DENR-IX Conducts Intensified Information Campaign and Dalaw Turo thru School Visit

PAGADIN CITY - Over 1000 elementary, high school and college students including their teachers from seven selected schools in Zamboanga del Sur were benefitted from an intensified Information, Education and Communication (IEC) campaign conducted recently by the information arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Zamboanga Peninsula.

OIC, Chief of the Regional Public Affairs Office Roservirico

 A. Tan lectures on Climate Change to the students of Bayog

 Elementary School, Bayog, ZDS. (Photo provided 

by DENR-9 PR)

DENR-IX Regional Executive Director (RED) Arleigh J. Adorable said the activity is in line with the Department’s mission as the driving force in the pursuit of sustainable development enabling stakeholders’ participation in the protection, conservation and management of the environment and natural resources for the present and future generations. This is also aligned with the social contract of President Benigno C. Aquino and the Key Result Area (KRA) of DENR which is Integrity of the Environment and Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation.

  Dalaw-turo session for selected students of Molave

Vocational Technical School, Molave, Zamboanga Del Sur.

 (Photo provided by DENR-9 PR)

The schools which were visited by the IEC team were J. H. Cerillles State College- Bayog and Tukuran Campus, Aurora National High School, Sapa Anding National High School-Ramon Magsaysay Extension, Star of the Sea High School in Tukuran, Bayog National High School and Bayog Central Elementary School.  Topics presented to both students and teachers using short lectures and mostly film showing was focused on Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies; National Greening Program (NGP); 2013 World Water Day with the theme:” Water Water Everywhere, Only If We Share”; Biological Diversity Conservation; and the National Year of Rice Campaign. Library materials related to the topics were distributed to the different school heads for reference purposes.

The above audience was made to understand that climate change is a change in climate attributed directly or indirectly to human activities that alter the composition of the global atmosphere, in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods (UNFCC) bringing impacts on agriculture and food security, on biological diversity and ecosystems; and on human health.  They were also oriented on the following: NGP, a government’s priority program being implemented by the DENR which seeks to plant and grow 1.5 Billion trees into 1.5 million hectares of denuded public land from 2011-2016 through social mobilization naming Dept. of Education as one of the stakeholders; World Water Day 2013 which is being observed annually on 22^nd March as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of the world’s  2.5% freshwater resources (UNEP); and the National Year of Rice (2013) campaign which seeks to attain its theme “Sapat Na Bigas, Kaya Ng Pinas”.

After the symposium, each school heads were asked to give their respective commitments of support for Earth Care such as tree nursery establishment with technical assistance from the nearest DENR office, intensification of solid waste management in school campus, tree planting and growing in municipal tree park, etc. 

Aside from IEC through school visit, the DENR-IX information arm held special convocations attended by its officials and employees, displayed tarp streamers on the aforesaid observances in different conspicuous places to create public awareness and support, held radio programs in an AM station in Pagadian City, posted various activities in DENR-IX webpage r9.denr.gov.ph and prepared news articles for press release.

Meanwhile, the DENR-IX has conducted a Dalaw Turo Session attended by some 30 students from the Molave Vocational Technical School.  They were organized as Youth for the Environment in Schools- Organization (YES-O), the first in Zamboanga del Sur. It is envisioned that by the end of this year, all   provinces in Zamboanga Peninsula will have its own organized student advocates for Earth Care.  (H. A. Ascura/DENR-IX PR)