In line with the mission of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to promote sustainable development and ensure stakeholders’ participation in the protection and conservation of the environment, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) in Antique together with the Regional Public Affairs Office (RPAO) conducted a Dalaw-Turo at Barasanan National High School and Villaflor Elementary Schoolin Tobias Fornier, Antique on October 16, 2019.

During the activity, the Dalaw-Turo Team prepared educational games and skits on proper solid waste management and illegal tree cutting to help increase the awareness and knowledge of students about environmental protection and conservation.

Both schools also received the coffee table book Kadagatan tubtub Kabukidan (From the Seas to the Mountains): Traditional Knowledge Practices of Panay and Guimaras and information, education and communication (IEC) materials on Ecological Solid Waste Management (RA 9003) which includes the prohibition of the burning of leaves and waste materials, Disaster Preparedness and Importance of Wetlands.

Dalaw-Turo (DT) is a non-traditional educational, participatory, communication teaching design developed by the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), now the Biodiversity Management Bureau,as a medium for environmental education based on the principles of biological diversity and sustainable development.

Dalaw Turo uses the basic communication principles of folk media and community mass-based approaches such as street theaters, environmental games, creative lectures and workshops, ecological tours and production of nature interpretative materials.

DENR 6 Regional Executive Director Francisco E. Milla, Jr. said: “We are hoping that the youth will apply their learnings from the Dalaw-Turoand will now understand the role they playto help conserve and protect the environment through their own ways by properlysegregating wastes.”

Proper solid waste management is one of the ten (10) priority programs of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu to ensure wastes are properly disposedof and managed./DENR 6