By virtue of E.O.

192, series of 1987, the Department of environment and natural resources has been
mandated to be the primary agency responsible for the conservation, management, development, and
proper use of the country’s environment and natural resources.

In order to accomplish the said mandate, the DENR has created its frontliners, these are the Community
environment and natural resources offices (CENROs). These offices are created primarily for
implementing DENR policies, programs, projects and activities and the enforcement of ENR laws and
regulations in the community level.

One of these is the community environment and natural resources office of San Juan. (CENRO-San Juan)
CENRO-San Juan covers 10 municipalities, that is, 6 municipalities from the Pacific Area and 4
municipalities from the Panaon island with a total number of 197 barangays, all of Southern Leyte.

CENRO-San Juan has a total jurisdictional land area of 78,116 hectares; 45, 645 of which are classified as
alienable and disposable lands. While the remaining 32,471 hectares have been classified as timberland.
It also has a total of 230.42 hectares of mangrove areas. With the recent and milestone step of the DENR
in collaboration with the local government units in declaring the Mt. Nacolod as Local Conservation
Area, CENRO-San Juan now has a total of 14, 000 hectares of Protected areas. Cognizant of the
importance of protecting watersheds to support water supply, CENRO-San Juan has four (4)
identified important watershed areas, namely;

a) Hinabian-lawigan watershed of St. Bernard, southern Leyte;

b) Das-ay watershed of Hinunangan, Southern Leyte;
c) Maag Watershed of Silago, Southern Leyte; and
d) Magaupas watershed of Liloan Southern Leyte

The office continues to provide relentless efforts in sustaining the watershed management over the said
areas.

Also, in order to expedite the delivery of efficient public service, CENRO-San Juan has partnered with
some people’s organization. Currently, it has a total of seven (7) active people’s organization partners.

To assure delivery of effective public service, CENRO-San Juan has been divided into different sections in
order to address the needs of the public.

It has the Land Management Section which primarily deals with issuance of Free Patents or any licenses,
or agreements involving untitled lands as well as the resolutions of any untitled land disputes.

It also has the Survey section which primarily deals with the technicalities on land surveys, delineations
and relocations.

Likewise, it has the conservation and biodiversity management section which deals with the establishing
and managing of protected areas, conservation of wildlife and treatment of biodiversity-related
programs and activities.
CENRO-San Juan also has the Forest Management Section, which is divided into three (3) Units, namely;

a) Forest Protection and Law Enforcement Unit;

This unit primarily deals with the apprehension, confiscation, and implementation of
environmental laws and regulations. Recently, the DENR has applied the LAWIN as a bold move
in enhancing forest protection.
LAWIN is a forest and biodiversity protection system that integrates forest, biodiversity
and threats monitoring, and implementation of interventions in order to address threats and
monitoring of forest ecosystem.