LAKE MANGUAO REHABILITATION. The provincial government of Palawan and the Development Bank of the Philippines partner to reforest Lake Manguao, a key biodiversity area located in the northern provincial town of Taytay. (Photo by Celeste Anna R. Formoso)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- The provincial government will undertake a reforestation project in Lake Manguao in northern Palawan to bring back its forest ecosystem.
Located in the municipality of Taytay, the lake is one of the key biodiversity areas in the northern part of the province, and a major stronghold for seven species of threatened birds.
Forester Rodel Cabintoy, the project supervisor of the Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA), said Thursday that the lake needs to get back its forest cover after suffering from charcoal-making and slash-and-burn (kaingin) farming.
“Manguao has a beautiful potential for agricultural-tourism (in Taytay). It’s a freshwater lake that has around 4,425 hectares of catchment area that has water in 640 hectares,” he said.
The project’s first phase, he said, will start this year and targets 200 hectares of land to reforest that covers barangays Poblacion, Bato, and Bantulan, Taytay town. The second phase with the same coverage will start next year.
The fund that will be used for the reforestation initiative will be PHP6.4 million, which the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) will provide for the first phase through its Corporate Social Responsibilities.
Cabintoy said the provincial government will have a counterpart share of PHP4 million for the protected area’s rehabilitation.
“It’s said literature and other studies made about the lake that it is home to several species of birds, endemic and local. Within the lake, there are also endemic freshwater fishes,” he added.
On the first year, the project team will attempt to plant around 334,000 seedlings of fast-growing trees like mahogany and teak wood that are endemic to the place.
“Governor (Jose) Alvarez is for us to integrate fast-growing trees to speed up the regeneration of the forest in the area,” he said.
Cabintoy assured that the OPA will provide alternative livelihood to 65 households in the lake that will be affected by the rehabilitation project, such as vegetable production, livestock raising, direct labor for the nursery, and others.
In a wetland study of the lake conducted in 2014 by Benjamin Gonzales and Joie Matillano commissioned by the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), it was found out that the lake had a forest cover estimated between 50-60 percent in 1990 and about 60 percent in 2004.
It said the lake recorded the presence of three species of freshwater turtles: the critically endangered Philippine forest turtle (Siebenrockiella Leytensis), the Malayan box turtle (Cuora amboinensis), and the Asian leaf turtle Cyclemys Dentate).
The birds of Lake Manguao are the second most studied vertebrate group in the lake. Researchers recorded 135 bird species from 47 families. This represents 48 percent of the total bird species recorded thus far in Palawan. Of these 4, 14 were Palawan-endemic while seven were widely distributed Philippine endemics, according to the study.
Also helping in the initiative is the PCSD, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources, Community Environment and Natural Resources Office-Taytay, Municipal Local Government of Taytay and some people’s organizations in the town. (PNA)
