New mountain protection strategy: Climb

BAGUIO CITY—Environmentalists have found a new way of conserving the Cordillera’s mountains: Climb every one of them.

This is the driving force for the first international “sky race” that government and environmentalist groups are launching in February, a marathon in the forests of Benguet.

The Department of Tourism launched the race here recently. It would be the Philippine leg of the Skyrunner World Series Trials, which were held in Greece, Andorra, Portugal, Spain, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Japan and Venezuela.

Roberto Cereno, head of the Botanic Gardens, Parks and Ecotourism Division of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, said encouraging ordinary people to “climb every mountain” would help raise levels of awareness on the need to protect forests.

The phrase he used, “Climb Every Mountain,” came from a song performed in the 1959 musical “The Sound of Music.”

This approach is a complete reversal of government’s outdated programs, which have banned people from entering or living in national protected areas, said Cereno.

He said drawing people to the mountains “dispels the common notion that by climbing mountains, we conquer them.”

“To me, it’s the other way around,” he said.

The idea of communing with nature has been embraced by many in government, said Clarence Baguilat, Department of Environment and Natural Resources director in the Cordillera.

Baguilat earlier urged DENR employees to climb Mt. Pulag in Benguet to help set in context their passion for protecting forests, saying he never completely understood the heart of the advocacy to protect Luzon’s highest peak until he reached its summit.

The principle is also at the heart of Baguio City’s Eco Walk program, which encourages students to tour the city’s Busol Watershed to explain its relevance to their lives, said Ramon Dacawi, the program’s founder.

The sky race is an innovation, which could help kick off this new school of thought on mountain conservation, said Joseph Paul Alipio, founder of the reforestation group, Cordillera Conservation Trust.

His group’s tree nursery project for 2012 will benefit from the proceeds of the race.

The race will require runners, including participants from other countries, to race through 16.44 kilometers of mountain roads and trails until they reach the summit of Mt. Ugo in Itogon, Benguet, before they return to the starting line in Barangay Tinongdan. Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon