THE Municipal Tourism Office of Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur, assured that they followed the guidelines of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regarding the 5th Mt. Apo Sky and Vertical Race and Mt. Apo Boulder Face Challenge which will be held on April 29 and 30 respectively at Mt. Apo in connection with the 4th Visit Davao Fun Sale (VDSF) 2017 region-wide events.
During the official launching of VDSF last Thursday at Park Inn by the Radisson’s, Julius Paner, senior municipal tourism officer of Sta. Cruz, said this activity will be the first tourism activity to be conducted in the mountain since the fire incident early last year.
“The rest of 2016, we were busy with the restoration and everything to be done to regenerate it. We had a meeting with DENR and we assisted them with their natural regeneration program,” said Paner adding an app was developed to help monitor treks and new biodiversity species in the area.
He also said, with their preparations, they are ready to conduct again the race and the boulderface challenge in Mt. Apo.
“The two races are very strict in the participation of the racers. We have limited it to only 100 persons for the two events already. There is only around five kilometers that the racers will run in the Mt. Apo area, the rest will be done on the lowlands,” said Paner underscoring they are completely fulfilling the requirements given to them by the DENR.
In a previous report, Department of Tourism Davao Regional Director Roberto Alabado III proposed the implementation of open-closed season in Mt. Apo for the trekkers to preserve and protect the mountain’s peak.