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OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT ACTIVITIES Mt. Mapidya, located in Nueva Ecija on Luzon Island in the Philippines, is badly denuded, mainly because of illegal logging. Deforestation will soon destroy the remaining virgin forests on Mt. Mapidya, if it continues. Survival of Highland Indigenous People (HIP) is also threatened by the depletion of forest resources and disasters such as floods. Since 1997, ICA has been working in the Mapidya area with HIP and local partners on awareness raising, food security, and alternative income sources for the local people which are essential to conserve the environment properly. Our activities include biodiversity research, tree planting, literacy and environment education, and agroforestry. These activities attracted people living in the Mapidya mountain range, and a community was established in the Salasa area in 2000, and in Silewin area in 2001. HIP made a small but very valuable step toward sustainable resource use and the development of lively communities. Slowly but surely, trees are growing, and people are becoming more conscious of their environment. Project Objectives ･ Conserve the virgin forest and biodiversity of the Mapidya mountain range. ･ Promote environment conservation utilizing HIPs knowledge of the forests and their culture. ･ Conduct tree planting activities in denuded areas with the initiative of local people. ･ Promote sustainable forest resource use and human life in harmony with forest life. ･ Raise local peopleﾕs awareness of nature conservation and nurture future leaders of environment conservation through literacy and environment education. ･ Secure Highland Indigenous Peoples human rights and stable way of life.
Major activities in Salasa and Silewin in 2001 ･ Nursery activities and tree planting in watershed areas ･ Agroforestry training and practice ･ Research on Soil and Water Conservation/Forest Recovery Technologies ･ Literacy and Environment Education for all generations.
Outcome ･ People used to cut trees without planting. Now, people do plant trees! ･ Community leaders are nurtured through the project, and they are well trusted by the commuity members. ･ The community members who used to suffer from hunger could produce enough food during the rainy season. ･ People are willing to help each other. Some people said that they would like to share their learnings with the neighboring communities. |
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1．Virgin forest in the Mt. Mapidya range. The Mt. Mapidya range belongs to the Sierra Marde mountain range which is the largest mountain range in the Philippines. Virgin forests are located 400-500m above sea level on Mt. Pinanganakan and Mt. Kinubabawan. There are dipterocarp forests in Mt. Mapidya range, and mammals such as monkeys and wild cats, and reptiles such as boa constrictors and monitor lizards live there. Philippines Eagle, an endangered species, is also thriving. It is a watershed which provides water to areas, for example, Metro Manila, Bulacan, and Nueva Ecija. | |
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2．A forest in Salasa area which is about 2 km away from the virgin forests. Forests in Salasa area were badly damaged because of massive commercial logging in 1970ﾕs and 1980ﾕs, and the existing forests are residual second growth forests. Currently, any logging in the area is banned. However, illegal logging is rampant, and forest depletion is a serious problem in this watershed area. | |
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Illegal Logging |
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3．The biggest cause of forest destruction in Salasa and Silewin area is illegal logging. We can hear the sound of chain saw from the morning till the evening during dry season. | |
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4．An Illegal loggersﾕ station near the Salasa community. It is equipped with arms such as guns. Most of the illegal loggers are landless farmers from the lowland, and they are hired by sponsors. It is said that the sponsorsﾓ are politicians and big logging companies in most of the cases. | |
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5．Vehicles to haul the timbers often visit the Salasa and Silewin area. Water buffalo and rivers were only way of hauling the timbers until recently, but illegal loggers constructed roads for six wheel vehicles. It invited more illegal loggers to the area. | |
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6．Effects of forest denudation is obvious. Denudation lessened the mountainsﾕ capacity to absorb water and made the ground unstable. Flash floods happen every rainy season, and land slides and river bank erosion are widely observed. | |
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7．Forest denudation has a big impact on water resources. Rio Chico river which Salasa creek and Silewin creek flow in became shallow because of siltation. Water table goes down seriously during the dry season, revealing river bed in some parts of the river. | |
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8．The communiy in Salasa area which is about 30km away from the lowlands. The community was formed in 2000, and currently, 19 families are living there. | |
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9．The communiy in Silewin area which is about 2km away from the Salasa community. The community was formed in 2001, and currently, 14 families are living there. | |
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10．Residents of the Salasa and Silewin communities belong to Dumagat tribe. Dumagats have their own language (Dumagat), and they are originally nomadic. However, the majority of the people in Salasa and Silewin are now settled. They used to live by shores, but they lost their original land when they were chased away by migrants, and moved into the forests. | |
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11、12．Huts of the people who live nomadic way of life. They build simple shelters, and move around the forests. Dumagats are originally nomadic and rely on forest resources for their living. There used to be abundant fruits such as bananas and papayas and also animals for hunting. | |
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13．A house of a settled person. Nowadays, forest resources are very limited due to forest destruction, and people are not able to get enough food from the forests. Therefore, some people decided to settle down. | |
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14．A kitchen made of stones and woods. People roast crops such as banana and cassava. They started to eat rice recently. | |
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15． They started to eat rice recently. Life is simple. People start the day with sunrise, and close the day with sunset. | |
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16．A family is making rattan strips. They bring the strips to the lowland, and exchange with rice and daily commodities. Rattan is an important income source for upland people during the dry season. However, some lowlanders come to the forests and extract rattan. Because of that, the number of rattan is decreasing rapidly, and people have to look for rattan in the deeper part of the forests. | |
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17．Children are playing together. There is no facility such as formal school and health care center in Salasa and Silewin area. The literacy rate in 2000 was lower than 5%.
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18．Salasa Learning Center was established in November 2000, to provide learning opportunities and to make environment conservation efforts sustainable. Various training and seminars such as environment and literacy classes and agroforestry training are conducted at the center. | |
| Nursery | ||
| 19．The seedlings of sugar apple which were grown at Salasa nursery No. 1. The nursery is next to the Salasa Learning Center. Seedling of various trees such as Mahogany, Narra and Ipil-ipil are grown in this nursery. | ||
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20．Salasa nursery No. 2. It is a simple nursery which has a seedbed and a seedling bed, and was prepared in January 2002. Mahogany is grown here. | |
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21．Some seedlings were prepared in the pots, while others were grown directly on the ground. Participants are taking the seedlings out of the ground to prepare for transplanting supervised by the staff. | |
| Tree Planting in Watershed Areas | ||
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22．Tree planting activities were conducted in the watershed areas to revitalize the forests. Project participants brushed the planting areas with a knife called Bolo. | |
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23.Tree planting activities were carried out in December 2001, and also from June through August 2002. The size of planting site is 53.6 ha, and the number of trees planted is 45,855. Multi-purpose trees such as Mahogany, G-melina, Narra and Ipil-ipil, and fruit trees such as Guyabano, sugar apple and Mango were planted. | |
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24．Children as well as adult participated in the tree planting activities. They are learning the roles of the forests in the nature and the importance of environment conservation through planting trees and taking care of them. | |
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25．Newly planted trees need to be watered every morning for about a week. Children took turns to water the plants. |
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| Promoting Agroforestry | ||
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26．Agroforestry was introduced and promoted so that reforestation, soil conservation and food security are achieved effectively. Mr. Nasino, the project director, is explaining about Multistory cropping system. | |
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27．The main topics of the training were basic ideas of agroforestry and multistory cropping. The participants started to practice the knowledge and skills in the respective farms. This photo shows a practice of alley cropping with the plants such as corn, taro, winged bean and mahogany. | |
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28．In this farm, gliricidia is planted as hedgerow, and vegetables such as pumpkin, sweet potato and beans are grown. | |
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29．Marupok family started to practice agroforestry on a slope which used to be bold and had soil runoff problem. They planted rice, cassava and taro with mahogany and ipil-ipil. These plants are effective as cover crops as well as food. | |
| Research on Soil and Water Conservation/Forest Recovery Technologies | ||
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30．Research on Effects of agrisilviculture approaches on soil and water conservationﾓ and Soil and water conservation practices in Salasa and Silewin areasﾓ were conducted from November 2001 till August 2002. Mr. Sagcal, head researcher, is examining a slope where cassava was planted as cover crop. | |
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31．Soil runoff prevention project by vegetation recovery started with the cooperation of 20 farmers. Measures such as ground cover, cover crop, mulch and NVS (Natural Vegetation Strip) were applied with multistory cropping system. The photo shows an example using rice, sweet potato and cassava as cover crops. | |
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32．Forest tree planting at the landslide sites are also conducted. Student volunteers from college of agriculture of Weslayn University participated in tree planting activities. | |
| Environment and Literacy Education | ||
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33．Environment and literacy education is implemented to help people recognize the value of their surrounding nature and to realize sustainable living. Posters and coloring books of plants and animals are used as learning materials as well as text books. Discussion, quiz and outdoor activities are often applied so that the participants can enjoy learning. | |
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34．Mr. Tarzan, the eldest in the community, participates in the classes. ﾒI am sureﾓ, Mr. Tarzan said, ﾒmy grand childen will have a nice future with this kind of learnings we have. | |
| Towards Sustainable Community Development.. | ||
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35．Community meetings were conducted before launching the project in order to realize long-term sustainable activities with local peopleﾕs initiative. Mr. Nasino, the project director, discussed project implementation and the content of the programs with project participants. Series of meetings are held during project period according to the local needs. | |
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36．Ms. Hasegawa, a Japanese facilitator, conducted monitoring sessions with a participatory approach. People have a lot of wisdom and ideas within themselves. Sharing those wisdom and ideas is one of the steps towards sustainable community development. Currently, project staff are facilitating the process, but in the long run, we would like to have local facilitator. | |
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