FILIPINOS cringe in fright and concern whenever they see forest fires engulfing huge residential areas and farm lots in California, always the staple of TV news worldwide. Many would say a bit of prayer, thanking God that these outbreaks do not happen in the Philippines.
It is little known, however, that grass fires especially in the heat of summer have started to become a problem here — in an area just 47 kilometers from Manila, called the Masungi Georeserve. It is an ecotourism limestone site in Baras, Rizal which is part of the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL).
Authorities have established that small fires occurred in Masungi, probably caused by kaingeneros doing slash-and-burn farming. But there are also indications that small family-run resorts there are expanding, even as local tourists dodging the pandemic’s health protocols keep looking for secluded places to swim and picnic, such as the Gubat sa Ciudad in Novaliches.
‘The DENR has a lot of explaining to do here, because scores of people are violating the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act and yet the government agency tasked to protect the forests moves at a snail’s pace.’
Nilo Tamoria, executive director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region 4, said under the Protected Areas Management System, there should be no structure in the areas covered by the proclamation, but since the Marikina watershed was declared a protected landscape only in 2011, there had been structures there prior to the declaration. These structures, of course, means people living and doing some economic activities in the area, way outside the objectives of the law.
The environmentalist Masungi Georeserve Foundation was the first to raise the flag on validated illegal activities going on in Masungi. This was last year and the early part of this year, thus prompting the DENR to act, or at least show a semblance of action.
The environment department’s first move was to run after persons illegally occupying land in the Masungi reservation. They said this year alone, the department has so far issued 68 show-cause orders against suspected violators, and several had been charged and detained.
Good to hear, except that some of these show-cause orders were issued in April 2019. Two years have passed and it is still the same problem. The DENR has a lot of explaining to do here, because scores of people are violating the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act and yet the government agency tasked to protect the forests moves at a snail’s pace.
We would like to think that the DENR is not good only at embellishment projects such as the Manila Bay artificial dolomite beach, but can prove its worth in the nitty-gritty of forest conservation.
Meanwhile, the Masungi Georeserve Foundation and other activists for the environment should be praised and encouraged for their work.
