By SSU-CESTI
A team of seven (7) faculty researchers from the Center for Engineering, Science and Technology Innovations (CESTI) and Center for Culture and Social Issues (RCCSI) of Samar State University explored one of Catbalogan City’s gems, the Central Cave located in Barangay Cawayan.
The Research and Extension (R&E) program to document selected ecotourism site was proposed to establish benchmark information of the sites which is currently either is unavailable or unpublished. The benchmark information will serve as reference for future studies for impact evaluation.
During some of the researchers’ visits to these sites, indicators of potential negative impact was acknowledged to be eminent not because there are no precautionary measures written as a matter of policy but there is no strict implementation of it.
The team also found out that there is no scientifically prepared information about the flora and fauna in the vicinity of the ecotourism site which will make it difficult to perform impact studies in the future.
The exploration done at the Central Cave was to expose proponents of the proposed R&E program to the actual setting and determine if the initial protocols written is sufficient to make data gathering more efficient without sacrificing data quality.
“There is a rich information awaiting discovery from researchers about the ecotourism sites. Sharing them through publications especially on-line will allow people to appreciate more of the said site and for scientists to explore further to validate what was initially provided and discover more about the sites”, said Dr. Ronald L. Orale, Vice President for Research and Extension Services.
The Research Office headed by Dr. Orale also believes that succeeding eco-site exploration requires more experts joining in the team to gather pertinent information to exhaustively document each ecosite.
“The Office hopes experts along socio-economic, environment specifically along flora and fauna both above and underwater, macro and microbiology, water resources can join the team and either lead or co-lead studies along these areas”, he stated.
At present, the R&E office is in search of interested individuals and students (graduate or post-graduate) who would join the University in the documentation of the sites to protect them.
“For this program, the university hopes to propose tourism policies to protect its sites for today and future generation. With policies in-placed, the negative impact of ecotourism will be put to acceptable level while the socio-economic benefit of ecotourism is maximized,” Dr. Orale declared.