PGLU CONDUCTS BASIC SCUBA DIVING TRAINING
By: Grace L. Libong, GPC-ENRU | Photo By: GPC-ENRU | Date: November 24-26, 2020
With the aim of protecting and conserving the coastal and marine habitat in the province, the Office of the Governor- Environment and Natural Resources Unit (OPG-ENRU) conducted a five -day Basic Scuba Diving Training at Ocean Deep Training Center, San Francisco, City of San Fernando, La Union on October 12-13, 2020 for the academics discussions and film viewing and November 24-26, 2020 for the water works series of actual diving.
The activity was participated in by eight staff from the City of San Fernando and the Municipal Coastal Local Government Units (LGUs) of Bacnotan, San Juan, Bauang and Agoo, La Union as well as staff from the ENRU and Office of the Provincial Agriculturist Fishery Division.
The need for local divers is essential to strengthen local staff capacity underwater. This will ensure their valuable assistance in the conduct of coastal resource assessment, monitoring and evaluation conducted by Department of Environment and Natural Resources / Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. Coastal Resource Assessment is used to evaluate the performance of program and/or projects set up by the government in managing the coastal resources. Its goal is to improve current and future management.
Moreover, improving the local staff capability will give them the opportunity to visualize the actual scenario under water and to recognize and confirm the need for management actions that were common in nature such as active management intervention, stronger enforcement, organizational strengthening and others. This will also encourage cooperation among stakeholders and prompt management response.
To capacitate all coastal LGUs in the province, the OPG-ENRU plans to conduct again another batch for the CY 2021. Trained coastal LGUs also ensure their active participation in any coastal management and develop programs, projects and activities.
