GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Aug. 7 – Environment personnel in South Cotabato are targeting to start by next month the full implementation of the United States Agency for International Development (USAid)-supported Protect Wildlife Project.
Mary Jane Manlisis, forest and inland water management division chief of the Provincial Environment Management Office, said Monday they are finalizing the arrangement for the project’s rollout in areas covered by the Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape and the Allah Valley Protected Landscape.
She said the project’s implementation period is specifically set from September this year to August next year.
Manlisis said they are working with local stakeholders and local government units to ensure its proper rollout.
“Our stakeholders have already identified and agreed on a set of strategies and major activities for the year-long project implementation,” she said.
The Mt. Matutum Protected Landscape covers portions of Tupi Tampakan and Polomolok towns in South Cotabato.
Mt. Matutum, which is South Cotabato’s highest peak, is classified as an active volcano considered as the province’s vital watershed areas.
The Allah Valley Protected Landscape, which is located in the province’s upper valley area, hosts critical watersheds and the headwaters of the area’s two biggest rivers -- Allah and Banga.
The protected area, which covers 92,450 hectares, was declared a watershed forest reserve in 1985 by virtue of Proclamation No. 2455.
Mt. Matutum, South Cotabato’s highest peak, and the Allah Valley Protected Landscape are home to various wildlife species, among them the tarsiers, as well as rare flora and fauna.
These areas were known habitats of the Philippine deer, tarsiers, civets, bats, among others.
Manlisis said the province was among the pilot areas earlier chosen by USAid and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the first phase wildlife protection project.
She said it will mainly focus on the establishment of a system that will facilitate the biodiversity conservation in the two protected areas.
“It will work on decreasing the threats to biodiversity and improve the ecosystems of the province as a whole,” she said.
Protect Wildlife, which was launched in March, is a five-year, PHP1.2 billion project that seeks to address biodiversity loss and rampant wildlife trafficking in the Philippines.
A project briefer said it aims to improve attitudes and behavior toward biodiversity and conservation in target areas, intensify private and public sector partnership in conserving and financing initiatives, and improve biodiversity competencies of local government units (LGUs) and civil society organizations.
It also aims to enhance the capacities of local universities to advance conservation education, research, monitoring and innovation, as well as improve the enforcement policies of LGUs.
Aside from South Cotabato, the project will also be expanded in its second phase in Sarangani Province’s Mt. Busa complex and the Sarangani Bay seascape.
Project implementers earlier pushed for the project’s expansion in South Cotabato and Sarangani provinces, which it identified as host to “some of the most biodiverse yet vulnerable natural habitats and species in southern Mindanao.”(PNA)
