Mt. Kitanglad, Mt. Malindang pass ACB assessment

MT. KITANGLAD Range Natural Park in Bukidnon and Mt. Malindang in Misamis Occidental garnered good ratings in the management effectiveness study of Asean Heritage Parks (AHPs) conducted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Centre for Biodiversity last year.

The Asean Centre for Biodiversity has declared 30 protected areas in the region as AHPs and four of those are from the Philippines.

Aside from Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Malindang, Iglit-Baco in Luzon and Mt. Apo National Park in Davao Region were also declared as AHP.

In her report to Ruth M. Tawantawan, Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional executive director, Regional Technical Director Belen Daba of Protected Areas, Wildlife and Coastal Zone Management Services said Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Malindang got 81 percent and 80 percent, respectively, in the study conducted by ACB of Asean Heritage Parks.

The five leading AHPs in the ACB Assessment include the Taman Negara Pahang in Malaysia (93.3 percent); Kinabalu also in Malaysia (89.4 percent); Khao Yai National Park in Thailand (87.2 percent); Gunung Leuser National Park in Indonesia (84.4 percent) and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve in Singapore (82.7 percent).

Mt. Kitanglad AHP ranked sixth and Mt. Malindang AHP ranked seventh in the management effectiveness study.

According to the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, AHPs are “protected areas of high conservation importance, preserving in total a complete spectrum of representative ecosystems of the Asean region.”

It was learned that there were six elements used to assess the management effectiveness of the AHPs. These comprise context, planning, input, implementation, output and impact.

Context refers to the legal status of the protected area and planning includes management plan, zonation, maps, regulation and park design.

Input, meanwhile, involves human resources, equipment, infrastructures, budget and resources, among others while implementation refers to boundary demarcation, maintenance of equipment, education and awareness program, involvement of local and indigenous people, monitoring and evaluation, activities related to tourism and visitors, training and collaboration with other institutions.

Indicators under output include wildlife habitat and environment service, as well as prevention of AHPs from illegal extraction of natural resources while impact refers on how the AHP could provide economic benefit to local people and how the current condition was compared to the time when AHP was gazette.

The member states of Asean are Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. (PR)