Aurora national park gets PhP9M eco-tourism funding

MARIA AURORA, Aurora – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said that the national government has set aside P9 million for the development of eco-tourism facilities at the 5,000-hectare Aurora Memorial National Park (AMNP) in this town.

Arturo Salazar, assistant regional director for technical services of the DENR, said the funding will be used to set up comfort rooms, information center and hiking area in the AMNP of which 40,000 hectares are located in this province and the rest in Nueva Ecija.

"We are eyeing funding allocations for the Dinadiawan River Protected Landscape (DRPL) in Dipaculao, Aurora and the Pantabangan-Carranglan Watershed Forest Reserve in Nueva Ecija," Salazar said.

Raizza Lico, chief of the protected areas management (PAM) and biodiversity conservation section (BCS) of the DENR in Region 3, said that aside from the AMNP, other protected areas which received allocation in the region are the Bataan National Park (BNP) worth P5 million, the Biak-na-Bato National Park in Bulacan (P13 million), the Minalungao National Park (MNP) in Gen. Tinio, Nueva Ecija (P13 million) and the Mount Arayat National Park (MANP) in Pampanga (P5 million).

The AMNP is considered a protected area (PA) apart from the 6,471.08-hectare Amro River Protected Landscape (ARPL) in the municipality of Casiguran, the 3,371.332-hectare DRPL in Dipaculao town and the 2,266.47-hectare Simbahan-Talagas Protected Landscapes (STPL) and the 3,526.29-hectare Talaytay Protected Landscapes (TPL), both in Dinalungan.

The PA conversion of the four was contained in Senate Bill 1901 introduced by Sen. Loren Legarda entitled "An Act declaring as Protected Areas and Buffer Zones the parcels of lands designated as such by the President of the Republic of the Philippines pursuant to Republic Act 7586, otherwise known as the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) Act, providing for their management and for other purposes."

Protected areas refer to identified portions of land and water set aside by reason of their unique physical and biological significance, which managed to enhance biological diversity and protected against destructive human exploitation and included as a component of the NIPAS.

ARPL, DRPL, STPL and TPL are covered by Presidential Proclamations 267, 274, 278 and 283, respectively, all issued on April 23,2000 by then-President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

Legarda said the four, just like other PAs, have unique features that support agriculture, water supply and other economic activities.

"Establishing protected areas is not only an environmental issue but also a gut issue. It is crucial to food security, water security and poverty alleviation because these areas are rich sources of basic resources," she said.

She added that many PAs are vital sources of freshwater which is crucial in agriculture, citing a study of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) showing that agriculture utilizes as much as 50 percent of freshwater in many countries and up to 90 percent in developing countries.

Article 12, Section 4 of the 1987 Constitution stipulates that Congress shall determine by law the specific limits of forestlands and national parks, marking clearly their boundaries on the ground.

It was towards this end when RA 7586 or the NIPAS Act of 1992 was enacted establishing a system of protected areas within the classification of national parks as provided for in the Constitution.

The said system consists of all areas or islands in the country proclaimed, designated or set aside pursuant to a law, presidential decree, presidential proclamation or executive order as national park, game refuge, bird and wildlife and fish sanctuary, wilderness area, nature reserve, watershed, mangrove reserve, natural and historical landmark, protected and managed landscape/seascape and identified virgin forests before the effectivity of the NIPAS Act.

It could be remembered that 113 areas in this country have already been declared as PAs through presidential proclamations but only 13 of them, or roughly 11 percent, have been legislated since 1992 when the act was passed. (PNA)