Mt Data ravaged; illegal logging, encroachment on

By Dexter See 

BAUKO, Mountain Province – The encroachment of Mount Data by commercial vegetable farmers from Benguet and illegal logging here is on and has significantly affected the environment within the forest reservation, local officials said.

Following this, the Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources said it

supports establishment of a multipurpose building to serve as watchtower and police center to abate illegal activities in the national park particularly along tri-boundaries of Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province.

Paquito Moreno, DENR regional executive director, Bauko mayor Abraham B. Akilit and Buguias, Benguet mayor MelchorDiclas recently inspected the area and found out reports of illegal logging and expansion of vegetable farms were true.

Earlier, Akilit urged the DENR, police and provincial governments of Benguet, Ifugao and Mountain Province to pool resources to immediately put up the facility to stop massive deforestation in the tri-boundary and spare over 300 hectares of undisturbed forests from being ravaged.

“Our visit to Mount Data recently provided us with a ground appreciation on what is really happening in the area, thus, the need to have enhanced coordination efforts in order to guarantee the preservation and protection of the remaining forest cover in the affected areas,” Moreno stressed.

He said Benguet portion of the Mount Data plateau is already heavily saturated while the Mountain Province portion already has patches of denuded areas that are hunting ground of bird catchers.

On the Ifugao side of the forest reservation, Moreno described the situation as really a cause for concern because the commercial vegetable farms in the Benguet side were moving in towards the undisturbed forests of Tinoc and Hungduan towns, thus, the urgent need for coordination among government agencies and local governments in the area.

Mount Data is a mountain located in the Cordillera Central mountain range rising to a height of 2,310 meters (7,578 feet) north of Luzon. It is about 50 kilometers north of Baguio on the borders of the provinces of Benguet and Mountain Province along the Halsema Highway.

The mountain and surrounding area has been declared a National Park since 1936. In 1940 the park was expanded to 5512 hectares. The slopes of the mountain are covered with pine forests and mossy oak forests.

“Our primary concern is forest protection that is why we have to involve all stakeholders in our all-out effort to preserve the state of the environment in Mount Data for the benefit of the present and future generation of Filipinos,” Moreno said.

Akilit said the Mount Data watershed plays a key role in the economic growth of Northern Luzon because it is the headwaters of the Chico, Agno, Abra and Magat rivers providing abundant water supply for agriculture, industrial and domestic uses as well as power generation for the 360-megawatt Magat dam, 125-megawatt Binga dam, 105 Ambuclao dam and the 354-megawatt San Roque dam.

He said immediate action of concerned agencies and local governments must be put in place before the vital pine stand in the Cordillera will be gone and converted into gardens resulting to scarcity of water.