Pusod Pilipinas

The initiatives to protect the Malarayat Forest Reserve resulted from the Lipa Water Forum I (September 2004), and reinforced by the outputs of Lipa Water Forum II (June 2006), where the stakeholders identified the boundaries of the watersheds that supply not only the cityís water sources but also those of the surrounding areas.
In this span of two years since the Water Forum I, the stakeholders (LGU, the Metro-Lipa Water District, involved barangays, NGOs, business sector, and the church) have put much effort and resources to come up with a long -term program for the protection of said forest reserve, including series of meetings, consultations, workshops. The stakeholders have formed a technical working group (TWG) with Pusod, Inc., (the NGO that spearheaded the Water Forums), as the secretariat. Thru Pusod, the TWG was able to tap the help of the Asian Institute of Management in providing technical assistance to the TWG, and partly for some expenses that can be covered by the AIM.
The 3- year program hopes to address all issues pertaining to the protection of said forest reserve, including:
Many poor are denied access to vital resources like land and water, resources that are of key importance to their sustainable livelihood and development; Need for alternative, sustainable livelihood around the area, to mitigate abuse of the forest reserve;
Empowerment of the communities surrounding Mt. Malarayat to be able to ensure biodiversity in the area, and the protection of the watersheds.

In October 2006, the program was formally launched at Barangay Sto. Nino, Lipa City, through sponsorships from the LGU and some business establishments. Around 350 people representing various stakeholders, including students & school heads from all over the city participated in this event.
By the end of 2006 a total of 420 wildlings were already planted by various groups along the banks of Ilog Sala, in Barangay Sto. Nino, Pusod trained a Community Monitoring Team (CMT) of five Sto. Nino residents who have maintained more than 90% survival of the trees, and replaced the dead ones. The team has also put up a nursery for wildlings at Brgy. Sto Nino , and has continuously helped in educating barangay residents on the importance of community residentsí involvement in this project.

Phase II. Malarayat Watershed Conservation Program: Planting, Monitoring and Maintenance

Pusod was able to get funds for the maintenance of the trees that had been planted, through a partnership with the Happy Earth (an environmentalist NGO based in Quezon City).
Of the three identified pilot barangays in the watershed area, namely Talisay, Malitlit and Sto. Nino, the TWG decided to start in Brgy. Sto. Nino, focusing on the following three (3) major sources of water:

1. Ilog Sala (1 hectare) & at least 400 trees were planted here during the first phase of the project; at present, the CMT continuously conducts one (1) time monitoring monthly from June to December 2007 (Phase 2).
Ilog Banaba -- a series of tree planting activities is conducted here every Friday of June 2007, with a target of 1,000 trees. The species of trees are tibig Ficus nota, hawili Ficus hauili Blanco, bignay Antidesma bunius, is-is, balobo Diplodiscus peniculatus Tures and ana-i. these are planted at an interval measurement of 5 meters by 5 meters (5m x 5m) in three layers.

Ilog Butas & tree planting activities will be continuously conducted here until September 2007, thus completely covering the 8-hectare reforestation target during Phase 2 of this project.

In all the three areas, all trees are continuously monitored once planted and as scheduled from June to December 2007.

The local communities who use the water from these sources for agricultural and household purposes have been informed of the projectís importance. Hence, aside from the Technical Working Group and the barangay, other sectors including the academe, public and private join the tree planting activities.

Considering that in Brgy. Sto. Nino alone, a total area of 14 hectares needs to be reforested, and that a biodiversity monitoring expedition must be conducted soon, much is yet to be done to continue and sustain what has been started for this. Definitely, help from generous funders / sponsors is really necessary.