LEGAZPI CITY—The majestic Mayon, the world’s most perfect cone volcano and Albay’s crown jewel in tourism, has recently made it to the tentative list of most promising candidates for a World Heritage Site title of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).
Designated as Mayon Volcano National Park (MMNVP) by Presidential Proclamation 413 in June 2000 under the National Integrated Protected Areas System Act, it becomes the first area in the Bicol Region to be included in the Unesco in March 2015 updated tentative list.
Albay Gov. Joey Salceda said working on MMVNP for a Unesco nomination has been a three-year labor of love for the province for both culture and arts as heritage on one hand, and as an environment biosphere reserve on the other.
Salceda said this includes “technical engagements with the Philippine National Commission for Unesco, whose head, Dr. Virginia Miralao, was my sociology-anthropology teacher in Ateneo and also one of my ideological mentors in college.”
The governor nominated MVNP in 2014, along with other protected areas of the province as part of the Albay Biosphere Reserve in the Unesco Man and the Biosphere Program. “It is a commitment to protect Albay’s natural habitats, as seen in its increased forest cover of 88 percent from 26,298 hectares in 2003 to 44,891 hectares by 2010. A Unesco recognition entitles the area for more protection,” he said.
PNA