Are you looking for unique outdoor fun and adventure? Or do you simply want to spend the weekend away from the stressful city life? Try the Masungi Georeserve in Baras, Rizal.
A conservation project in the Southern Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges, Masungi Georeserve was recently honored as a global model for conservation innovation and excellence at the inaugural Pathfinder Awards.
“We are extremely humbled and honored to receive such a prestigious award at the global stage,” Billie Dumaliang, a trustee and advocacy officer of Masungi Georeserve, told the BusinessMirror through Messenger.
“The recognition by no less than world conservation leaders reaffirms our efforts to conserve Masungi, despite the many challenges we encounter on a day-to-day basis,” she added.
World-class conservation approach
The award to Masungi was lauded by an international biodiversity expert, Theresa Mundita S. Lim, the executive director of Asean Centre of Biodiversity (ACB).
A former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Lim said effectively using innovative approaches in raising funds for conservation initiatives is “a very notable and praise-worthy feat for any management of biodiversity-rich protected areas.”
“Finding a strategy and successfully implementing it in generating income, while at the same time conserving the environment, is a challenge,” Lim said.
The UN award Masungi received not only brings honor and recognition to the Philippines, Lim said, but also to the Asean region as it shows that Filipinos and the Asean people are capable of achieving world-class conservation approaches.
“This is the kind of innovation that we are developing in our protected areas and Asean Heritage Parks—localized strategies that meet each area’s unique conservation needs,” Lim said.
The Asean Heritage Parks is one of the flagship programs of ACB. They are selected protected areas in Southeast Asia known for their unique biodiversity and ecosystems, wilderness and outstanding values. They were given the highest recognition because of their importance as conservation areas.
Tourist attractions
Established in 1996, the georeserve at Kilometer 47, Marcos Highway, is characterized by rugged limestone karst peaks, steep slopes and surrounding lush montane rainforests.
Among the popular attractions in the park is the Sapot or “cobweb” made of a metallic platform with wooden steps. It allows visitors to walk on suspended netting above the karst and get a 360-degree view of the Sierra Madre and the Laguna de Bay.
It also has Duyan, a giant rope hammock, spanning a few hundred feet.
The Masungi Georeserve only allows guests to the conservation area on a limited number and via a trail visit request. Guests are guided by an experienced park ranger throughout the trek who also provides in-depth information about sustainable tourism.
Not a glamorous task
According to Dumaliang, conservation “is not a glamorous task,” describing it as “being long days under the heat of the sun or standing your ground against big interests.”
“The award encourages us, our park rangers and the people who have sacrificed so much to protect Masungi from various threats for over more than 20 year, to continue what we are doing. We hope it inspires others, too, to choose the important and necessary task of protecting the Philippine environment,” she said.
The Pathfinder Awards was presented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and WildArk during the plenary session of the 14th Conference of Parties of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt, last month.
International jury
Masungi Georeserve was awarded the 2018 Pathfinder Award Special Commendation for its “outstanding and innovative” approach to conservation financing and resourcing.
The local conservation project protects a geological heritage comprising the Masungi karst landscape and its rich biodiversity in Baras, Rizal.
A high-level international jury composed of experts on protected area financing and resourcing selected the winners from over 200 nominations from around the world.
The jury includes Inger Andersen, director general of the IUCN; Yasmine Fouad, minister of Egypt; Mark Hutchinson, founder of WildArk; Kathy MacKinnon, chairman of IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas; Cristiana Paşca Palmer, executive secretary of CBD; Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, minister of Costa Rica; and Achim Steiner, administrator of UNDP.
Innovative solutions
The Pathfinder Award recognizes outstanding and innovative solutions for protected and conserved areas, developed and implemented by individuals, organizations or groups.
The inaugural awarding edition celebrates solutions that address insufficient investment for protected and conserved areas. While protected and conserved areas provide considerable and diverse financial and nonmonetary benefits, the global funding gap to effectively manage these sites is huge—estimated at the $30 billion to $35 billion a year.
The jury lauded Masungi’s innovative techniques and approaches in conservation financing, using geotourism to fund and achieve conservation objectives.
Through this model, the reserve is able to complement the work of the government and local communities in taking care of the country’s threatened ecosystems.
In particular, the jury noted Masungi’s practices that balance the attractiveness of the park to visitors with low pressure on the environment.
A model Protected Area
In a joint statement, the UNDP, IUCN, WCPA and WildArk noted: “The nomination by Masungi Georeserve Foundation describes an innovative approach to ecotourism, based on the pillars of conservation, education/research and sustainable development, and using ‘mindful engineering’ through tourism infrastructure that mimics nature, e.g., spider webs.”
They noted how the reserve can be replicated by other protected and conserved areas around the globe when it comes to creating long-term and sustainable value for environmentally sensitive areas.
“You cannot tell how impressed I was with [Masungi Georeserve’s] work. [They] must continue what they are doing,” said Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica’s environment and energy minister and Pathfinder jury member who presented the awards to Masungi Georeserve Trustees sisters Ann and Billie Dumaliang.
Unique limestone formation, rich biodiversity
A conservation initiative of Masungi Georeserve Foundation in partnership with the DENR, the Masungi Georeserve is home to a sprawling limestone formation dating back 60 million years that was the subject of rampant environmental degradation and real-estate speculation.
After 20 years of daunting dedicated conservation work, it is coming back to life and is now a sanctuary for more than 400 species of flora and fauna, many of which are endemic to the Philippines and Luzon island.
The project’s latest mission is to restore and conserve in perpetuity some 3,000 hectares of denuded mountains around the geological reserve through the Masungi Geopark Project.
The mountains remain in constant threat of quarrying, illegal logging, (slash and burn), treasure-hunting and land speculation despite previous efforts to conserve them.
“This singular honor from the UN and IUCN will boost the spirit of our team on the ground, and those in the government, private sector and civil society who tirelessly toil for the environment and even risk their lives protecting it, and inspire others to follow in their footsteps and join our movement,” Ann Dumaliang, also the project manager of Masungi Georeserve, said in a statement.
This year’s award is organized in cooperation with the UNDP-Biodiversity Finance Initiative and the Panorama-Solutions for a Healthy Planet initiative, which IUCN co-leads.
Image credits: Billie Dumaliang