Skip to main content

Village folk tapped to protect endangered Cagayan caves

By CHARLIE C. LAGASCA

TUGUEGARAO CITY – Village folk in Peñablanca town here have been tapped to act as guardians of the remaining forest cover in said Cagayan’s southeastern town, which also is host to the famed seven-chambered Callao caves.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) yesterday said that it awarded tracts of land within the Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape (PPLS) to members of the Bugatay Upland Farmers Multipurpose Coop. to ensure its continued protection from the entry of timber poachers and other environmentally-destructive activities.

“We believe that if people have a stake in a certain area, they are more than keen in protecting it from others who are out to destroy the environment,” said Felix Taguba, provincial environment and natural resources officer.

A government-protected, the PPLS, comprising some 119,000 hectares of forest land forms with the nearby Isabela’s Northern Sierra Madre National Park and other wildlife reserves in the area, the Northern Sierra Madre Biodiversity Corridor, one of the world’s environmental hotspots.

The PPLS area has reportedly been beset by entry of illegal loggers or timber poachers, wildlife poachers and small-scale miners whose activities have started to negatively affect the immediate environment, including the famous Callao Caves in the villages of Parabba and Quibal.

Dr. Theresa Lim of the Protected Area and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), one of those who graced the recent awarding of communal land tenurial instrument to cooperative members, stressed the importance of community involvement in the preservation of the forest.

“This considering the fact that the remaining forest guards are already aging and the employment of new ones appears to very slim due to the DENR’s miniscule budget,” she said.

According to Taguba, their office has pushed for joint management by residents in the protected areas to make them feel that they have an important role in ensuring that the environment from which they have been obtaining the source of their livelihood will continually be protected.

“The Department has come to realize the importance of (community) participation rather than treating them as adversaries out to exploit the environment,” he said.

Popular posts from this blog

PNP going back to basics

Personnel from the Police Provincial Office in capital town Bayombong led by Sr, Supt. Elmer Beltejar, warm up for their daily afternoon workouts. The PNP, in its bid to enhance the performance and image of its men, goes back to basics by getting into physical activities that will turn them into robust police officers with sound minds and bodies. FT
Post a Comment
Read more

NFRDI completes assessment of Buguey lagoon

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan – Apprehensions over the protection of fishery and other natural resources, relative to the planned dredging of the Buguey Lagoon, can be put to rest after government agencies led by the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute has outlined a number of points to consider in order to forestall any negative effect of such activity . The lagoon, situated at Buguey town some 140 kilometers north of this capital city, is a center of fishery activities particularly seaweeds (Gracilaria) and oyster production, fry and crablets gathering, and fish cage operations. However, the area has been under threat recently due to heavy siltation and constriction resulting to poor water exchange. “The freshwater from the western end and saline water from the sea can not flow freely due to heavy siltation particularly at the portion near the main bridge which affects water quality and fishery operations in the lagoon,” Venchito Villarao, Coastal Resource Management spe...
Post a Comment
Read more

C. Valley’s anemic children up by 16% in national rate

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya – The number of children suffering from anemia or iron deficiency in Cagayan Valley is higher by 16 percent than the national rate, according to the latest survey conducted by the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI). Citing the said report, Rhodora Maestre, nutrition council director for Cagayan Valley, said that of those surveyed in the region, children aged five to six years old were found to be the most suffering anemia, even surpassing the national rate. On the average, the report shows that for every five children in the region, two are suffering from anemia, a condition in which one has poor level of red blood cells, which provide oxygen to body tissues, that, if not treated during the early stages, may lead to serious health problems such as leukemia or cancer of the blood. Likewise, 60 and 58 percent of pregnant and lactating women, respectively, in the region were also found to be lacking in iron in the body, which, if not treated during th...
Read more