Developing pro-poor markets for environmental services in the ...

Pangil. A company there was issued a Timber License Agreement (TLA) in January 1961 by
the Philippine government, which allowed it to cut timber in Pangil, as well as in four other
municipalities in Laguna province, and three municipalities in Quezon province. The TLA
should have expired in 1983, but was suspended in 1978 when martial law was still in place.
The company got the suspension lifted in 1985, and continued to operate in the area until its
permit expired in 1986. It applied for an extension, however, this did not include Pangil
anymore, but rather was limited to two municipalities in Quezon province.
After the logging concession denuded the forest of hardwood trees, small-scale loggers and
charcoal-makers continued cutting of secondary-growth trees. Slash-and-burn farmers
likewise encroached into the area through the years. Carabao grazers grew in number,
contributing to soil erosion and siltation. All of these contributed to the denudation of the
Balian watershed.
There was nothing in the literature that suggested that the organisation protested the presence
of the logging concessionaire in their area. Most probably, this was because during that time,
water supply was constant and water quality did not deteriorate. During the late 1980s,
however, local residents started noticing that the water was less abundant. Whereas before
this period, water had flowed continuously for 24 hours a day, they started noticing that water
would not be available during certain times of the day, particularly during the summer
months. Furthermore, during the rainy season, the Dakil River, located in the lower portion of
Balian, began to flood more often, and floodwaters were muddier than before. Landslides
started to occur, and the climate was not as cool as before the time that the watershed began
to lose its trees. Finally, the waterfalls in the area were not as large as they had been
previously.
Thus, in the late 1980s there was a resurgence of initiative among the SBPTI members.
Along with some local and national government officials, SBPTI started discussing how they
could solve their dwindling water-supply problem. They then took matters into their own
hands and passed a resolution asking the municipal government to declare a 50-metre radius
from all water sources as protected. DENR went further and suggested that they increase the
boundary to a 100m radius around the water source. The provincial government finally
declared a 100m radius around all water sources as protected (see Appendix E). 22
Soon after the declaration of the protected area, the residents discovered that SBPTI had no
mandate to protect the watershed. The remit for the organisation was only the management of
the water system of its residents. Upon consultations with all stakeholders involved, they
decided to form an umbrella group that could work for an extended mandate. It was later
called Lingap Kalikasan (LK), or Care for Nature. LK developed a conservation plan which
led to reforestation activities in the area.
3.2.3 Current operations
Protection activities for water sources
A major activity of LK is to look for water sources within the watershed that can be
connected to their water-supply system. In addition to the existing source which was
discovered as long ago as 1925 when SBPTI was founded, they were able to identify an
additional source, which was automatically covered within the municipal ordinance
22 Available at http://www.iied.org/eep/.
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