Youth Offer Sustainable Solutions for Davao’s Environmental Problems
Young researchers from Davao City high schools and universities convened to give their share of solutions to the city’s environmental problems including pollution in Davao river and crop loss in banana plantations. Hannah Sheen Lopez of Davao City National High School introduced acommon plant-based organic flocculant made from saluyot leaf extract that she found to have successfully reduced the coliforms and E. coli in the turbid water of Davao river. The solution is cheap and readily accessible to the public, she said, so that water can be treated for household and farm use, especially in a time when water supply can be limited.
Open Letter on Shrine Hills
We would like to clarify that contrary to the media report, it was actually the Davao City Local Zoning Review Committee, not IDIS, who submitted the proposed amendments on the Urban Ecological Enhancement Sub-Zone (UEESZ) provision in the Davao City Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance for second reading at the City Council. The Local Zoning Review Committee (LZRC) is a recommendatory body created under the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance 2013. IDIS, along with Ecoteneo, represent Davao City environmental NGOs as members in the committee and support the proposed amendments. The 25% recommendation was a decision of the LZRC, a collegial body, so to say that the 25% is solely recommended by IDIS is erroneous and is an insult to the discretion and authority of the committee.
Save Davao Shrine Hills: Davao City’s Last Urban Ecological Frontier
The Shrine Hills, located at the urban center of Davao city, finds a similar case with that of the Cherry Hill Subdivision in Antipolo City, which tragically resulted in 59 lives lost and hundreds of families lost due to landslide in 1999. Land and subdivision developers are very eager to develop the area as it is strategically located in the middle of the City. Here’s what environmentalist groups’ response to the position paper submitted by DMC URBAN PROPERTY DEVELOPERS, INC. (DMC UPDI) ON THE PROPSED AMENDMENTS TO THE CITY ORDINANCE NO. 0546-2013.
Brgy. Sibulan Soon to be Davao’s First Organic Zone
After more than three years of repeated calls to declare Brgy. Sibulan in Toril as an organic agricultural zone, the proposal for the Ordinance is now at the City Council. The proposal has been discussed with Technical Committee on Organic Agriculture members and BLGU during first committee hearing under the Committee on Agriculture led by Councilor Marissa Abella on August 8, 2018. The Sangguniang Barangay of Sibulan has reiterated the call to fast track the approval of the resolution they passed way back in 2014. The City Agriculturist Office also endorsed a draft recommended version of an Executive Order to the City Legal Office last April 26, 2018. But The City Legal Office clarified that under the Organic Agriculture Ordinance, the declaration of an organic zone necessitates an ordinance instead of an Executive Order.
Sibulan as Davao’s No-GMO Zone
Proliferation of genetically modified and chemically produced crops feared by health and environmental conscious Dabawenyos will have no place in Brgy. Sibulan once it is declared as Davao city’s first organic agriculture zone. Davao City Agriculturist Office supported by Association of Davao Organic Advocates await for the Executive Order to be issued by the City Mayor that will prohibit all synthetic and chemical-based farm inputs. The resolution and recommended provisions were endorsed to the City Legal Office last month.
Call for Papers – Sustainable Davao Research Symposium 2018
Save the dates and check out the details in submitting abstracts of your research on any of the categories towards sustainable Davao city: renewable energy, zero waste, healthy watersheds, sustainable agriculture and disaster-resilient and green communities. Download Abstract Guidelines Download Program Design