In several tourism areas in Bohol, life stood still when the tourists stopped coming and local governments barred areas often visited by tourists when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This forced industry workers to desperately seek other sources of money to bring food to the table.
But not here in this village, hidden from the bustle of the Bohol Circumferential highway by thick nipa forests and tall buri palms.
This is Cambuhat, a village that sits on the southern bank of the Daet-Cambuat River, a rising tourism destination that suddenly found empty parking spaces, no tourists, and their easy food on the table, now threatened.
This kind of life, however, is nothing new to the people here.
MANAGING THE ENVIRONMENT. Original CEDFA members Cresencia Aparece and Irenea Añasco writing down the lyrics of the CEDFA hymn which is a standard song they would sing to entertain tourists in Cambuhat. Now into oyster culture, CEDFA has seen a good tourism enterprise based on talaba and the community’s affinity to the buri palm, which also amazes their guests. During the pandemic, sliding back to enjoying the river resources has allowed Cambuhat to survive the pandemic. (rahc/PIA-7/Boho/)
Surviving by simply basking in the bountiful resource of the river, residents of Cambuhat Buenavista know too well that what they have now can be used up by over harvesting and without sound harvesting practices.
Ang dagat maoy bahandi nga gikan sa kahitas-an, (the sea is a heaven-sent treasure), Dili nato hikalimtan ang atong dagat di pasipad-an (Let us not forget, [that if] we do not abuse the sea) Magpabilin sa gihapon ang mga isdang magkadaghan... (the fish will continue to multiply). The song originally composed for the enlightened community of Cambuhat, in Buenavista may have trailed off and got lost in the thick nipa forests here, but the message of environment protection as a shared responsibility in a community would reverberate longer than the composers would imagine.
Cambuhat, a river village on the banks of Daet-Cambuhat River over 70 kilometers north of Tagbilaran City, used to be just like any other river community: everyone doing their best to bring food from the river to the family table by whatever means.
A model river that won the annual Cleanest and Greenest River in Bohol in the late 1990s, Cambuhat, however, would be finite with the way people are exacting tension in the river resources. "The entry of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Coastal Resource Management Project (CRMP) as administered in coordination with the Provincial Government, attempted to explain to the community the river’s finite resources and the tension the sea is getting with everyone fishing, pushed the community to organize," recalled Cresencia Aparece, 55, and an original member of the organization.
Calling themselves members of the Cambuhat Enterprises Development and Fishermans’ Association (CEDFA), the organization with 25 original members immediately started replanting mangroves, which to them would provide spawning areas for fish and shrimps, crabs and shells. “Now, with new residents in the village, they would criticize us for stopping them from cutting mangroves, but then they do not know the bad thing it can give to the environment,” Aparece said.
“Wala man gud ni sila makaseminar sa CRMP, mao nga wala silay kalibutan (They did not undergo the CRMP seminar, so they would not know that)," she added, pointing out the mangroves that have grown past the nipa forests as the fruit of their labor years back.
Settled in the southern bank of the Caet-Cambuhat River, it was just natural for Cambuhat villagers to run to the river for food and base their livelihood from its resource. "I used to weave nipa thatches, weave raffia or pound sago for food. Now that we have government helping us through the organization, it is an easier life," confessed 64-year old widow Irenea Añasco, who along with her husband, comprised the first CEDFA which the CRMP organized.
"Since then, we got several government assistance through the years, the biggest of which is the talaba (oyster) culture, which had most of our village families owning one," Añasco added. "With the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, we were trained how to plant talaba (oyster), string through the shells, tie them at the right heights above the river bed, and the agriculture bureau also taught them how to shift into other forms of fishing," both said as they took turns sharing their experience.
Later, in succeeding grants, the community has to source out the bamboo rafts, then the town gave the shells and the ropes with the organization providing the labor counterpart.
The talaba farming, however, gave them more time to do other work as it only needs a few days of readying at the farm. Then after six to seven months, it is harvest time. But with talaba, and the CEDFA, they organized the village to put up the Cambuhat River and Village Tour, where everyone were trained in doing the tasks needed for the enterprise to work."It was perfect. We were given paddle boats. We have a green river, a nice river scape potential for bird watching, guests paddling, getting to know how to fish, catch crabs and pistol shrimps, shrimps," both Añasco and Aperece said.
"Here, tourists also learn about oyster culture, know buri and how it helped the community in its food and clothing needs. And in the end, they feast on talaba, shrimps, crabs, and fish," Aparece, whose eight kids have benefitted from the community enterprise, explained. "We used to have green crab culture with BFAR. But rats tore through our nets to get to the fish food. Through the holes, the crabs escaped," Aparece recalled.
TALABA STRING. Tourists learn how to farm talaba from farmer-members of the CEDFA. The tour to the village includes paddling through the river, bird watching, gleaning, fishing and having a talaba meal along with the reiver’s bountiful harvest. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
"Then we had bangus fish cage. But the fish did not grow as they did not develop their mouths well, so they did not feed well," Añasco chimed in.
"But with the BFAR’s talaba culture, each family in the entire village now has a farm of their own," Aparece, who also works as a local tour guide, shared. From there, she also slips into a raffia dress to render the buri dance to tourists, and into a waitress’ apron to serve food during meal times..
For their venture too, Canadian International Development Agency granted them funds to equip the community kitchen so they could cook and prepare food for the tourists. The rest of the grant they put up for member loan program. "We could hardly agree with the money, but work, we are united," Añasco disclosed.
With tourism booming, CEDFA, which now has doubled its membership to cover almost the whole village, earned P9,000 in the last quarter of 2019, to P22,000 in the beginning quarter of 2020. But then the activities had to be stopped due to the COVID-19 restrictions. "We were affected but not much," both admitted.
Now, they have another round of BFAR green crab livelihood package and are digging a pond and putting bamboo stakes as fences to discourage the crabs
from running out.
In the river, a pumpboat was chugging slowly, trailing a bamboo raft loaded with nets. "Gabukas sila og bunsod (They are pulling out the fish corrals)," Añasco explained, saying that the fish corral has to be pulled out after a few months to wash and mend the nets and allow the fish to grow bigger before they can be trapped again in the corral.
Nearby, a fisher paddled off to venture into the mangroves, with a pail to be filled with clams and shells resting in the stern of his paddle boat. Another boat carried bundles of nipa leaves to be delivered to the thatch weaving stations, while young teens belt out local songs from the CEDFA’s social hall on an ordinary Saturday morning.
This is Cambuhat during the pandemic.
With or without tourists, however, surviving with the abundant river resource nearby has never been a big issue among the CEDFA members, thanks to community organizing that has prodded the village to sustain their river resource. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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