CITY OF CALAPAN, Oriental Mindoro – Around 150 hectares of land in the “Little Baguio of Mindoro” in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro have been razed by bush fires since Friday last week, eating up grasses and threatening to destroy endangered pine trees.
In an interview on Tuesday evening, Charloue Ormega, officer-in-charge of the Sablayan Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), said “This happens yearly. The area is far and wide, it is difficult to determine who are responsible. Based on our interviews, it could be because of kaingin (slash and burn), gathering of honey that uses fire to shoo away bees, or those who come to the place and leave cigar butts in grassy areas, thinking fire is out.”
There are no water sources, and it’s always windy in the area, he noted.
There are more than 200 hectares of scattered or patches of Mindoro Pine trees growing in the area. Out of these, 50 hectares are for tourism, he added.
Ormega said they have Mangyan staff in the area who clear the grasses around the trees to mitigate the effects of the fire and spare the pine trees.
“But not all areas can be cleared because some are too steep and unsafe,” he said.
He noted that areas near the indigenous peoples’ community are not included in their monitoring. “Those are ancestral domains and we need to respect their decision,” he said.
Covered by Barangays Pag-asa and San Agustin, the mountainous “Little Baguio of Mindoro” is home to Mindoro Pines (Pinus Mercussi) and gives a beautiful view of the lowland of Sablayan.
The cool pine-scented summit is home to some of the remaining trees of the Mindoro Pines species, which is listed by world conservationists as a priority for protection and conservation.
Sablayan municipal administrator Norman Novio said in an interview on Wednesday morning that the “forest fires are mostly fueled by human activities such as the entry of irresponsible visitors and tourists.”
“It is imperative for us to recalibrate our response readiness and forest fire prediction alertness. A local legislation is needed including precise, concerted executive action. Just like the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines, the BFP (Bureau of Fire Protection) personnel should also be periodically deployed to the mountainous and forested areas to conduct whatever firefighting initiatives, researches or studies there needed,” he said. (PNA)
