Typhoon-hit village in Mindanao wants to restore its watershed area

Typhoon Pablo's winds and rain that spawned flood that ravaged Barangay Mangayon in the outskirts of Compostela Valley province has fueled the village residents' determination to restore their 50-hectare watershed area, left denuded by two logging firms in the late '90s. “In the short term, we want to restore at least 15% of the trees we lost to Pablo," said barangay chairman Ramon Eyas in a statement, adding that the restoration of the Mangayon Watershed "is our main priority." Aside from floods, Pablo's rain also caused landslides and left Mangayon's creeks heavily silted, affecting more than 40 percent of rice fields in the area, Eyas said. Also, he called for support from government agencies and private entities to provide seedlings for the reforestation of the watershed area. The Mangayon Watershed was once a lush virgin forest, which was the barangay's main source of potable water and irrigation. But the 50-hectare watershed area was transformed into brown, bald slopes by two logging firms in the '90s, Eyas recalled. In an article on the government-run Philippine News Agency, Eyas was quoted as saying: “People from the upland started to burn the trees to the ground and replace them with cash crops like corn.” When rain came, flood water quickly rose and washed out soil down mountain slopes. The Maba Creek, he said, had been heavily silted. Uprooted trees Eyas said the morning after Pablo battered their village, residents saw "denuded mountains" as strong winds uprooted great number of trees. “All you can see is brown slopes,” he said in a statement released by the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA). Eyas also told MinDA chairperson Luwalhati Antonino that the village lost more than 90 percent of forest cover to Pablo, resulting in water shortage in the barangay. MinDA also expressed interest in helping the barangay rehabilitate its watershed through its "Mindanao Nurturing Our Waters (MindaNOW) program"  that aims to integrate river basin and watershed management efforts in Mindanao. “The state of the Mangayon Watershed is a microcosm of what’s happening to our environment in a Mindanao-wide scale. Restoration of our watersheds is very urgent and should be replicated in several other barangays before another calamity gets ahead of us,” said MinDA chairperson Antonino. Antonino also said that MinDA is "facilitating entry of investors to Mindanao citing expressions of interest by Malaysian businessmen to invest in Mindanao following the business networking forum held in Kuala Lumpur recently." “Investments on natural resources development including rubber, palm oil, coconut and eco-tourism are being firmed up,” said Antonino. She also said that  these investments could help Typhoon Pablo victims restore devastated areas back into shape, and augment their income in the process. — with a report by Shai Panela /LBG, GMA News