PHILIPPINES, Barangay New Bulatukan, Municipality of Malasila, North Cotabato, Mindanao Island - June 2008
Micro-hydro power generator and fruit tree nursery in support of the protection of 744 acres of watershed forest for a duration of 30 years
Click photo to enlarge
Sitio Malumpini of Barangay New Bulatukan, composed of about 65 Manobo households, is one of the isolated upland communities of Mt. Apo, the tallest mountain in the Philippines at an elevation of over 10,000 feet. The whole of Mt. Apo is already a protected area by virtue of a 1936 edict, but very little enforcement has taken place. The area has some of the highest land-based biological diversity in the Philippines, and is home to many threatened and endangered plant and animal species, including the critically endangered Philippines eagle (monkey-eating eagle). The community relies on kerosene for lighting and fuel wood for cooking. Seacology will fund a micro-hydro power and a fruit tree nursery in support of their efforts to protect 744 acres of forest land within their ancestral domain for 30 years. The project will be administered by YAMOG, a partner organization of Green Empowerment. The fruit tree nursery, to grow highly marketable mangosteens and lanzones, will be planted on existing arable land away from the protected area. YAMOG will also provide technical assistance with the planting, growing and marketing of the crops.
