Restoring the Lawigan Watershed with Native Trees

Every dry season, the municipality of Bacong in Negros, Oriental, Philippines faces water shortages. It spends more than PhP 700,000 per month, ­12% of the of the municipality’s total annual budget,­ to pump well water for its residents, even though a river flows nearby.

In 2010, with strong encouragement from ELTI alumni Rene Vendiola and Apolinario “Pol” Cariño, the municipality began a Watershed Development Program. The goal: restore 120 hectares of forest along a 12-kilometer corridor of the river. If the municipality could satisfy its water needs with the river, it could use its water-pumping budget elsewhere.

Manifestations of the initial success of the restoration program are now being enjoyed by the people. We’re confident we’ll reap the full benefits of our hard work. Ensuring tomorrow’s sustainability means planting appropriate trees today.

Pol Cariño

Logging, smallholder agriculture and cattle grazing have heavily degraded the watershed over the past decades. To begin its restoration, the mayor of Bacong had the entire area surveyed and marked, and deputized barangay captains to protect the land from encroachment.

So far, government employees and local community members have replanted 15 hectares with a wide variety of native species. Flash floods from a strong typhoon in 2011 tested these initial accomplishments.

In spite of the storm’s damage, the municipality has already noticed benefits; the restored area suffered significantly less erosion from the heavy rains than other parts of the river. Instead of a setback, the contrast in the extent of the damage has encouraged the local government and community to support the program and approach nearby municipalities to restore other parts of the watershed.