DENR to use drones to monitor protected areas in C. Visayas

CEBU CITY–The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Central Visayas (DENR-7) has decided to use drones to map and monitor protected wildlife areas in the region.

Charlie Fabre, acting regional director of DENR-7, said the decision to use drones came as a result of Environment Secretary Maria Yulo-Gonzaga’s directive for them to increase forest cover as part of the Enhanced National Greening Program.

“She saw that the implementation of the National Greening Program is lacking in manpower. It’s really hard to implement because the area is mountainous. It’s very large and it’s hard to monitor (what is going on),” he said.

Fabre revealed the plan to use drones during the Philippine Information Agency’s episode of “Kapihan sa Bagong Pilipinas,” which was livestreamed on July 16.

According to Fabre, the drones, classified as VTOL drones (Vertical Take-Off and Landing), will serve four primary functions: monitoring wildlife movements, mapping forest health or condition, detecting illegal activities and topographic mapping for habitat modeling.

The drones are equipped with either H20 or H30 zoom and wide cameras, which enables the DENR to observe and identify individual animals and will also assist the agency in identifying and documenting illegal activities.

3D maps

Fabre said they would also utilize L2 Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) to create 3D model maps of the protected areas, which can be used to simulate the effects that scenarios like heavy and prolonged rainfall can have on the environment and wildlife.

“This is the most important assistance that the DENR can provide to local government units so that they can preempt their disaster management plans,” he said.

“This way, they can address potential threats in advance, rather than just creating programs and infrastructure without considering the actual or future scenarios in their area,” he added.

Records from the DENR showed that the region has 24 protected areas located in Cebu, Negros Oriental and Bohol, most of which are located in Bohol.

The DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB), in a Facebook post on April 24, 2020, also listed seven legislated marine protected areas in Central Visayas.

Those found in Bohol are the Alburquerque-Loay-Loboc Landscape and Seascape, the Panglao Island Protected Seascape and the Talibon Group of Island Protected Landscape and Seascape.

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Those in Cebu are the Camotes Island Protected Landscape and Seascape and Olango Island Wildlife Sanctuary.

The Apo Island Protected Landscape and Seascape is in Negros Oriental while the Tañon Strait Protected Seascape is situated between the islands of Cebu for habitat modeling and Negros, the DENR-BMB said.

Clearance

The purchase of the drones is currently ongoing as the agency is simply waiting for clearance from the central office, Fabre said.

Although the DENR has guidelines for the usage of drones in land surveillance since 2017, it was not fully adopted as an initiative until recently since the agency, under its previous leadership, had doubts over the platform.

“If there is no clearance, my instructions was that, since we have local funds, we will purchase it ourselves. What is important is that we buy it already,” Fabre said.