VICTIM OF DEGRADATION. A portion of Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest hit by fire in April this year. Concerns have been raised over poor conservation of the more than 3,000-hectare Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest that resulted in a forest fire, wildlife poaching, and conversion to agricultural lands, said Juvilyn Salazar, Forest Foundation project coordinator for the Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest Restoration Initiative, on Tuesday (Oct. 8, 2019). (Photo courtesy of Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest Restoration Initiative)
TACLOBAN CITY -- Concerns have been raised over poor conservation of the more than 3,000-hectare Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest that resulted in a forest fire, wildlife poaching, and conversion of its portions into agricultural lands.
The communities and local authorities are not fully aware of the value of peatland to mitigate the impacts of climate change, said Juvilyn Salazar, Forest Foundation project coordinator for the Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest Restoration Initiative.
“When a peatland expert from Indonesia visited Leyte Sab-a Basin, they considered the area as heavily degraded due to draining. For a peatland to store carbon, it should be wet all the time. Since it is dry, it emits carbon than accumulate it,” Salazar said in a presentation to local government officials here on Tuesday.
Draining of water since the 1970s has caused peatland fires over the years. The most recent was recorded last April and it lasted for weeks, Salazar said.
The Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest in the towns of Alangalang, Sta. Fe and San Miguel in the central part of Leyte province is one of the two major peatlands in the Philippines that play an important role in the long-term climate change mitigation, given its role in moderating atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations.
“The forest has carbon storage. It plays an important role to counter global warming and climate change, promote diverse vegetation, and ensure stable water supply,” Salazar explained.
Due to lack of awareness or the absence of local policies protecting peatlands, hunting of wildlife in the area such as Philippine tarsiers, bats, migratory birds, and wild pigs have been rampant. Residents have been poisoning threatened freshwater fishes that thrive in the area.
About 1,160 hectares of the peatland have been categorized as alienable and disposable land with 660 hectares distributed to farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. Some 15 percent of the area has been cultivated, Salazar said.
“Local stakeholders are not aware that soil and water from peatland are not suitable for agriculture since it is acidic. They lack essential elements for crops to grow well,” Salazar added.
The International Institute of Rural Reconstruction and Forest Foundation have been implementing the four-year Leyte Sab-a Peatland Forest Restoration Initiative since January 2018.
The PHP20 million project aims to produce legal and scientific studies, come up with a comprehensive map of the forest, and raise community and local leaders’ awareness on the importance of peatland forest.
Leyte's Sab-a Basin exhibits diverse vegetation characterized by the presence of wetland forest, boggy areas, sedge and grasslands and diversity of endemic flora and fauna, with the presence of threatened animals and freshwater fish species which are found mostly in the wetland forest ecotype.
The basin absorbs and holds water during the rainy season and releases it slowly to maintain base flows in the outflow rivers, according to Forest Foundation.
The Leyte Sab-a Basin peatland is a large catchment basin with an area of 3,088 hectares, more than half of which has been reclaimed for agriculture.
The remaining 1,740 hectares in the eastern half of the basin consists of small remnant areas of swamp forest and grass peat swamp. (PNA)
