• February 2022

    The next big task: to connect the existing mangrove islands in front of the villages with new plantings.

It goes on. After the Guang Guang nature reserve peninsula is fully planted, we head for a part of Pujada Bay whose ridge is called the „Sleeping Dinosaur“. However, the viewer has to use a lot of imagination to recognise this shape from a bird‘s eye view. Although Mati is slowly becoming a tourist hotspot, everything in these villages goes about its traditional business. No doubt also because the small villages are not easy to reach. The way from the road to the coast is almost impassable after heavy rains. For this reason alone, the boat remains the most popular means of transport here. The villages are known for their speciality „bulat“, sun-dried fish in all its varieties, which is rather unfamiliar to European palates and stinks so badly when fried that even the Filipinos do not prepare it in the house
but have set up a cooking area next to the house, the „dirty kitchen“. The distribution of roles is also traditional: the women take care of the household, the men go fishing. The reforestation tasks are also divided up accordingly. The women‘s organisation, which also has many men as members, has decided that the women plant while the men fish. This division of labour is no problem for us because the mangroves are urgently needed. First, the mangrove islands are to be connected and then the planting will be done further out to sea in order to better protect the villages and increase the fish population. It is always important that the fishermen are given access to land their catches.

Forester Mark discusses with the residents where the tree nurseries should be set up. The women want to plant while their men fish at sea.

Boat building in the Philippines. The keel sole is made of solid wood, the side walls are made of plywood. The boats must be able to be carried by one person.

It looks like we have combed the mountains. View of your mahogany and teak trees. The grooved areas result from forestry practice, leaving the grassy areas to the left and right of the planted trees.

There is not much news to report from our commercial timber plantations, which is very reassuring. These photos are from Patag, Marilog, where our new activities are concentrated. Although our office in this plantation area is still under construction, we hope it will be completed in the first half of 2022. It is amazing to see how this mountain region is developing economically, which is gaining momentum through the government‘s tourism promotion programme. Filipinos love the cold mountain air. Restaurants and resorts are correspondingly busy at weekends. Certainly also because road construction is advancing rapidly. Where there was a muddy dirt road at the beginning of our plantations, there is now often a concrete road. The plantations are not affected by this, but it is now much easier for
us to get to your trees. A big advantage.

Our reforestations with endemic trees, which grow together to form mixed forests, are somewhat quieter. The reason for this is that elections will take place in the Philippines in May 2022 and all the „officials“ do not have time to respond to our requests at the moment. No problem, because we use the time to grow many new seedlings to be able to start immediately after the release of an area.

This is how the areas look vertically from the air. The distance between the trees is always 4 x 4 metres to give each tree sufficient nutrients.

A view at human eye level. Everything is growing and thriving. It is really a joy to see how the crowns keep producing fresh green shoots.

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