By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The municipality of San Remigio is calling for volunteers to help in the establishment of a “forest library” on its 18-hectare timberland.
In an interview Thursday, Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) chief Ruth Martinez said the local government will be planting dipterocarps and endangered tree species such as yakal, kamagong, and almasiga, in a timberland in Barangay Osorio II.
The project is being implemented in partnership with the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) through its Nature-based Solutions Trial Project. “We are calling for volunteers to help us plant around 18,000 threatened dipterocarps on the area as part of rejuvenating our forest,” she said.
Martinez said the EDC, as part of its social corporate responsibility, is now in the process of transporting the tree seedlings to be planted in the area. Aside from rejuvenating the forest, she said the project also seeks to boost the local eco-tourism industry.
“More tourists will come to San Remigio because of the eco-tourism destination they could visit,” she said. Planting more trees would also entice endangered bird species to inhabit the area. Spotted in the forest last summer was a woodpecker with its nest and eggs,” she added.
The project would also protect the area from soil erosion, as well as the nearby Danao Lake from siltation. “There are some claimants in the timberland, but the EDC is providing them with livelihood through the tree planting activity,” Martinez said.
The claimants will also be helping ensure that the project will become successful so that more available areas could be planted with trees.
San Remigio is considered as the “Little Baguio” or “Baguio of Panay” because of its cool climate and beautiful upland scenery. (PNA)