Locationsby Irish Gomez Belmonte, Ormoc City Senior Agriculturist; and Leah Anadon-Payud and Earl Paulo Diaz, UNDP Philippines
Saving Kan: Rekindling Ocean Wonder through Circularity in Ormoc City
June 8, 2025
A typical day for the Ormoc Marine Mammal and Reptile Rehabilitation Center
City Government of Ormoc
In the coastal city of Ormoc in Eastern Visayas, a green sea turtle named "Kan", short for pawikan, the local name for sea turtles, was found floating near the shore, paralyzed and unresponsive. The city’s Senior Agriculturist, Irish Gomez Belmonte, was called in. Despite being seven months pregnant then, she wasted no time and brought Kan to the local hospital — leading to one of the city's most unusual emergency room visits. "They thought I was about to give birth," she laughed. "But I said, 'No, it's not me—it's the turtle!'"
Kan received X-ray support and eventually recovered and released back into the wild. But that day marked something more significant. It planted the seeds of a local movement that would bring together science, compassion, and community responsibility. Irish recalled how that light-hearted confusion and heartwarming release of Kan gave way to something more profound.
Monitoring Kan, the rescued green sea turtle, prior to being released back to the sea
City Government of Ormoc
Reflecting on this year's United Nations World Oceans Day theme: Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us, the experience from the coastal city of Ormoc reminds us that the ocean is our world's greatest wonder, and its health is interwoven with how we care for communities, ecosystems, and each other.
Wonder awakens us, but how might we sustain our response?
Wonder as Recovery: Building the Ormoc Marine Rehabilitation System
While several initiatives have been undertaken in the past, Ormoc City's marine protection efforts formally began in 2017 after the remarkable rescue of Kan. By 2019, these had taken shape as the Ormoc Marine Mammal and Reptile Rehabilitation Center, housed under the City Agriculture Department's Fisheries Division and backed by a local ordinance. What started as a makeshift recovery facility in tarpaulin-lined pools grew into a structured program with a dedicated onshore facility and an offshore expansion and diagnostic laboratory.
Ormoc is now home to the Eastern Visayas region's only dedicated marine rehabilitation team, with trained responders not just in the city but across Leyte, Biliran, and Southern Leyte. At least sixty marine turtles, dolphins, and other marine species have since been rescued, rehabilitated, and, whenever possible, released back into their natural habitats. The work is collaborative, led by local government and supported by a growing network that includes the academe, civil society, passionate marine experts, veterinarian specialists, and diving hobbyists.
The love story we shared — here in the Philippines and across the globe — was borne out of a heartfelt initiative to protect our most vulnerable species. What began as a simple act of compassion has grown into a movement, evolving into a sanctuary where these gentle creatures receive the care they soAs Ormocanons, we are called to be stewards of these animals, for we are all part of one interconnected web of life. Ormoc is not just for Ormocanons — it is home to all who dwell in her, human and animal alike. And as human beings, it is our sacred responsibility to protect the natural beauty that surrounds us—not only for ourselves, but for every living creature that shares this Earth with us.
Mayor Lucy Torres Gomez, City Government of Ormoc
Today, the center uses mobile X-rays, morphological assessments, behavioral therapy, and tagging systems to aid recovery. But beyond the tools and techniques, what stands out is how the program has become a community symbol. The rescued animals often arrive with injuries from ghost nets, plastic ingestion, or trauma, but leave bearing names and stories — each one an embodiment of resilience and care.
Wonder as System, Circularity and Community: Closing Loops, Strengthening Networks
Thorough examination of the carcasses of marine animals often revealed plastic debris in the stomachs of stranded animals — this further reinforced the need for more extensive efforts. From marine rehabilitation to upstream interventions, Ormoc realized that their conservation work should link what happens in the ridge to what ends up on its reefs: recovery alone won't solve the deeper issue. There’s a need to look not just at how waste is collected or disposed of, but at how it’s created in the first place.
So it turned to circularity.
Ormoc is among the pilot cities of the Green Local Government Units (LGUs) Project, jointly led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and UNDP Philippines under the European Union-funded Green Economy Partnership with the Philippines, spearheaded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The project aims to support local governments to accelerate their transition to inclusive, climate-smart circular economies.
UNDP, together with Mayor Lucy Torres Gomez and representatives from the City Planning & Development Office, City Environment & Natural Resources Office and Sangguniang Bayan during the presentation of the city’s CE portfolio
City Government of Ormoc
With support from this project, Ormoc City has developed its Circular Economy (CE) Portfolio: Sustainable Holistic Innovation for Circular Economy in Ormoc City or #SHInEOrmoc — a robust roadmap that guides how the city redesigns systems across three priority areas: plastics circularity and waste-to-resource systems, organics circularity, and sustainable urban development and green tourism.
The CE Portfolio reflects a whole-of-city transition: from upstream behavior change and localized livelihood models to downstream waste recovery infrastructure and policy reform. It integrates cross-cutting themes such as policy development, green procurement, education, and community-based innovation, creating practical entry points for circularity that resonate with everyday life in Ormoc.
While it may seem far removed from a turtle rescue, this portfolio laid the groundwork for long-term protection of Kan’s habitat — and countless others.
Education is core to this work. The city coordinates with government agencies to integrate marine protection into elementary school curricula. A major anchor of #SHInEOrmoc is the establishment of the Ormoc Circular Economy Research and Development (R&D) Center. This facility will not only serve as an academic hub for CE-aligned curricula and student engagement but also as a platform for applied research on microplastics, regenerative agriculture, greenhouse gas inventories, and circular livelihoods. It connects the city with knowledge partners and creates mechanisms for sustained knowledge-sharing with other LGUs and grassroots communities. The city has also put in place a solid waste ordinance and plastic regulation measures to mitigate marine litter at the source.
As an additional measure, trash traps have been situated in riverways to intercept waste before it reaches Ormoc Bay. Since the installation in 2024, a total of at least 1,194 kg of compostable waste, 591 kg of residual waste, and 15 kg of recyclables have been collected from the trash traps. Waste intercepted by these traps, along with the other collections from the city, were brought to the city's eco-waste center to reinforce upcycling and composting measures.
Livelihood initiatives also support these goals. Upcycling programs transform plastic into usable goods, while sachet-free models and community refilling stations help reduce household dependence on single-use products. Resource mobilization efforts also helped sustain the center's operations, ensuring continuity even outside of annual budget cycles.
Inclusivity is central to all these efforts. Gender equality, disability, and social inclusion (GEDSI) responsiveness is not just a principle but a practice in Ormoc’s approach. These are most evident in the way the city collaborates with women fisherfolk, youth volunteers, and frontline solid waste responders to ensure that no one is left behind in the transition to a greener economy. These commitments come alive along the coast, near Kan’s rescue site.
Regular campaigns, training sessions, and rescue simulations are held with fisherfolk, youth groups, and women’s associations. Local volunteers now include divers, teachers, mothers, and students—many of whom had never seen a dolphin up close but now know how to rescue one. In these moments, circularity becomes more than a strategy—it becomes shared responsibility and lived experience.
Through this collaboration under the Green LGUs Project, Ormoc is set to scale up marine litter prevention efforts, align tourism and fisheries practices with sustainability goals, and deepen its multi-layered response to a shared crisis. Waste is reduced. Systems are reinforced. And the wonder that drives people to act is met with the tools and frameworks to make that action sustainable.
Wonder Isn't Just a Feeling — It's a Force
What began with one sea turtle has evolved into a cross-sector, community-centered model for marine stewardship. Ormoc is demonstrating that saving marine life requires more than compassion — it involves coordination, courage, and continuity.
Ormoc City hosted training sessions on marine conservation
City Government of Ormoc
More than just a response mechanism, the city is building a broader system — one that connects its campaigns, trash traps, and turtle tanks into a larger vision for marine conservation. But the work is far from over. It is cultivating a system that links upstream behavior with downstream outcomes, empowering local people to protect the biodiversity they depend on, and redefining what care for the ocean looks like in practice.
At the heart of this is a shift away from linear models of consumption and disposal. Ormoc's circular strategy embraces the "10R" strategies of circular economy: Refuse, Rethink, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Refurbish, Remanufacture, Repurpose, Recycle, and Recover.
Irish Gomez Belmonte, Senior Agriculturist of the City Government of Ormoc
City Government of Ormoc
Irish, now a mother to twin daughters since that unforgettable day with Kan, brings both personal and professional insight to Ormoc’s shift toward sustainability. Just as she once carried a vulnerable sea turtle into the ER, she now helps carry a movement — nurturing systems of care that protect future generations, human and marine alike. With decades of service behind her, Irish remains both a witness and an actor to this significant shift.
"Kan taught us that every life is worth saving," said Irish. "However, rescuing alone is not enough. We must reimagine our relationship with the ocean and ensure that waste does not enter its waters. This is why embracing a circular economy is crucial and should be a practice adopted by everyone."
As the world gathers to celebrate World Oceans Day, Ormoc's message resonates clearly: to sustain the ocean, we must awaken our sense of wonder — but pair it with the structures, partnerships, and practices that make protection possible. If the ocean sustains life, then our systems must sustain the ocean.
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About the EU Green Economy Partnership with the Philippines (EU-GEPP):
Funded by a €60 million (₱3.67 billion) grant from the European Union, the EU-GEPP will run from 2023–2028 with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) as lead implementing agency, in collaboration with the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Energy, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The programme supports circular economy, renewable energy, waste reduction, and climate resilience. Co-funded by Germany’s development agency GIZ, it is implemented by UNDP Philippines, Expertise France with the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), and the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group). EU-GEPP is part of the European Union’s Global Gateway initiative, which fosters green transition and sustainable investments through trusted, inclusive partnerships.
About the Green LGUs Project:
The Green LGUs Project is a key component of the EU–Philippines Green Economy Programme that supports cities and municipalities in advancing inclusive, locally led circular economy (CE) transitions. Co-led by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and implemented by UNDP Philippines, the project empowers local actors to co-create circular solutions that reduce waste, regenerate ecosystems, and improve everyday systems through sustainable, community-rooted practices. It works to strengthen capacities, develop enabling policies, and unlock support across sectors—including local governments, civil society, the private sector, and marginalized groups—ensuring that circularity becomes not only practical, but part of the norm.
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