FEATURE 

Cambuhat’s CEDFA survives 

pandemic by oyster farming 

In several tourism areas in Bohol, life stood still when the tourists stopped coming and local governments barred areas often visited by tourists, forcing industry workers to desperately seek other sources of money to bring food to the table. 

Not much here in this village hidden from the bustle of the 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 easy food on the table threatened. 

This kind of life however is nothing new to the people here. 

Surviving by simply basking in the bountiful resource of the river, resident of Cambuhat 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, 

Dili nato hikalimtan ang atong dagat di pasipad-an 

Magpabilin sa gihapon ang mga isdang magkadaghan…

The song originally composed for the enlightened community of Cambuhat, in Buenavista 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 far longer than the composers would imagine. 

Cambuhat, a river village on the banks of Daet-Cambuhat River, some over 70 kilometers north of Tagbilaran used to be just like any other river community: everyone their best to bring food from the river, on to the family table by whatever means. 

A model river winning 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 years old and original member of the organization. 

Calling themselves members of the Cambuhat Enterprises Development and Fishermans’ Association (CEDFA) the organization with 25 original members immediately went into 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 deal to the environment,” Aparece said. 

“Wala man gud ni sila makaseminar sa CRMP, mao nga wala silay kalibutan,” 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, confesses 64 years old widow Irenea Añasco, who along with his 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 culture, which had most of our village families owning one, Añasco added. 

With Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, we were trained how to plant talaba, 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. 

Later, in succeeding grants, the community has to source out the bamboo rafts, then the town gave the shells and the ropes, the organization giving the labor counterpart. 

The talaba farming however got them more time to do other work as it only needs a few days of readying that farm, and then after six to seven months, its harvest time. 

But with talaba, and the CEDFA, they organized the village to put up the Cambuhat River and Village Tour, where everyone got 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. 

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 8 kids who have benefitted from the community enterprise, illustrated. 

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. 

Then we had bangus fish cage, but the fish did not grow well as they did not develop their mouths well, so they did not feed well, Añasco seconded. 

But with the BFAR’s talaba culture, each family in the entire village now has a farm of their own, Aparece, who doubles up 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, but rather timidly. 

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 thousand in the beginning quarter of 2020. 

But then the activities have to be stopped due to the COVID restrictions. 

We were affected, but not much, both admitted. 

Now, they have another round of BFAR green crab livelihood package and now 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, training a bamboo raft loaded with nets. 

Gabukad sila og bunsod, Añasco explained, saying that the fish corral has to be pulled out after a few months, to wash 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 a venture into the mangroves across, a pail to be filled with clams and shells, resting in the stern of hos paddle boat. 

Another boat, carried bundles of nipa leaves, to be delivered to the thatch weaving stations, while young teens bely out local songs from the CEDFA’s social hall, on an ordinary Saturday morning. 

This is Cambuhat in 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 awakened the village to sustain their river resource. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol) 

MANAGING THE ENVIRONMENT. Original CEDFA members Aparece and Añasco write 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. In the pandemic, sliding back to enjoying the river resources has let Combuhat survive the pandemic. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Boho/) 

OYSTER FARM MODULES. BFAR’s oyster farm modules marked by blue drums acting as buoys, are taken care of by Cambuhat families as the government aims to get lesser fishermen going out to fish to lessen the strain on sea resource utilization. The oysters also become a prime menu for tourist food prepared and served by CEDFA members. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol) 

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. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol) 

COMMUNITY BASED TOURISM. Tourists help the local guide paddle the boats to get them to the community village center where performances and food await. The cultural immersion in a river community has been among the trademark experiences of tourists here. (PIA7/Bohol) 

Pandemic perks café sector, 

Readies new coffee blends 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 31 (PIA) – The pandemic and its restrictions to curb the spread of the disease may have sidelined several industry and service sectors, not those in the café business. 

While everyone was in their homes resting, the sector grouped and experimented on ways to come up with different coffee house blends to diversify on their menu offerings when the new normal resumes. 

Bohol Coffee Development Council coordinator and Department of Trade and Industry specialist Blair Panong bared this as he guides the local coffee industry astir in the time when everyone is cooling down. 

And in another novel attempt to prop up the coffee farmers, the DTI and the Bohol Coffee Development Council is matching local coffee shops with coffee growers to make the industry sustain. 

Speaking before the weekly Kapihan sa PIA, Bohol Coffee Development Council coordinator, Panong said the move would assure local coffee shops of sure supply of locally grown coffee beans and also the farmers of a sure market, even for small amounts of their harvest. 

By then, coffee growers and café owners agree on the observance of quality assured processes of good agricultural practices, methods of harvesting and drying the beans and in coffee roasting so the quality of the product is maintained. 

Now responding to the need to come up with a sustainable local market, the council whose vision is seeing the coffee industry here as uplifting the economic status of Boholanos through product quality, production and processing capabilities is also into promoting clean and green environment, as well as consistently meet the volume and quality demand of consumers to the betterment of lives and the industry. 

With the Philippines among the top producers and exporters of coffee in the 1970s, the unstable world market price, the quota restrictions and high cost of production has discouraged the industry. 

As the country consumes more than it produces, it imports around 20,000 to 30,000 metric tons of coffee beans, amounting to millions of pesos annually. 

However, Panong said the government has picked coffee as among the priority industry clusters for development, the plant itself ideal for growing under forest cover and is a sturdy plant that needs less attention. 

Seeing the very good prospect, a Boholano named Duke P. Miñoza has established the province’s largest coffee plantation and is now running the Café Nueva Vida of Buenaventurada Farms. 

With around 407 hectares of land planted to coffee, around 162 hectares of these is grown to the Arabica variety while the remaining 245 is planted to and is the source of the Robusta variety. 

Panong said Food and Drugs Administration is set to give Buenaventurada Farms its License to Operate its coffee processing center, which would allow the farm to go big on their roasted coffee production. 

Arabica beans tend to have a sweeter, softer taste, with tones of sugar, fruit, and berries. Their acidity is higher, with that winey taste that characterizes coffee with excellent acidity, according to thekitchn.com. 

Robusta, on the other hand tends to have a stronger, harsher taste, with a pea-nutty aftertaste, but although said to be inferior kind, it contains twice as much caffeine as Arabica. 

Grown in lower altitudes beans, robustas fruit more quickly than Arabicas, are less vulnerable to pests and changing weather conditions, and some high quality robustas are valued especially in espressos for their deep flavor and good crema. 

Arabicas, on the other hand, need several years to mature, but they yield more crop per tree, but they grow better in higher altitudes, that Bohol has more of the robusta, said Bohols duke of coffee, Duke P. Minoza, during the same Kapihan. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol) 

PERKING UP THE COFFEE INDUSTRY. With the pandemic practically sidelining workers, the coffee industry kept itself astir as DTI and the Coffee Development Council put up trainings on diversifying coffee menu and discovering new blends, to be ready as soon as the new normal resumes, reports Blair Panong at the Kapihan sa PIA. (PIABohol) 

ROBUST. Bohol’s Duke of Coffee, Duke Miñoza explains the difference between two of the most grown coffee varieties: Robusta and Arabica. Bohol is a string robusta producer, and the crop has been perfectly fit to recover portions of Bohol’s idle lots, giving communities and option for livelihood. (PIABohol)

No more fly-by-night tours 

In Bohol’s new normal 

TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, Oct 31 (PIA) – As Bohol reopens a travel bubble starting in Panglao this November 15, it would be the new normal that prevails and unlike then, there would be no “do-it-yourself tours. 

Off to possible a good restart as Bohol now only allows tourists on establishments authorized to operate in the new normal, as well as on the Department of Tourism accredited establishments, this time, colorum operators and fly by night operators would have no share of the pie. 

Governor Arthur Yap, during his update at the daily Press Briefing hosted by Presidential Spokesperson Secretary Harry Roque, said the government is studying the possibility of opening to domestic tourism on November 15, but safely. 

Earier, the governor bared that opening Bohol’s tourism would be started by accepting groups on meetings, events, conventions and incentives, where it is easier to control and manage being one group that travels together. 

The decision was also based on the Department of Tourism’s travel bubble concept. By travel bubbles, DOT Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat explained that “tourists from countries with low to zero Covid-19 cases as well as those who have successfully demonstrated capability in controlling the spread of Covid-19 within their respective borders” can strike bilateral arrangements between each other to allow travelers “to enter each other’s borders” with minimal quarantine period. 

Citing Bohol, with Panglao Airport, she said tourists from these areas will be allowed to visit the Philippines and “fly directly to tourist hotspots with international airports.” 

Needing only a negative for COVID test results through Reverse Transcription Polymer Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) in the last 72 hours prior to flight to Bohol, tourists with less than five days of stay here can register at the tourism portal of the Bohol tourism office, to be processed and given entry. 

Earlier, the BIATF issued guidelines for persons with less than five days of stay in Bohol, which requires no 14 days quarantine as long as they can show negative COVID results in an RT PCR test. 

Simply log in to tourism.bohol.gov.ph and fill out the name, email, age, gender, contact numbers, nationality, residence and employment, a tourist would also need to state his booking references, purpose of travel, accommodation establishments and booking reference, number of nights of stay in Bohol and then attach the negative for COVID RT PCR test. 

An sending of the registration prompts an email response that would give out the unique Guick Response Code to the registrant. 

The site is dedicated to register tourists coming in and the registration acts as a way to populate the computer-based databank which also gives access to Bohol authorities to track the tourist based on the time the card is used of scanned in tourism points. 

As the registration populates the data bank, it also assigns a QR Code to the Bohol Card he gets when he steps into Bohol. 

The unique QR Code assigned to a tourist would be tracked as soon as the tourist uses the card in entrances to establishments, transportation, and in tourism stops when it is scanned by an android smart-phone based QR scanner. 

With the Bohol Card, a tourism simply have to book to a tourism stop ahead and make online payments, in a system of contactless payments system in the new normal. 

The card, which Bohol governor Arthur Yap said numbers 300,000 would also be given for free to household heads here. 

Critical to the system is the strict adherence to the health and safety protocols, and a reliable contact tracing system in place, to allow authorities to decisively contain an area when COVID red flags pop. (rahchiu/PIA-7/Bohol) 

NON CONTACT PAYMENT SYSTEM CONTACT TRACING CARD. Critical in Bohol’s opening up of its travel bubble to tourists coming from areas with similar Covid category of affectation as Bohol, is the Bohol Card which allows tourists to make contactless cash payments as well as an efficient android phone based QR scanner system that gives real time location of the card holder. (PIABohol/inq7.net)