Southern Leyte Province News September 2011

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After 20 years, forest crusaders reap rewards for conserving resources

• Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/232677/news/specialreports/after-20-years-forest-crusaders-reap-rewards-for-conserving-resources
• September 17, 2011 1:44pm

by. MARK D. MERUEÑAS

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte - Loud and shrill, the roar of the chainsaw pierced through the calm of a plantation forest deep in the mountains near Southern Leyte's capital city of Maasin.

As the chainsaw operator sliced the trunk of an imposing mahogany tree, 47-year-old Florentino Saludo watched intently from a distance, his face a blank canvas.

It didn't take long before the towering tree began to collapse to the ground. As soon as the dust and leaves had settled, a wave of emotion finally overcame Saludo.

"That's what I always say. We took care of it for so long and then we see it just get cut like that," said Saludo in Filipino, briefly pausing before finishing his statement, "Masakit talaga, masakit."It took sometime before the forest farmers from Southern Leyte like Saludo could accept that this is the way of life in the forest, as proclaimed in postcards: a tree is born, a tree dies, the forest lives forever.

Saludo is the president of the Youth Innovators for Social and Environmental Development Association (YISEDA), a local people's organization in charge of a community-based forest management project that aims to protect remaining natural forests and lead reforestation efforts in Maasin.

One rainy day in September, Saludo took a group of visiting journalists from Manila to the project site, sharing not only their accomplishments in community-led sustainable forestry management but also the hurdles they overcame in the last two decades.

Cutting the mahogany tree was only one way of demonstrating the efficient harvesting practices observed in their forest domain. As part of their project commitment, members of YISEDA have decided they will no longer tolerate illegal logging, and instead harvest only those trees that they themselves have planted.

Interestingly, Saludo's father confesses that he was once an illegal logger, but he has since mended his ways.

Saludo himself had seen the growth of the mahogany tree that they just harvested since the time it was planted almost 20 years ago, in 1992, as part of reforestation efforts in the area at the time. That's why nobody could blame Saludo if he had developed an attachment to the tree.

YISEDA vice president Leo Vanzuela says it is not unusual for many of their members to become averse to logging after working so hard in preserving the forest. "Sinasabi ng iba, 'Ano puputulin na natin?' Sabi naman namin ay huwag na. Pinagpaguran natin iyan. Dugo't pawis natin iyan... Magkapatayan na huwag lang putulin iyan," he said.

At first, only a handful of villagers were willing to join the advocacy of YISEDA, which started its crusade on forest conservation as early as 1993. In the next 14 years, Saludo said they managed to protect the forest with no government funding. They patrolled the mountains at least twice a month, looking for signs of kaingin (slash-and-burn farming) or illegal logging.

In the early years, when community interest was not yet at an all-time high, Saludo emphasized the importance of becoming role models for other villagers. "Kung may commitment ang leaders, susunod ang members. We should not only be role models but also be transparent," he said.

Once everyone started joining the bandwagon, they soon realized that they were not only engaged in an environmental cause but would also reap economic rewards. There were livelihood benefits to be derived from protecting the forests.

Family affair

In recent years, YISEDA members were trained to cultivate seedlings from mature trees. With funding from the German aid agency Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the organization buys the seedlings and assigns members who will plant the young trees across 400 hectares of land at the San Francisco Nature's Park, a mountain range that covers five barangays in Maasin.

The males in the family take charge of the tedious and exhausting planting activities, while the housewives nurture the seedlings. Saludo, a father of one, said the children in their community are advised to focus on their studies, but some insist on joining their parents in planting trees.

"Kapag weekend at walang pasok, may mga bata talaga na sumasama sa amin. Talagang family affair na rin itong ginagawa namin," Saludo proudly said.

Apart from reforestation, YISEDA has also initiated agro-forestry activities to generate additional income. They plant fruit trees, vegetables such as eggplants and tomatoes, and root crops like gabi and kamote (sweet potato).

Cash income also comes from harvested trees, such as the 40-foot mahogany tree that Saludo's team had just cut down. Timber from the tree could fetch more than P5,000 once it is processed into market-sized planks used for construction, he said.

Under their CBFM agreement with the government, YISEDA can only cut trees from plantation areas measuring at least 30 centimeters in diameter. It usually takes around 20 years for one tree to reach this size, officials said. This is why it is only recently that YISEDA members have started reaping the benefits from the first trees that they planted in the early 1990s.

YISEDA has a timber-processing plant at the foot of the mountain, and has begun cutting the logs into smaller pieces. But until now, the wood planks sit quietly in their storage room.

Rogelio Abalus, one of the technical staff assisting YISEDA, explains the locals’ behavior. "Sila mismo, parang di pa sila ready ibenta ang mga kahoy namin. They are saying, 'Naaawa kami sa kahoy namin kaya we are holding these back,'" he recounted.

Saludo said there are plans to create added value for the raw timber by turning them into wooden furniture, which can then be sold at a higher price.

Cut in half

But the community does not have to wait for the town to evolve into a furniture-making center in order to reap the benefits from sustainable forest management.

This early, Saludo's cousin Ambrosio is thankful that he shifted to seedling production and agro-forestry for a living. The 47-year-old farmer had to borrow money for his appendectomy in January 2009, leaving him with a P40,000 debt.

Last year, he started selling seedlings for lauan, sagimsiman, mahogany, and balobo at four pesos each. He has earned almost P20,000 so far, enough to cut his debt by half. "Kung wala pa itong ganito, baka baon pa rin ako sa utang," Ambrosio told GMA News Online.

Apart from the income, local villagers have also begun to appreciate the impact of forest conservation as an adaptation tool in the current wave of climate change. By preserving their abundant forests, the mountains not only remain intact and free from any danger of landslides, but also serve as a steady conduit of rainwater both for the villagers' consumption and also for irrigating their tree plantations.

As an added bonus or, as GIZ officials like Abalus refer to it, the "icing on the cake," these green communities contribute in a huge way to easing the greenhouse effect - that warms the planet - through a global strategy known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation-plus (REDD+).

Abalus explains that every tree preserved will not only slash the amount of carbon dioxide - a key factor in turning the earth into a huge greenhouse - in the air because of the absorption process of vegetation, but it will also keep the tree's carbon component locked in. Carbon dioxide is released into the air when trees are burned, like what happens in large-scale slash and burn farming.

Ricardo Tomo, provincial director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said Southern Leyte was a perfect pilot area for the GIZ's project because the local government has been enforcing a logging ban since the 1970s, way before President Benigno Aquino III issued Executive Order 23 in February this year that imposed a moratorium on logging in natural and residual forests.

However, he admitted that there are still isolated cases when villagers try to sneak logs out of the island province.

Just the same, due to its trailblazing efforts, President Aquino awarded YISEDA as the best people's organization in Southern Leyte in 2010. - Photos by Joe Galvez and Mark Merueñas/YA, GMA News

Leyte villagers bring forests back to life

• Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/232465/news/regions/leyte-villagers-bring-forests-back-to-life
• September 15, 2011 2:34pm

by. JOE GALVEZ, GMA NEWS

In a small village in Southern Leyte, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is assisting farmers in managing a long term Community Based Forest Management (CBFM) project that aims to reforest denuded mountains and address climate change concerns at the same time.

The Young Innovator for Social and Environmental Development Association (Yisedai) led by its president, Florentino Saludo, are continuously planting more trees in addition to more than 400,000 seedlings planted so far at the San Francisco Natural Park.

Through the years, Yisedai has grown from a handful of members with no modern implements except for a few machetes and spades, to a thriving organization that now owns a truck and a mini-sawmill where they process harvested timber.

With assistance from DENR and funding from the German Development Cooperation’s Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the group was able to purchase several German-made Stihl chainsaws and protective gear. Each member also gets P150 a day to plant at least 300 seedlings of various tree species.

The reforestation area is one of the pilot sites for the REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) project of the DENR and GIZ, which invited several journalists from Manila last Sept. 8-10 to take a look at the farmers’ efforts. - YA, GMA News

Climbing the 'Chocolate Hills' of Southern Leyte

• Source: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/232351/lifestyle/travel/climbing-the-chocolate-hills-of-southern-leyte
• September 14, 2011 2:25pm

by. MARK D. MERUEÑAS

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte - Thanks to its one-of-a-kind and perfectly dome-shaped "Chocolate Hills," the Visayan island province of Bohol has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Philippines.

But who knew these sun-kissed mounds have a counterpart northeast of Bohol, in the neighboring Leyte island?

The "Chocolate Hills" of Southern Leyte form part of the Nacolod Mountain Range, but have been locally baptized the "San Francisco Nature's Park," after the town's patron saint. More appropriately called mountains, their peaks rise above the sea level at exactly 580 meters, easily dwarfing Bohol's 30- to 50-meter hills, and cover at least five barangays (villages).

While the Chocolate Hills can be viewed from the summit of one hill and easily reached by car through a winding paved road, the Southern Leyte version is accessible only on foot for now. This makes the steep climb more challenging and rewarding at the same time.

The mountain range is best seen from a wooden view deck built on one of the peaks last February by a local village organization. Members of the group take turns in watching over the mountain range, looking for signs of illegal logging and slash-and-burn activities (kaingin) that have scraped the slopes bare.

Thanks to the local forest crusaders, some 400 hectares of denuded land were recently replanted with seedlings through the help of the German aid agency Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The mountains have become alive again with a wide variety of native and exotic seedlings including acacia mangium, lauan, mahogany, sagimsiman, yakal, mayapis, and bagtikan.

These new patches of forestland are among those classified by the government as community-based forest management areas, which local villagers in province have volunteered to protect. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources provides technical assistance, either by helping replant new seedlings in deforested areas or by maintaining natural forests that have remained untouched.

Reaching the summit

If you are the adventurous and fearless type of mountain climber, you can reach the watch tower by taking an hour-long and steep (almost 90-degree) ascent on one side of the mountain. But if you wish to get to the top quicker and easier, you can take a shorter (about 30 minutes of climbing) and less steep route on the other side.

Unfortunately for us, we did it the hard way, taking the steeper ascent and going down the shorter route. I don't know if our travel guides did that on purpose, as we did not learn about the easier route until we were on our way down, but no matter. We still enjoyed the climb and I wouldn't have done it any other way.

Once at the summit, there's a 360-degree view of picturesque and cone-shaped mountains, with the Sogod Bay greeting you northeast of the watch tower. With clouds hugging their peaks, the breath-taking mountains are beautifully crowned with perfectly aligned rows of seedlings. Soon, these will become full grown trees, bringing back the lush forest cover that some of the mountains have lost.

One mountain in particular will surely catch the attention of every mountain climber. If Laguna's Mount Makiling is renowned for its contour, which is similar to that of a reclining woman, this particular mountain is characterized by a cone-shape mound with a small projection or bump at the peak that resembles a woman's bosom. Villagers have aptly named it the "Sexy Mountain."

Canopy walk

Southern Leyte's "Chocolate Hills" are only a few of the destinations that the province is offering in a recent bid to draw in tourists and boost its agro- and eco-tourism.

For instance, the local government in the fourth-class coastal town of Silago - 172 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital of Maasin City and only two hours away from the Tacloban Airport - is planning to transform 39 hectares of its vast forest land area of more than 10,000 hectares into a "Canopy Walkway Park."

"We want our town to become a future site of eco-tourism with climate resilient communities in a sustainable environment," Silago mayor Manuel Labrador Sr. tells a group of visiting journalists from Manila. The town, which is home to almost 13,000 people, rely heavily on coconut and rice farming for a living.

An hour's walk from the highway leads trekkers into the deep end of its natural forest where the Tres Marias Falls, a series of three waterfalls along the length of a river, is found.

Taking a refreshing dip in the cool waters of the river would have been perfect, especially after emerging from an hour-long hike in the woods. Sadly, we failed to bring extra clothes so we just ended up snapping photographs of the wonderful scenery.

My photo editor at GMA News Online, Joe Galvez, however, got a feel of the frigid waters when he lost his footing on one of the moss-covered rocks. Thank God only his legs got soaked and his precious camera, which was hanging from his neck, was left unscathed.

More daring tourists could also travel by boat to a huge outcrop in the waters off the shores of Silago town called the Pelada Rock, a well-known snake and bird sanctuary.

In the town proper, the Silago government has also put on public display the gigantic skeleton of a 26-foot sperm whale that was washed ashore almost a decade ago.

It's all these wonders and more that make the long, sometimes bumpy but fun nevertheless, trip to the deepest corners of Silago's forests and Maasin's mountain tops worth all the aching muscles. - Photos by Joe Galvez and Mark Merueñas/YA, GMA News

Southern Leyte media to join PIA in blood letting activities

• Source:http://archives.pia.gov.ph/?m=1&t=1&id=51791&y=2011&mo=09
• Thursday, September 01, 2011

by. R.G. Cadavos

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte Sep 1 (PIA) – The Associated Media of Southern Leyte will join the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) in the blood letting activities to help dengue-stricken areas throughout the country to prevent the spread of virus. In a media forum aired regularly at radio station DyDM every Wednesday, media practitioners who faciliated the radio program such as the PIA, DyDM reporters, among other private correspondents here committed to join the blood donation activities as directed by PIA Director General Atty. Jose Fabia through Region 8 Director Olive P. Tiu . The AMSL has been regularly supporting in every program the PIA initiated. During the forum, Southern Leyte Provincial Information Center Manager Erna Gorne disclosed in a phone patch interview that “ PIA is asking your support and hopeful that the media will also be one of the donors of the voluntary blood donation.” The PIA is now coordinating with the Philippine National Red Cross- Southern Leyte Chapter to facilitate the blood letting activity, “we are suggesting to the PNRC that it will be held at the PIA Office at Barangay Combado here,” she added. On the other hand, one of the hosts, Ramon Buyser of DyDM, a Kagawad of Barangay Mambajao disclosed that “Barangay officials here initiated already the blood donation every 4 months, held at the barangay hall and conducted by the Red Cross,” adding that “the activity started last year yet, he added. The blood letting activity was in response to a memorandum from Atty. Fabia “to conduct a voluntary blood donation day as dengue cases in many parts of the country is increasing.” The bloodletting activity in Eastern Visayas started last August 26, Friday at the PIA 8 Regional Office in coordination with the AGIO-8, KBP Eastern Visayas, REAL and the Philippine National Red Cross Leyte Chapter to mobilize people in the blood letting activity. (rgc/PIA-SoLeyte)