'PISTA Y ANG KAGUEBAN': This year's 27th 'Pista Y Ang Kagueban' will celebrate the mass planting of trees in Barangay Montible, Puerto Princesa City. The barangay is known as a habitat of the critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo (katala). (File photo by City Information Office)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- The city government on Wednesday said it started preparing 10,000 seedlings of various tree species for the June 30 celebration of the annual mass planting festival called “Pista Y Ang Kagueban” (Feast of the Forest).
Puerto Princesa senior environmental management specialist Larry Martinez said they will be planted in a five-hectare area at Kilometer 31 and 32 in Barangay Montible.
He added it will help revive the lowland forest in Montible for the critically endangered Philippine Cockatoo or katala that dwell there.
“The seedlings that will be planted in the ‘Pista Y Ang Kagueban’ are narra, red and white nato, and kapok,” Martinez said.
“We will start bringing the seedlings today in the area until June 29 in time for the Pista the next day,” he said.
The ‘Pista Y Ang Kagueban’, a Cuyuno dialect which means “Pista ng Kagubatan” was conceptualized by the Palawan Integrated Area Development Project Office in 1991.
It was to institutionalize the protection and conservation of the environment for the youth. The Irawan watershed in Barangay Irawan was selected as the primary area for the tree-planting site.
The first mass planting celebration was held in June 1991. It was in that same year the United Nations declared the month as Environment Month. (PNA)
