DENR cites 'batangan' forest management

TADIAN, Mountain Province — The Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently cited an indigenous forest management and protection system which could be replicated in different parts of the country to protect nature.

Clarence Baguilat, DENR regional director, said the “batangan system” of Tadian and some parts of Mountain Province is an ideal system of preserving old-growth communal forests which had been passed on to the present generations of local residents and elders.

Through the system, members of the indigenous peoples, Kankanaey Applai community, in the western Mountain Province towns were able to harvest lumber in a controlled manner without encroaching into the watersheds and forests within their places.

The “batangan” is a community forest in an area where the community get their means of livelihood such as firewood and even logs used in building their homes.