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FPE & Globe Turn Over ICT Support & Accident Insurance to Southern Cauayan’s Bantay Lasang; MOA for Conservation Trade-off Signed

Posted on July 26, 2016

The Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) and Globe Telecom, Inc. turned over mobile phones, SIM cards, and accident insurance to fifty-five (55) Bantay Lasang (Forest Guards) of the Southern Cauayan Watershed and Forest Reserve, Negros Occidental, last July 25, 2016.

The phones are intended to ease communication and coordination among the forest guards during their roving, patrolling, and site monitoring activities, for the protection and rehabilitation of the forest reserve. The Bantay Lasang of the Southern Cauayan Watershed and Forest Reserve are members of Camalandaan Agro Forest Association (CAFA) and are assisted by the Ecological and Agricultural Development Foundation, Inc. (EcoAgri). 

The partnership has since supported four hundred thirty nine (439) forest guards in eight (8) KBAs, namely Mts. Banahaw-San Cristobal Protected Landscape, Polillo Group of Islands, North Negros Natural Park, Ilog Hilabangan Watershed Forest Reserve, Mt. Nacolod Watershed, Panigan-Tamugan Watershed, Arakan Valley Forest Corridor, and most recently, the Southern Cauayan Watershed and Forest Reserve. 

This initiative is done through the iConserve pillar of Globe's corporate social responsibility program, Globe Bridging Communities, as part of the partnership agreement to support Forest Guard Volunteers (FGVs) in key biodiversity areas (KBAs) nationwide. The agreement was signed last January 2014 for continued assistance to the project sites of the USAID-funded "Upscaling Forest Restoration in Key Biodiversity Areas" project implemented by FPE. (See: FPE, Globe Team Up Anew for Environmental Conservation Efforts)

CAFA, EcoAgri, and FPE also signed a Memorandum of Agreement for conservation trade-off, a strategy that involves providing farmers with fifteen 120-watt solar power systems for their homes in exchange for their assistance in local reforestation efforts. One solar power system was also turned over to the Camalanda-an National High School that same day.