Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape & Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve

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BACKGROUND 

The Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL), with a total land area of 26,126 hectares, was established through Presidential Proclamation 296 in 2001. Meanwhile, the Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve (KWFR), with a total land area of 27,613 hectares, was established through Presidential Proclamation 573 in 1969. UMRBPL and KWFR play an important role in regulating the flow of water towards the highly urbanized National Capital Region. 

The natural assets in these areas provide ecosystem services to six local government units, namely Antipolo City, Baras, General Nakar, Rodriguez, San Mateo, and Tanay. The local population within these two priority sites are more than 350,000 (NSMB 2010). The KWFR is home to Indigenous People, with the Dumagat comprising 96% of the total IP population. Both are important front lines for biodiversity conservation that host a number of threatened and endangered species, some of which are endemic such as the Antipolo tree, Red Lauan, Yakal, Luzon Bleeding Heart, Rufous Hornbill, and the Northern Luzon Cloud Rat.

In 2010, the combined forest cover in UMRBPL and KWFR was at 16,484 hectares. However, continued forest and habitat degradation is prevalent, caused mainly by illegal tree cutting, slash and burn farming, unsustainable fuel-wood collection, residential and commercial expansion, and forest fires. All these pressures on the natural forest led to forest degradation of at least 408 hectares a year.