(First of two parts)

LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET?Watersheds in the Cordillera Administrative Region are courting an environmental disaster and the government is being urged to launch a major rescue operation to stop the further decline in the region?s forest cover and water resources.

Forest fires, timber poaching and the conversion of forest lands to agriculture areas has been eating up an average of 1,735 hectares yearly as of 2006, said Samuel Peñafiel, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

?The situation is critical since even mossy forests have not been spared,? he said.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) is also panicking because the region?s four major river systems?Chico, Agno, Bued and Abra?have been serving up less and less water the past few years.

?Major portions of watersheds are being converted into vegetable gardens while inland rivers and streams drawn from the watersheds are also seriously threatened by siltation,? said Abraham Akilit, NIA Cordillera manager.

Lukewarm

While the government has acknowledged the grave danger confronting the watersheds, its bid to save them has been ?lukewarm? and not aggressive, according to Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr.

Baguilat decried the government?s failure to come up with a clear policy on dealing with the region?s crucial role as a well-sculptured environment.

?The Cordillera is a critical ecosystem. Its biodiversity is special,? the governor said, adding that the region would play a crucial role in cushioning the impact of climate change.

But the DENR and NIA dismissed as hogwash the governor?s claims that efforts to rescue the watersheds were slow or that these emanated from a tepid policy. Peñafiel and Akilit said the government had deployed its resources to save the watersheds.

Watershed cradle

The Cordillera is composed of the highland provinces of Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and the Mountain Province, and Baguio City. It has an area of 1.83 million hectares, of which about 85 percent or 1.56 million hectares are classified as timber or forest lands. The rest are alienable or disposable lands.

Of the forested areas, 92 percent are public forests and forest reservations, while the rest are national parks and civil and mineral reservations.

The DENR?s Forest Management Services said the four major river systems and forest resources had blessed the Cordillera with its greatest wealth?its 13 major watersheds?feeding the waterways of the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley and Central Luzon.

These are the river basins of Cabicungan (5,000.059 hectares), Zimigui-Ziwanan (551,892 ha), Abulog (265,094.690 ha), Chico (405,670.603 ha), Siffu-Mallig (150,258.115 ha), Magat (232,445.053 ha), Agno (128,725.253 ha), Bued (18,473.812 ha), Aringay (19,455.427 ha), Naguilian (25,939.020 ha), Amburayan (60,848.213 ha), Silag (12,444.053 ha) and Abra (441,501.885 ha).

Their total area of 1,809,614.58 ha is a testament that indeed the Cordillera is the ?watershed cradle of north Luzon,? supporting the irrigation, mini and hydroelectric power plants, fishing, agriculture and potable water supplies of the region and northern Luzon?s lowland provinces.

Very high forest loss

Forest resources are classified into three types?dipterocarp, pine and mossy forests?that are the home base of resources rich in biodiversity and natural ecosystem.

But the rate of forest loss is very high, according to Moises Bai, chief of the DENR?s Forest Conservation Division in the region, and Julius Cawilan, chief of the Forest Resources Development Division.

However, both officials said that assessing an environmental disaster was ?too much.? They said ?some parts are in danger but some are not.?

For the last five years, the Cordillera had a reforestation rate of 1,284.88 ha a year or a recovery rate of 903.8 ha compared to the rate of forest loss.

Cawilan said that aside from an intensive forest protection program, the DENR executed 76 memorandums of agreements with various stakeholders for the management of forest lands.

Environment officials, however, view the word ?critical? differently.

Critical condition

?A forest is critical if it supports a major watershed infrastructure like a dam,? Bai said. ?The word critical meant the forest plays a major role in supporting a watershed.?

Akilit was more candid. ?The region?s watersheds are in critical condition since they are fast deteriorating. Forest cover is declining and our rivers are drying up,? he said. (To be continued tomorrow)