‘WE used to cut trees and catch wild animals in the forest. Not anymore. We have learned that we are better off protecting the forest than destroying it,” says Rico Mier, president of the Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Farmers’ Association Inc.
Today, members of the association have high hopes on farming the lowly fern, locally called pakô, for food and medicine, on top of keeping their jobs as tourist guides and producers of abaca fiber.
Negros Oriental’s famed twin lakes
Mier speaks of the forest in the Balinsasayao Twin Lakes Natural Park (BTLNP), an 8,000-hectare park established in 2000 by virtue of Presidential Proclamation 414.
The park is shared by three Negros Oriental towns, namely, San Jose, Sibulan and Valencia. It encompasses four mountain forests—Mount Mahungot, Mount Kalbasan, Mount Balinsasayao and Guintabon Dome.
The forest is inhabited by a large number of wild animals, including flora and fauna, such as endemic Tarictic Hornbills and Visayan Wart Pig. The four mountains surround the Balinsasayao Lake and Danao Lake, two crater lakes formed more than 10,000 years ago.
Rain and spring from the mountains fill the crater of what is believed to be part of the complex volcano, Mount Talinis or the Cuernos de Negros (Horns of Negros).
The accumulated water formed the two lakes which are separated by a narrow mountain ridge and had since been part of the life-support system in the area—for man, animals and other wildlife species that thrive around the two lakes.
Both lakes are also inhabited by freshwater fishes, a source of food for people living near the area.
The 76-hectare Balinsasayao Lake, which is twice the size of the Lake Danao, can be viewed from the balcony of a restaurant near the lake.
Threats to biodiversity
Like most healthy forest and watershed, the BTLNP’s surrounding forests and the lakes have been threatened by destructive human activities, threatening its rich biodiversity. “Before we were organized, we were the ones hunting animals and cutting trees for firewood and to make charcoal,” he said. Like most upland dwellers, he said people heavily rely on the forests’ bounty before.
With the help of the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) the group was organized in 2006 to help protect the forests, by enhancing the capacity of the people to find sustainable source of income and livelihood.
FPE provides funding support to local non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations for various projects for the protection of the environment. For Negros Oriental’s famed twin lake, FPE helped establish the fern farm within the park in partnership with Siliman University Angelo King Center for Environmental Management, which is conducting research and development on the pharmaceutical value of ferns grown in the farm.
As part of the formation of the farmers’ association, members agreed to relocate to a housing project outside the park. Clearing the area of people helped maintain the forest clean and green.
Mier said at least a hundred claimants are still living within the park.
“There are still a lot of people who live in the park. They are claimants who had lived here before this became a natural park,” he said.
Some of the farmers who still live there, he said, practice slash-and-burn farming, locally known as kaingin, wherein trees are cut down and the shrubs are burned, to grow crops and grow vegetables.
He said the park is not spared from illegal logging, but quickly said that outsiders are to blame for cutting trees, such as lawaan, which sells at P12 per board feet, a major source of income for those living within the park.
Challenges
According to Mier, unlike before, members of their association are now contented in protecting the forest, providing tourism service, planting abaca and helping nurture their small fern farm.
But the threats and challenge to save the park remains. “The forest is vast and wide. We can’t stop them all unless they have alternative sources of income,” he said. He said farmers who live near the lake work as tourist guides but not all may work in the tourism center in the park because of the cost.
“Going here alone costs around P500. Some of our members would rather not travel and spend money to work as tour guide or help in our fern farm,” he said.
Mier’s group, which is composed of 38 farmers, acts as protectors of the forest.
“We patrol the forest. Sometimes we sleep in the forest to prevent illegal settlers and illegal activities,” he said.
He said they are armed not with guns nor batons and sticks, but with “diplomatic words and messages,” which they impart to fellow farmers and those who continue to hunt in the park.
“We only use diplomacy. We explain to them the negative effects of their activities and encourage them to join our group and become tourist guides if they want to,” he said. While some people listen, some continue to hunt and cut trees within the park.
Tourism, farming
Mier said besides planting and selling abaca fiber, which allows them to earn as much as P20,000 annually, members of the group earn by assisting local and foreign tourists who visit one of Negros Oriental’s famed tourist spot—the two crater lakes in the town of Sibulan—Lake Balinsasayao and Lake Danao—also called the Balinsasayao Twin Lakes.
Tourism activities range from boat-riding around the lake, trailing a river leading up to a falls, bird-watching and trekking.
A walk through the fern farm is part of the tourism package. A trail using boulders of volcanic rocks were put on top of the other by the famers, as well as that dot the lake. The design was made to keep the park’s natural beauty using available resources in the park.
With the help of the local governments, the group was able to purchase six tourist boats. However, the target local and foreign tourist arrival remains to be achieved.
The group also manages the restaurant within the park, which serves native food, such as free-range chicken, vegetables and fern salad grown in their small fern farm. From selling fern in the market, each farmer earns an average of P500 a week.
Fern research and development
Dr. Ely Alcala, a member of the board of BTLNP’s Protected Area Management Board, said ferns, a nonflowering plant, are abundant in BTLNP.
There are around 1,100 species of ferns in the Philippines, and at least 38 of them are known to be edible and have pharmaceutical or medicinal value. More than a hundred of these ferns can be found within the park, 10 of which are being grown in the fern farm, Alcala said.
Fern grows abundantly along forest edges and along roadsides along forested areas. Young leaves of fern are cooked as vegetables together with meat and serve as viand. It is also served as salad.
Fern has antioxidant as a bioactive component, which can be developed. Fern’s medicinal uses include decoctions of young leaves and rizomes to treat hemoptysis or coughing out of blood. It is also used as tonic drink after childbirth.
Meanwhile, extracts of the mature leaves can be applied on the skin to mask the unpleasant smell of sweat. Extracts of pulverized rizomes, soaked in water, is used as drink to treat diarrhea and dysentery.
High hopes on ferns
“We are hoping to maximize our income from the fern farm. There is an ongoing research to develop fern by-product because of its medicinal value,” Mier said. He said with the development of fern farming into an industry specializing on organic food, pharmaceutical or health and wellness product, many farmers will eventually appreciate their endeavor and veer away from raiding the forests.