Leonard Co’s legacy: Preserving our natural parks

We build highways and bridges not only for our use but also for the use of future generations. We build beautiful edifices not only to please ourselves but also to leave as legacy to our children.  We preserve our buildings and if they are heritage sites, we fight to save them when they are threatened. What could infinitely be more valuable than buildings to fight for and leave behind as our legacy to the next generation?

Last weekend, a group of concerned citizens answered that question. One hundred students, mountain climbers, trekkers, botanists, members of Bantay Kalikasan groups, the parish of the mountain barangay of Tala, military and police personnel, and indigenous peoples decided that it is our forest that is worth fighting for, and that it is our duty to preserve what God has created not only for ourselves, but also for our children and our children’s children.

How did they put their decision into action? They trekked for two days inside Mt. Natib’s  caldera in the Bataan Natural Park to look for and identify the various flora that Leonard Co had inventoried in a catalog  for posterity (with scientific and local names, habitat and  medicinal values), hence the name “the Leonard Co Flora Adventure Hunt” for the event.

Not too long after his month-long stay  in the Bataan Natural Park, he was killed in a “crossfire” between the military and NPA rebels in the forests of Leyte, doing what he loved most.

No run-of-the-mill event

From the start, the organizers have decided that the event should: (1) be creative, (2) make use of technology, (3) involve peoples’ organizations, and public-private sector companies, and (4) convert antagonists into co-operators.

The lead organization—Mga Bayani ng Kalikasan—has done tree-planting events  along highways and  denuded mountain slopes. It has combined sporting events, such as marathons and duathlons into their tree-planting activities. But the flora adventure hunt event is the first race that does not necessarily go to the fastest.

Over two days and one night, starting at Tala, Orani, and ending at the Bataan Technology Park in Morong, the participants-equipped with mobile phone app with GPS tracking capability supplied by Wideout Technical Services, Inc. and Smart Communications and Leonard Co’s photo catalogue—will fan out and comb the Bataan Natural Park “hunting” for the flora. They will take and upload the photos with bonus points for new species not identified by Co. With Google Earth satellite photo and GPS, a Flora map, as well as fauna, indigenous trees, and scenic spots, such as hot springs, streams, waterfalls and scenic views maps  of the Bataan Natural Park, will be developed.

Forest degradations

The event not only will showcase the rich biodiversity of the Bataan Natural Park but also stress the need to protect the habitat. Without the forests, it will be gone, and along with it the life support systems of the communities of Dinalupihan, Hermosa, Orani, Samal, Abucay, Balanga, Bagac, Morong and Subic SEZ. The watershed that feeds all the rivers that irrigate the rice lands of these surrounding towns is the Bataan Natural Park.

The Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC) have agreed, as their common CSR project, to subscribe to satellite images that are as close to real time as possible to be of practical use in spotting new forest degradations.

On the ground, the mobile phone App features will enable users like residents, Bantay Kalikasan groups, mountaineers and trekkers to take and upload pictures of places where degradations happen, and store locations via GPS. They can geo-locate pictures through Google Maps, share photos and comments in social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

The theory is that less crimes will be committed if there will be more people watching. The App will be promoted to target users by posting in expressway toll gates the QR code which will lead them to the site where they can download the app. If successful, this can be replicated in other National Integrated Protected Areas (NIPAs), for both landscape and seascape sanctuaries.

Beyond the mountains

Other support corporations and units are the Bataan Technology Park, Inc., Clark Development Corporation, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, MPTC/TMC, PTT, Mizuno, FS Phil, Inc, Pocari Sweat, and the LGUs of Bataan.

When motorists see from the highway the blue mountains on the horizon, they think that nothing is happening there. Nothing is further from the truth. Even where no commercial logging is operating, the degradation of the forests goes on. Sadly, this is done by forest fringes dwellers who still practice slash and burn farming (kaingin), and wood charcoal making.

They are there because they have no land, and they do these destructive practices because they have no other alternative to survive. (There are, of course, local officials involved in illegal logging who should be punished by law.)

Addressing the plight of these marginal forest dwellers requires more creativity than just government playing cop to them. As had been suggested, they must be turned from transgressors into co-operators. Creative ways must be found to make standing forests more valuable than cutting them.

For example, locals can get tourism revenues from entrance fees, acting as guides  and renting their horse. They should realize the value of protecting the forests lest no one comes to visit. We must also learn from the indigenous people who live in harmony with nature because of their deep understanding of the forest ecosystem. It is unthinkable that any member of the indigenous tribes would be guilty of destroying their habitat.

Finally, since keeping our present stock of forests is easier done than reforesting denuded ones because of the usually low survival rate and the many years it takes for the plantings to grow into mature trees, shouldn’t government shift strategies by spending more to keep them standing? How?

For one, we should make a census of all dwellers on and around the fringes of our NIPAs and co-opt them to guard the forests, and assign them specific areas of responsibility. How to pay them? Make sure that they get included in the government’s CCT program but impose the added responsibility on top of the conditions already imposed on the family on clinic visitations and class attendance. This would be a local version of the “rich countries paying the poorer ones not to cut down their trees.” Rich people  should pay the poor ones not to cut down trees. Lest they all get impoverished.

(The article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines. The author was a three-term Congressman of the First District of Bataan, former Chair Administrator of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and is now Chairman of the Bases Conversion Development Authority. Feedback at [email protected]. For previous articles, please visit www.map.org.ph)