Friday, June 20, 2008 ALI discards plan for golf course plan for ecological destination
AYALA Land has dropped plans to develop its property in the hinterlands of Cebu City into a golf course and opted to establish a nature park instead.
Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) executives launched the park and announced last Wednesday the opening of its first phase, covering 20 hectares.
“When the company realized the land is part of a protected landscape, it decided to reposition its original plans into what it should be, an educational facility,” said ALI affiliate Cebu Holdings, Inc. (CHI) head of corporate communication Ver de la Cerna whose office serves as the park’s secretariat.
The park is within the 29,000-hectare Central Cebu Protected Landscape (CCPL), which covers what used to be known as the Mananga and Kotkot-Lusaran watersheds, and the Sudlon and Central Cebu National Parks.
ALI will open the park to nature lovers, researchers and anybody who wants to see a green zone in Cebu Island where the forest cover is reported to be less than one percent of the total land area.
Watershed
The park was inaugurated and turned over to the Ayala Heights Nature Park Foundation after the launching.
Under the park project, ALI is reforesting about 71 hectares of company-owned property within the Kotkot-Lusaran watershed. The project, which involves residents in surrounding ba-rangays, is meant to be an ecological tourism destination, to serve as an educational facility, and become a habitat of Cebu’s endangered plants and animals.
The nature park is also developed to become a model for proper watershed management that will showcase biodiversity restoration and stakeholder partnership, involving the public and private sectors.
ALI senior vice-president Emilio Tumbocon said the park will also complement adjacent Ayala Heights Cebu by “providing a healthy and desirable environment for village residents.”
Ayala Heights is ALI’s upscale residential project.
Partners
ALI partnered with CHI, Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water (CUSW), Soil and Water Conservation Foundation and the University of San Carlos Water Resource Center to form the Ayala Heights Nature Park Foundation, which will serve as the “steward” in the enhancement of the park. The park will be managed according to the Protected Area Management Plan for the CCPL.
“We are confident that with the help of our partners and the community, we can create a world-class nature park,” said ALI vice president Francis Monera.
Planning for the rehabilitation started three years ago. Last November, ALI completed the building of facilities at the park, such as interpretive trail, administration office or park ranger outpost, reception office, staging area, tree nursery, restrooms, information stations and a small restaurant.
It also replaced exotic tree species that were grown there with native trees to attract endemic animals and restore the area’s biological diversity.
CHI reported that there are about 27 bird species found in the area, including the white-collared kingfisher, olive-backed sunbird and the Asian glossy starling.
“The construction cost is less expensive because facilities are made out of light materials sourced from around this area. It is also built by workers from the community,” said de la Cerna.
He added that maintaining the park would not entail a lot of cost as the park is “economically sustaining.”
There is no target date for the completion of the development, he said, because it will depend on how the public will accept it.
The park can hold a maximum of 60 people divided into 15-member groups. Trained local residents will serve as tour guides.
Entrance fees—P50 for adults, P25 for children—will be managed by the Ayala Heights Nature Park Foundation to maintain the facility.
“We are (maintaining) this park to be low-impact, environmentally-sound, and community-participatory (tourism activity),” said CUSW executive director Socorro Atega.
As phase two of the development will deal with swampy areas, the foundation is already thinking of having a nature center that will serve as a major educational facility where visitors and researchers can get information about the park’s history and the various plant and animal species inside the park.
It also plans to establish a wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) zone and a bird-watching area, put more food plants, and build a historical perspective of the park with the help of senior citizens from the community. (NRC)
