Davao's watershed code's implementing rules completed

DAVAO CITY, Philippines - The implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Watershed Protection, Conservation, and Management Ordinance, otherwise known as the Watershed Code, have been completed. "The final draft of the IRR will be presented to the joint executive-legislative committee in June 11 then forwarded to the City Legal Office for review and recommendation for approval by the City Mayor," Councilor Arnolfo Ricardo Cabling, proponent of the Watershed Code, said Thursday. Cabling said the technical working group formed by Mayor Rodrigo Duterte through Executive Order 1 of 2008 finished its work Wednesday. The group's task was to craft the IRR. The Watershed Code, passed in 2007, aims to protect the watersheds, which are the city's upland sources of potable water. Watersheds are identified as environmentally critical areas where development of any sort is prohibited to ensure the sustainability of the city's water supply. Two classifications of Environmentally Critical Areas are recognized in the Code: 1. Preservation Areas, where land conversion to any classification and human settlement are prohibited 2. Agro-forestry or Non-tillage Areas, where mono-crop agriculture is allowed provided that a phase-out plan of three years shall be granted to existing large scale mono-crop agriculture. Mono-crop agriculture refers to tilling of only one kind of crop like bananas. The ordinance on agro-forestry or non-tillage areas provides that "no permit shall be issued to new applications for mono-crop agriculture ventures, and for existing mono-crop agriculture covered by the phase-out plan to be not allowed to expand upon effectivity of the code." - Sun.Star Davao