Protection sought for ‘underrated’ Palawan forest
LANDSCAPE AT RISK Mt. Mantalingahan is the largest terrestrial protected area and also the highest peak in Palawan province. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS FROM MT. MANTALINGAHAN PROTECTED LANDSCAPE
SAN PEDRO CITY, Laguna, Philippines — The conservation of Mt. Mantalinga-han, Palawan’s largest terrestrial protected area and the highest peak in the southern section of the island, is a duty heavier than the mountain itself.
Or at least this is how people working on the ground feel, considering there are only three park rangers (only one is a permanent employee) and a handful of community volunteers to guard 120,457 hectares of deep forests.
Wildlife trafficking, timber poaching, slash-and-burn practices and forest conversion into coffee or palm oil plantations continue to put the forest at risk.
And then there is nickel mining, a constant threat to the protected landscape.
More guards
According to Brooke’s Point Mayor Mary Jean Feliciano, at least two companies are hol¬ding on to the mineral production sharing agreement issued to them by the previous administrations to mine 2,500 ha inside the Mt. Mantalingahan protected zone.
The zone covers 36 villages in the towns of Brooke’s Point, Quezon, Dr. Jose Rizal, Sofronio Española and Bataraza. Last month, the five towns raised P2.5 million as an initial commitment for the protection of the zone.
Henry Adornado, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan), said the amount would be used to hire more forest guards and provide for their equipment and health insurance.
The ideal ratio is one forest guard for every 500 ha, accor¬ding to the DENR. The protected zone, then, would need about 240 more, it said.
‘Overwhelming’
“It’s overwhelming, yes. But we take on the challenge,” said Mildred Suza, protected area superintendent. “We are up against big people here,” she added, referring to mining and plantation businesses.
Feliciano said Mt. Mantalingahan is a biologically rich area, “comparable to the densest forests around the world.”
“But it is underrated as a lot more flora and fauna have not been [scientifically] researched yet,” she said.
The Mt. Mantalingahan protected zone has been on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s tentative list of World Heritage Sites since 2015.
According to Conservation International (CI), Mt. Mantalingahan’s forests are valued at $5.5 billion in terms of the benefits they provide to the ecosystem.
The zone supports lowland communities through its 33 watersheds, while the entire region serves as an important carbon sink.
Sense of ownership
Suza said the most commonly poached species here was the blue-naped parrot, with Mt. Mantalingahan being one of Palawan’s 11 important bird areas, according to CI.
The zone is also home to over a hundred threatened species, with more new species being discovered in recent years.
Suza said about 9,000 members of the indigenous Palaw’an tribe lived inside the protected zone. “We want people to realize how an important part of the ecosystem they are [and heighten the] sense of ownership of the forest,” she said.
A hiking blog said locals referred to Mt. Mantalingahan (2,086 meters above sea level) as the “Mountain of God,” with many parts still unexplored and others considered “sacred” by the community.
The peak, which can be reached through a three-to seven-day hike, is becoming an attraction to foreign mountaineers, Suza said.
Shift of focus
Only 15 people are allowed at a time on the peak to control the influx of tourists, while studies on the zone’s carrying capacity are under way, she added.
Feliciano said they started giving training in schools and in the communities on sustainable farming to discourage destructive agricultural practices.
“There were some, specially the elders, who cling on to traditional ways [like slash-and-burn]. So we thought of [shifting our] focus on the youth who will later inherit the land,” she said.
The government declared Mt. Mantalingahan a protected area in 2009. When the Expanded National Integrated Protected Areas System Act was enacted in 2018, Mt. Mantalingahan and four other Palawan protected areas were excluded from it since these formed part of the 1992 strategic environmental plan for the Palawan Act, a special law for Palawan.
