Malones to SP, guv: Bamboo not trees as 'forest guards'
Third District Board Member Mar Malones is now back in town with new ideas fresh from his China trip and international training-workshop on non-timber forest products.
In a report before colleagues during yesterday's regular session, Malones called for support of the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) on the planting of bamboos and not trees in riverbanks.
Bamboo, an abundant grass in the country and countrysides, as Malones pointed out, can save lives and spell the difference in the province's environmental protection efforts.
As such, Malones urged the passage of a resolution urging the Provincial Government to take measures "to protect our environment by planting bamboo along the riverbanks, mountains and fields."
Malones also sought for another resolution again urging the Provincial Government "to promote the planting of bamboos, instead of trees, within two meters from the riverbanks."
This, Board Member Malones explained, is because "the trees are more in danger of being cut by illegal loggers than the bamboo."
"In Maasin, we have this story about the molave and the bamboo. The big molave tree belittled the bamboo which bowed everytime a strong wind blows. But when a strong storm came, it was the bamboo that saved the molave from being washed at the sea because its roots had clung to the roots of the bamboo. From that time on, the molave respected the bamboo. The moral lesson is that the pliant bamboo, no matter how others may look at it, can save our lives," Malones shared with the SP body.
Board Member Malones in his China trip visited plantations of medicinal plants, cut flower production areas, Chinese towns and villages engaged in bamboo cultivation and processing of bamboo products.