The   PNOC-Energy Development Corporation said in a statement yesterday that it has already prepared a comprehensive Environmental and Watershed Management Plan for Mt. Kanlaon National Park for its planned entry to the protected area’s buffer zone.

Rei Medrano, PNOC-EDC manager for Corporate Social Responsibility and Policy Advocacy, said the preparations include a nursery in Bago City that has 14 premium endemic species, including the first man-made almaciga plantation in the Philippines, which  are being produced using the mist irrigation system. 

“Our main objective is to create mother trees that will serve as sources of seeds for natural regeneration and production of reforestation planting materials,” Medrano said in the statement.

He said that PNOC-EDC will replicate in Mt. Kanlaon what it did in Mt. Apo where the company restored 595 hectares of open grassland considered as the highest reforestation effort in the country which now serves as habitat and nesting place for birds and other wildlife species.

PNOC-EDC also said in the same statement that it is planning a replacement reforestation of 125 to 250 hectares in Mt. Kanlaon, Medrano said. That is, aside from the already established 332 hectares of plantations, including 3.12 hectares of Almaciga and 21.35 hectares of mixed premium species for the past 10 years.

Medrano said they have quantified the ecosystem services that will be affected by the entry to the buffer zone.  He pointed out that there are biologically accepted measures to replace the ecosystem services and one of these is the replacement of the affected trees to restore ecosystem services such as water storage, release of oxygen and absorption of carbon dioxide.

PNOC-EDC said it commissioned third party consultants to study the biodiversity of the 169-hectare buffer zone in 2007 and the results and recommendations on how to minimize the impact on the biodiversity of the buffer zone were reviewed by noted scientists Dr. Perry Ong and Dr. Dan Lagunzad.

The report was submitted to the Park Board and reviewed by its Technical Working Group on Sept. 28, 2007 and was eventually approved by the Park Board on Oct. 19, 2007, the PNOC-EDC said in its statement.*

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