Carrying Capacity of Dauis, Panglao Island, Bohol
Updated: Jan 20, 2023
Duration: December 2020 – August 2021
The Municipality of Dauis is one of the two towns in Panglao Island which is situated on the southwestern coast of the Bohol Province. It has a total municipal land area of 4,524 hectares and is connected to the main island of Bohol by bridges. It is politically subdivided into 12 Barangays, namely; Biking, Bingag, San Isidro (Canlongon), Catarman, Dao, Mayacabac, Poblacion, Songculan, Tabalong, Tinago, Totolan and Mariveles.
Tourism is flourishing into a major industry in the Municipality of Dauis. It has major tourist attractions such as Hotels and Beach Resorts, Hinagdanan Cave and Underground Lake, Our Lady of Assumption Church locally known as Señora de la Asunción, Bikini Beach, Bingag Beach, Dao Beach, and Purple Yam Kinampay of Dauis. These attractions have brought in a multitude of both local and foreign tourists and their influx triggered the development of resorts in the beach areas. However, the tourist potentials of Dauis are threatened by the problem of environmental degradation, over-exploitation of resources, water pollution, and non-compliance and/or violation of environmental laws. Hence, the need to determine the carrying capacity is important to input to the policy and decision-makers for the sustainable management of the tourism industry of the Municipality of Dauis. It is the capacity of an ecosystem to support healthy organisms while maintaining its productivity, adaptation, and capacity renewal.
In this project, the carrying capacity of the project site was investigated with respect to its (1) status as a tourism center and (2) its expanding urbanization driven by tourism. the project will determine the carrying capacity of the study area in terms of (1) tourism carrying capacity, (2) physical carrying capacity, (3) population carrying capacity, and (4) ecological carrying capacity.