Yesterday, we had visitors up in Cantipla who brought their three kids along.

It was amazing to see how these kids enjoyed the ecosystem around and made their first attempts to catch fish in one of the water catchments. At the end of that beautiful afternoon in cool air they all agreed:

That was much better than sitting at home watching TV!

I just forgot to take pictures of the Hawk-Eagle who joined us, as soon as he noticed the delicious Tilapia being caught.

Instead, I found this very interesting flower, apparently its the “Waratah”, the National flower of Australia (thanks, Ruben, for that information!)

Let’s surprise the folks in Cantipla with some gifts. Pledges have already arrived, will be bundled on Dec. 11 in Bern’s residence.

You’re welcome to join the ride. Leaving cebu round 10am. If you can spare some gifts?

By JUAN L. MERCADO
Cebu SanStar, 20 Oct 2003

Idea Leucone Jumaloni

The spotted wings, tinged yellow, shimmer in the sunlight as the butterfly “glides like a tabanog (kite)”—admiring scientists say—in the only place worldwide where they exist today: three towns of southern Cebu.

Meet the Kawasan Paper Kite.

more…

Over 1,000 students from leading schools in Cebu planted 4,000 hardwood and fruit-bearing tree seedlings at the Cebu Protected Watershed Areas in Sitio Cantipla, Barangay Tabunan last Nov. 26.
The activity, which was organized by the Youth Network for the Environment Cebu and Ayala Young Leaders Alliance-Cebu, was coordinated with chairman Ret. Brig. Gen. Tiburcio Fusilero of the Kantipla Ecosystems Enhancements and Protected (Keep) Foundation in collaboration with other non-government organizations.
The tree-planting activity was followed by a mountain and river trek in the afternoon.

It all began with the need for shade. Biking up the mountains of central Cebu is no stroll in the park, as Gen. Tiburcio Fusilero will tell you. You will certainly look for shade.And so Fusilero, with other bikers who frequented the route, started planting shade trees in Cantipla, barangay Tabunan in 1994. What began as a need eventually became a personal mission.

Tabunan Forest

Today, Fusilero and his friends are founding members of the Kantipla Ecosystems Enhancement and Protection (Keep) Foundation. Keep is one of the first organizations under the Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s (DENR) Adopt-A-Mountain program that has promised to reforest, protect and rehabilitate the country’s forests.

For more on this, read the full article in SunStar (March 10, 2003)

The Cebu Cinnamon is endemic to Cebu Island

The Tabunan forest, one of Cebu, Philippines’ last biological strongholds, is known to support two globally threatened birds endemic to Cebu, the Black Shama (Copsychus cebuensis) and the Cebu Flowerpecker (Dicaeum quadricolor), but is in danger of further destruction.

Agricultural production has expanded into the forest periphery while at the same time highly aggressive exotic species such as Acacia mangium and Acacia auriculiformis have gradually replaced endemic forest trees. Hence, Partners Committed to Environmental and Economic Management Foundation, Inc. (PCEEM Foundation, Inc.), Kantipla Ecosystem Enhancement Protection Foundation, Inc., (KEEP), Cebu Biodiversity Conservation Foundation (CBCF), and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) joined hands in the ecological enhancement of Cebu’s last biological stronghold.

Physical restoration of the area via enrichment planting of endemic trees coupled with forest wardening by the shifting cultivators turned forest wardens or “protectors of forest” were undertaken to restore Tabunan forest and thereby enhance wildlife habitat and biodiversity corridors. Presently, enrichment planting of endemic tree species expanded outside the forest periphery.

Likewise, forest protection intensified at the same time as more people were transformed into partners in forest conservation. Tabunan forest’s canopy, which used to be single-layered because of the dominance of Acacia mangium and A. auriculiformis now resembles a typical tropical rain forest because of its multi-layer of trees. Birds and other important wildlife now become visible in the area. It has become a favorite destination of local and international bird watchers.

Source: http://www.globaltrees.org/reso_tree.asp?id=34