Closed canopy forest conservation pushed

BORONGAN CITY, E. Samar, Philippines — Environmental groups and government officials have pushed for the preservation of the country's largest unfragmented old growth forest and rich biodiversity located in Eastern Samar.

Angelito Villanueva, of the Samar Island Natural Park (SINP), during the closing ceremonies of the First Visayan Outdoor Festival (EVOF) held in this city from November 3 to 5, was referring to the Borongan-Llorente Closed Canopy Forest, which sits on a 24-hectare area.

"This is one of the advocacies of the EVOF, to preserve and conserve this remaining biodiversity, which I think is the remaining forest frontier," Villanueva said.

The closed canopy forest, encompassing the city and the towns of Maydolong, Balangkayan and Llorente, is worth P41 billion, said an official of the DENR in the region.

"Here lies in your midst the biggest and richest ecosystem," Jeanette Garcia from the SINP added.

Outdoor enthusiasts, for their part, urged Eastern Samareños to preserve the remaining lowland old growth forest, saying there is nothing like it in the country. They also objected to the planned Maydolong-Basey road, which could disturb the ecosystem in the area.

Eastern Visayas congressmen were reported to have pledged their support to the SINP legislation, now pending in Congress, to conserve and protect the canopy forest.

Villanueva said the EVOF is against all forms of mining and logging and pushes for eco-tourism. "If Bohol has tarsier, Davao has the monkey-eating eagle, Samar has both," he said. The SINP has reported sightings of the rare eagle, even recently.

The tarsier and the eagle are at home in the canopy forest, which was also the site of Mt. Kapudlusan in Maydolong where hundreds of mountaineers, including locals, tried to break the Guinness World Record for the most people in an ascent on multiple mountains set somewhere before by 600 climbers of the UK and Ireland. - THE FREEMAN