Mangrove Reforestation: An Impact Assessment of Maritime Education Community Extension Service Project

The research project is an initiative to marry up research activities and community extension projects of the College of Maritime Education (CME) of MSEUF to fulfill statutory and regulatory requirements essential for its operation. It assessed the impact of the community-based mangrove reforestation and management program implemented by the department five (5) years ago. The community-based mangrove rehabilitation and management program rehabilitated degraded mangrove ecosystems, lessening the biodiversity loss in Brgy. Ransohan in Lucena City as part of the Community Extension Service (CES) of CME in collaboration with residents and government units to improve management of fisheries and reduce burden on farming and fisheries, geared towards more sustainable practices to shield biodiversity and ecosystems such as mangrove forests, stirring and vesting people and the Brgy. Ransohan community to implement more workable activities. The research assessed the impacts of the implemented CBMRM through complementary methodologies combining participatory resource mapping, personal observations, semi-structured interviews, questionnaire-based interviews, field assessments, and literature review. Changes relative to ecological, economic, and socio-cultural aspects as a consequence of the five-year implementation, extent of attainment relative to relevance, significance, and sustainability of positive impacts, lessons learned, and possible follow-on activities of the implemented CBMRM program are determined and examined, serving as baseline information for the development of the original, innovative, and comprehensive MSEUF-CME community-based mangrove reforestation and management (CBMRM) mid-project impact monitoring and assessment report and improved operational plan.