period of the projects described in this study – one project was launched in 2009 and the other, in 2015 – ACCORD continues to nurture ties with these communities and link them with opportunities for capacity building. The communities have also been able to sustain their EMR efforts.
View and download the full document here.
This paper presents the feedback of several groups of stakeholders from Caloocan, Malabon, Navotas, Valenzuela, Quezon City, and the City of Manila on the Final Report of the Manila Bay Sustainable Development Master Plan (MBSDMP).
Throughout August of 2019, CARE and ACCORD, through Partners for Resilience, conducted focus group discussions in six barangays, three cities, and two Water Quality Management Area (WQMA) bodies. The goal was to familiarize Manila Bay stakeholders with the MBSDMP and gather feedback from them to help ensure that the concerns and recommendations of those who may be affected by the master plan are brought to the fore. Participants were composed of community members, sectoral representatives, barangay and city local government units (LGUs), and members of the San Juan River System (SJRS) and Malabon-Navotas-Tullahan-Tinajeros River System (MANATUTI) WQMA.
The consultations consisted of one-day sessions per area, with two main parts: in the first half of the session, facilitators presented the fundamentals of Integrated Risk Management and the Rights-Based Approach before presenting the contents of the MBSDMP itself; in the second half, participants were divided into several focus groups to discuss and provide feedback on the MBSDMP.
In this paper, the results of the consultations are organized into:
A. General feedback on and cross-cutting issues affecting the MBSDMP
B. Specific feedback on each of the eight measures outlined in the MBSDMP
1. Issues and challenges – both internal to the MBSDMP itself and external factors that may affect its implementation
2. Good practices identified by participants (if any)
3. Current practices and future plans (if any)
4. Recommendations from participants
View, read, and download the full document here.
Partners for Resilience
Disasters have strongly increased in both frequency and impact, with climate change as one of the main contributors to more extreme, frequent, and unpredictable weather. Degradation and loss of ecosystems intensify natural hazards. Combined with the high vulnerability of communities in the Global South, this leads to increased disaster risk. Despite these many challenges, there are solutions to create a sustainable future. When provided the necessary resources, communities mobilize to adapt to and prepare for increasing risks. In Partners for Resilience, CARE works to reduce disaster risk by increasing community resilience – enabling people to bend and not break in the face of adversity.
The poorest people in the most vulnerable countries suffer disproportionately from disasters and climate change impacts. Disasters wipe out
hard-won reductions in poverty, and communities are caught in a vicious circle where poverty creates vulnerability, and disasters and climate change impacts increase poverty. To ease this situation, the Partners for Resilience program reduces the impact of hazards on vulnerable communities in the South.
Partners for Resilience (PfR) is an alliance of the Netherlands Red Cross, CARE Nederland, Cordaid, the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre and Wetlands International. The name originates in the fundamental belief of its five members in the central role of resilience as the way to deal effectively with disasters. PfR uses an integrated approach, called Integrated Risk Management (IRM), to mitigate disaster risk and enhance livelihoods, particularly by addressing climate change and ecosystem management and restoration. PfR is supported by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Integrated Risk Management
CARE defines Integrated Risk Management (IRM) as the systematic process of reducing disaster risks through anticipative, absorptive, adaptive, and transformative actions, taking into account the effects of climate change and the role of ecosystems. It addresses the drivers of risk, the capacities and assets of communities and individuals, and their enabling environment.
This Publication
In this publication, CARE aims to highlight how the implementation of an Integrated Risk Management approach leads to social transformation and more resilient communities that are well prepared to deal with a diversity of shocks and challenges. The protagonists are the people themselves, sharing how their lives and the lives of members of their communities have improved. These stories are expanded upon with examples of CARE’s work within PfR in each country.
View, read, and download the full document here.
Excerpt: Introduction
Climate change is increasing the risk of extreme events and disasters.1 While disaster risk reduction (DRR) offers an important opportunity to adapt to current climate variability, in order to be successful, DRR efforts must also take into account changing climate‐related risks in the medium to long term. Many national climate change adaptation plans consider the need to plan over various timescales and acknowledge the essential role of local communities2 in addressing these changing risks. The Minimum Standards for climate‐smart disaster risk reduction were created to serve as an essential bridge between national climate policy and local capacities for DRR. The standards are not idealized solutions, but rather practical approaches to implementing climate‐smart DRR activities in a way that is achievable by many communities with relatively limited external support.
The Minimum Standards are presented in two tables: The first table outlines standards meant to guide local leaders, oftentimes selected by their community (e.g. Red Cross local disaster preparedness volunteers), to inform and facilitate resilience building across the wider community. The second table focuses on the role of national and provincial civil society organizations (CSOs) in providing supplemental guidance for improving the flow of information between various types of scientific ‘knowledge centres’ and vulnerable communities, to enable implementation of climate‐smart DRR. For local actors and their counterparts in CSOs, the Minimum Standards are intended as a practical tool, allowing them to integrate changing climate risks into their efforts to support communities reduce risk to extreme events and disasters. When the Minimum Standards are met, local DRR actions can be considered to be climate-smart and contribute to climate change adaptation. This lends importance to the Minimum Standards for national actors as well, who may use the standards to guide integration of community‐level action on DRR into national adaptation and climate risk management strategies. National strategies that consider these standards will be able to go to scale, knowing that they are realistic and achievable. Overall, these standards provide assurance that DRR goes beyond business as usual and truly addresses changing climate‐related risks.
The minimum standards are based on ample local experience and consultation, including lessons learned during the first years of the Partners for Resilience program, the largest program of its kind focusing on local‐level climate‐smart DRR. The Minimum Standards are a living document that should continue to be
discussed, tested, revised and validated through local‐level activities around the world.
View and download the full document here.
Rationale of the Resilience Knowledge Exchnage Series Session 6 Webinar:
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought pervasive fears and new policies that change our way of life. As local efforts and hopes center on contact tracing and finding a vaccine, little attempts have been undertaken to view the environment in direct relation with COVID-19.
The environment is ultimately interconnected with mankind. Its degradation affects the quality of life of all individuals and living beings on earth. Locally, there has been no significant inquiry into how the environment, especially its degradation, might have influenced the pandemic. Neither is there any grand investigation on how the pandemic has affected the environment in turn. Could certain signs detected from environmental patterns and elements point us to the trends, causes, and cures of the pandemic? This question remains unasked, and therefore, unanswered.
The COVID-19 and the Environment webinar attempts to address this question, as two researchers discuss the impact of environmental degradation on the pandemic, including the current research and proposed projects in monitoring COVID-19. One such research focuses on waterways as early warning systems or a monitoring system for disease detection, especially for COVID-19. The other research centers on hazardous waste for the same purpose.
Though similar proposals have already been implemented internationally, no such research inquiry has been localized yet. Through this research, monitoring will be much more efficient, as specific areas and focus will be detected earlier.
Discussing innovative perspectives and tools offers us an alternative way of assuaging anxieties during this time of crisis. At the same time, it helps widen our understanding to include elements previously thought to be lateral but are actually quite essential: the environment.
The presentation on wastewater-based monitoring for predicting pandemics and outbreaks aims to explain the concept, importance, and potential of the said topic. This presentation was created and presented by Dr. Marilen Parungao Balolong, DRPH, DPAM, Professor and University Scientist at the University of the Philippines Manila.
To access a soft copy of this material, click here.
A couple of years ago, the Philippines made headlines around the world as Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm recorded, smashed ashore and tore through the Visayas. Within 24 hours, Haiyan battered and wiped out almost everything along its path, leaving behind its wake millions of people homeless, and thousands lifeless. The full document details how communities were slowly starting to reap the sowed resilience two years after the typhoon.
While the scale and strength of Haiyan is unprecedented even in a disaster-prone country as the Philippines, disasters like this are becoming more frequent, destructive, and unpredictable as a result of climate change and ecosystem degradation. Disaster upon disaster, vulnerable communities are pushed deeper into poverty. They are ones who face the vicious cycle of destruction and reconstruction. Their vulnerabilities are magnified, and their developments stalled. It is therefore not enough for communities to recover from Haiyan’s destruction. They must be able to withstand, adapt to, and recover from disasters. It is imperative that they start rebuilding towards resilience.
In the immediate aftermath of Haiyan, ACCORD in partnership with CARE, drew opportunities from lessons brought by Haiyan to cultivate resilience. From the onset, seeds of resilience were sown where possible, both in the form of material assistance and building local capacities, and embedded in integrated response, recovery, rehabilitation, and risk reduction programmes for Haiyan-affected areas.
Two years on, much remains to be done, but vulnerable communities are beginning to reap the fruits of resilience.
View, read, and download the full document here.
In 2016, the world generated approximately 2.01 billion tons of waste (World Bank, 2018), or the equivalent in weight of one billion average-size cars. In the Philippines, solid waste generation was estimated at 13.48 million tons in 2010 and is expected to reach 18.05 million tons by 2020 (DENR, 2018).
As populations grow, so will the amount of waste. Proper solid waste management (SWM), thus, is an urgent undertaking.
This is a critical issue in disaster-prone countries like the Philippines – ranked third most at-risk to disasters in the 2018 World Risk Index – and where poverty levels are high. This is because ecosystem degradation and disasters disproportionately affect the poor. They will also bear the brunt of climate change impacts, which may be aggravated by increased greenhouse gas emissions brought about by improper disposal of waste. In the context of waste management, they are “often unserved or have little influence on the waste being disposed of formally or informally near their homes” (World Bank, 2018). Many also work in the informal waste sector, relying on meager, volatile incomes, and exposed to unsafe working conditions.
However, urban poor communities and informal settler families are typically characterized as polluters and waste generators, citing their tendency to buy products in sachets, i.e., in smaller, cheaper quantities. These claims are made despite the fact that, around the world, consumption patterns point to higher spending capacity being positively correlated with higher waste generation. Still, they are usually seen as part of the problem. This study argues that they are also a vital part of the solution.
Good Practice:The Waste Warriors of Barangay Potrero
Barangay Potrero’s Waste Warriors is a good example of an SWM practice that supports the case for increased community participation.
Prior to 2015, Barangay Potrero’s solid waste was unsegregated, and collection was mostly uncoordinated and conducted only twice a week, using trucks that would pick up bags of trash discarded by residents by the side of the road. Because of this collection schedule, and because some roads are too narrow for the trucks to pass through and some areas are only accessible by foot, piles of garbage would often accumulate by the curbside.
It was only in 2015 that their SWM practice took on a more formal, structured process. The Waste Warriors is a group of waste collectors and waste monitors from the local community in Barangay Potrero, Malabon City, whose participation in SWM was made official by the barangay in 2015. Currently, it is composed of 40 waste collectors and 15 waste monitors. The group receives an allowance from the local government – PHP 120 a day for 3-4 hours of work, Mondays through Saturdays – and waste collectors get all the profits from selling the recyclables they collect – which can range from PHP 400 to PHP 2,000.
To date, Barangay Potrero’s compliance with R.A. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, is at 95%, according to Potrero Councilor Khate Nolasco. The barangay is a recognized leader in SWM, having won the Best in Solid Waste Management Award at the 2015 Barangay Power contest hosted by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). In the same year, Potrero also received the Gawad Kalasag Award for Best Barangay Disaster Risk Reduction Committee from the Office of Civil Defense.
Findings: The Benefits of Engaging Communities in Solid Waste Management
By presenting the good practices of Barangay Potrero in the area of SWM, as embodied by the Waste Warriors, this study highlights how engaging, capacitating, and mobilizing local communities to participate in SWM benefits the environment, the individuals, and the community as a whole. This study found that several interrelated factors contributed to the success of Barangay Potrero’s SWM.
1. Their noteworthy SWM practice is a good illustration of what concerted, well-coordinated action between the government, civil society organizations, and communities can achieve. Because there was proper coordination, the process of managing the barangay’s solid waste became more efficient.
2. It shows that strong LGU support and prioritization is an important factor in the success of any program.
3. It highlights how enabling community participation in SWM creates a sense of ownership among community members, which in turn contributes to the sustainability of SWM programs and lets the barangay widen its reach as community members become advocates for proper SWM themselves.
4. It not only leads to improvements in environmental conditions but also improves the livelihoods and social positions of communities who have traditionally been excluded from formal programs and processes. This, in turn, makes their community a more just, inclusive, and resilient one overall.
Particularly for those who have been historically disadvantaged, the formalization of community members’ participation in SWM facilitates social inclusion, or the process of “improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society – improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity” (World Bank, 2018). The program does so by giving them improved livelihoods and thus better access to basic services, opportunities for participation and integration into the formal sector, and an overall higher chance of living a more dignified life. Community members get a sense of accomplishment and improved self-worth, and a sense that they have a voice in their community. Through the related capacity building opportunities, they also become more aware of their rights and are able to assert them, especiallywhen faced with discrimination.
Barangay Potrero’s approach is consistent with the principles of Integrated Risk Management (IRM). Because IRM stresses that people are a vital part of ecosystems, protecting the environment must also mean protecting people. In the area of SWM, as the case of Barangay Potrero shows, this could mean tapping and enriching local capacities and allowing for the formal participation of the most vulnerable. This not only ensures the protection of the environment but also increases the resilience of the community members individually and their community as a whole.
However, in the MBSDMP, there is scant mention of programs, activities, or projects that involve tapping and strengthening the capacities of local communities, particularly the urban poor and informal waste workers, or even of consultations with communities in order to arrive at problem definitions and solutions that are grounded in the reality of the targeted localities. But as the case of Barangay Potrero illustrates, there are many benefits to encouraging the participation of community members in SWM initiatives. Moreover, increased community participation in SWM respects the vital role that people play within ecosystems and recognizes them as a crucial part of the solution. Thus, this study argues that the MBSDMP would do well to draw from the good practices of Barangay Potrero and incorporate SWM programs that enable community participation and maximize their capacities.
View and download the full document here.
Effective and sustainable disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is almost impossible to achieve without safeguarding the health of ecosystems. And in some cases, the solution to protecting a community from natural hazards lies in nature itself. Mangrove reforestation, for instance, can serve as a small-scale mitigation measure to strengthen community resilience.
Barangay Sabang is one of 11 coastal villages in Calabanga, Camarines Sur prone to storm surges and flooding. But by transforming a vast expanse of abandoned fish ponds into a lush mangrove forest, the community built a shield against hazards. This was done through the collaboration of the local government, national government agencies, civil society organizations, academic institutions, and a dedicated group of volunteers from the community, who planted more than 150,000 mangrove propagules along riverbanks and throughout the coastal areas of Calabanga.
After the rehabilitation of the mangrove forests, residents of Barangay Sabang observe that inland flooding brought by storms have become less intense compared to the ones they used to experience. The mangrove forests also help mitigate saltwater intrusion to nearby agricultural barangays; thus, preventing damage to crops.
A boom in the population of marine species was likewise noticeable, with mud crabs and a variety of fish now calling the roots of the mangroves home. The forests also serve as a sanctuary and breeding ground for freshwater species. These days, villagers say their waters teem with small fish and play host to the occasional butanding (whale shark).