Mt. Pulag conversion as veggie farm alarms execs

KABAYAN, Benguet - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has warned against the continuing conversion of the Luzon’s highest peak, Mt. Pulag National Park here into vegetable farms.

The DENR with Benguet Gov. Nestor Fongwan, said the remaining forest in Mt. Pulag must be protected and preserved as it is a source of water not only for the province but for adjacent provinces of Isabela and Cagayan.

At least 24 percent of the Mt. Pulag reservation has now been converted for agricultural or residential purposes, DENR Cordillera director Clarence Baguilat said. 

Mt. Pulag is around 11,550 hectares straddling along Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya borders.

DENR is doing its best to finish the delineation of the park area as it will be the first step toward solving the encroachments and land conversions inside the reservation,  Baguilat said.

But he added such will not affect the ancestral domain of indigenous peoples within the park as it just aims to know the metes and bounds of the park reservation.

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

Indigenous peoples or inhabitants, the DENR said, whose domains overlap with the reservation willhave a crucial role in the identification of management zones.  

The identification of management zones results into knowing which areas can be utilized for agriculture or residential for those who are already within the area and the strict protection zones.

“There is progress (in the delineation process), although it is slow but we are getting there,” he said.Mt. Pulag is revered by the Ibalois as “God’s resting place” while mountain climbers regard it as hiking mecca in Luzon.