The Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) initiated the Forest-RegAIN project at their Malagos conservation center in Davao City on October 27, 2023.
The project aims to plant three million native trees across 1,200 hectares of land and restore grassland and brushland biodiversity in indigenous territories, specifically areas near Philippine Eagle nesting sites.
Jayson Ibañez, PEF Director of Research and Conservation, highlighted the project's significance in revitalizing lost ecosystems due to human encroachments and unsustainable land use.
“It’s restoring what is lost, because of human encroachments and sustainable land uses many former forests have lost their many services including the quality of soil, which the rejunative agroforestry intends to bring back richness and quality of soil, it’s also restoring the water retention capacity of land, it's also restoring the lost biodiversity,” Ibañez said.
Collaborating with indigenous communities, the project will focus on removing invasive plants like cogon grass and spiked pepper and replacing them with indigenous fruit trees.
This effort promises to create a positive environmental impact, benefiting not only the Philippine eagles but also the broader ecosystem.
“It will really create a positive impact on our national bird, the Philippine Eagle, which is forest-dependent,” Ibanez said.
The project is designed to engage local communities, with 180 indigenous families participating in environmental conservation. Davao del Sur, including Davao City, holds 35,119 hectares of forest land, a vital habitat for the Philippine eagles, which require 4,000 to 11,000 hectares of forest to thrive.
The joint project also involves some government offices and non-government offices (NGO), such as the Davao City Agriculturists’ Office (Cagro), Alcon Farm, Canadian-based economic development organization Mennonite Economic Development Associates (Meda), the Philippine Fiber Industry Development Authority (PhilFida), and an internationally-based NGO Reduce, Reuse, Grow (RRG), among others. ICE