DENR: Land conversions continue at Pulag

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) warned yesterday against the continuing conversion of the Luzon’s highest peak – Mt. Pulag National Park – into vegetable farms.

The DENR, together with Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, cited the need for more protection and preservation of the remaining forest on Mt. Pulag primarily because it serves as the water source not only for the province but also for neighboring Isabela and Cagayan.

DENR director Clarence Baguilat said at least 24 percent of the Mt. Pulag reservation has now been converted into agricultural or residential purposes.

Baguilat said the agency is doing its best to complete the delineation of the park area, being the first step toward solving the encroachments and land conversions inside the reservation area.

He said the move would not affect the ancestral domain of the indigenous people within the park, as it would just identify the bounds of the park’s reservation.

After the delineation process, the identification of management zones will follow.

The DENR said the indigenous people, whose domains overlap with the reservation, would play a crucial role in the identification of management zones to classify areas for agriculture or residential purposes.

“There is progress (in the delineation process), although it is slow but we are getting there,” Baguilat said.

Mt. Pulag, which straddles the boundaries of Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya, is considered by mountain climbers as the hiking mecca in Luzon while the Ibalois revere it as “God’s resting place.”