Anyone who has taken the time to visit the stunning and incredibly green Masungi Reserve in Baras, Rizal, knows that the 400-hectare domain about 47 kilometers from Manila is a national and herbal treasure. it is home to limestone cliffs estimated to be about 60 million years old and over 400 species of flora and fauna, and has been replanted with some 40,000 local trees. The landscape can leave you breathless.
The frank and proactive angels of this forest are sisters Ann and Billie Dumaliang, whose circle of relatives has been protecting this domain for twenty years, and since 2015 have opened the post to a controlled number of ecotourists who have traveled scenic trails, enjoyed the delight and acquired a new appreciation for forest protection. The destination has also been identified around the world, through the National Geographic Society, the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Ann, project manager for Masungi Georeserve, is also a National Geographic explorer and regional finalist for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Champions of the Earth. won Vanity Fair magazine’s Changing Your Mind travel award, proof that they are actually “agents of global change” in tourism and environmental stewardship, whose leaders (know their science) and hearts are in the right place.
The georeserve was proposed as a comprehensive nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary one year after the enactment of the National Integrated System of Protected Areas (Nipas) Law of 1992 (Republic Law 7536). degraded lands in the landscape of the upper marikina river basin. More importantly, an administrative order from the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources declared the hypothesis of quarrying, mining and land in the region illegal.
On November 24, 2011, Presidential Proclamation No. 296 signed through President Benigno S. Aquino III declared the Marikina Watershed Reserve in Antipolo and the municipalities of Baras (where Masungi), Rodríguez, San Mateo and Tanay are located, Rizal, an area, in accordance with the Nipas law, which also prohibits loggers.
“Many of our upheavals revolve around the environment and sustainability, rooted in our detachment from nature. Because who would need to destroy what helps keep us alive?” said Ann in the interview.
“There are those who have interests that are not aligned with conservation,” Billie said in another interview with National Geographic’s Nina Unlay last July. “But it’s a preserved area. We who these spaces deserve to be free from human exploitation. “. They will have to be protected. “
The urgent need for such cover emerged on July 24, when two Masungi rangers, Melvin Akmad and Kukan Maas, were shot dead by an unknown assailant in a reforestation area. The two survived the assassination attempt, but Georeserve’s administrators were pressured because it wasn’t the first time they had attacked rangers.
The Inquirer’s July 31 editorial, “Violence in the Forest,” noted, “Despite its legal mandate, Georeserve has had to deal with quarrying and logging companies that have entrenched the domain with barbed wire, preventing Georeserve staff and rangers from doing their job. Corporations set up guardhouses using illegally cut logs at the shrine and hired roving guards with long arms to encircle intruders, even employing “wandering elements of the SAF (Special Action Force) and the military to harass our assignment teams,” according to Masungi Georeserve Foundation Administrator Billie Dumaliang. The “professional occupation” also presents a challenge, with tough individuals, joining retired law enforcement officers, appropriating forest land for themselves.
“With the current proportion of a ranger in the country consistent with 4,000 hectares of land across the country, this has been a devastating and fatal war for environmentalists. “
Billie Dumaliang answered a few questions about this debacle:
I haven’t had time to deal with my feelings, but what stands out is a lot of frustration and anger. Our rangers at the remote stations in the upper Marikina basin are standing still and we still want urgent protection support.
We can have 80 to a hundred rangers at any one time. Funds raised through geotourism at Masungi Georeserve are used to pay their salaries, as well as those of rangers stationed in the upper Marikina basin. Paintings are challenging, from traveling miles to patrolling reforestation sites and encountering hostile offenders, to being threatened late at night and running outdoors, rain or shine.
This has been done through a specific organization that has been threatening our team since March, in recent months we have opposed their illicit activities such as illicit profession and construction, logging and counterfeiting of waterways. What we do is use the existing powers to get violators out of the basin without worries or favors. These powers are already in our laws.
Masungi is a component of the watershed, and everything that happens here and in the upper component of the Marikina watershed affects communities and villages downstream in terms of flooding and other effects of excessive weather. Limestone also acts as an herbal water filter, providing us with blank water. Beyond that, it is a national herbal heritage and an exclusive wildlife habitat that will have to be preserved for generations in the long term.
I’ve been worried about Masungi since 2016, after leaving global corporate to sign up on behalf of my sister Ann when she introduced Georeserve. However, we came here when they were young, as our father and his team have been leading limestone coverage since the 1990s. During my time at Masungi, my awareness of the injustice surrounding environmental conservation in the Philippines grew. Every time I see or delight in an injustice, I am forced to do anything despite the risks.
I review the paintings you want to make, that’s beyond me. Whenever I feel discouraged, I let myself be carried away by all the other people who show compassion and generosity towards our team and our mission.
CURRENT. DYNAMICS. INSIDER.
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