Bantay Kalikasan / La Mesa Ecopark Rehabilitation Project

Senator Kiko Pangilinan shares with the mission of ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Kalikasan to spread environmental awareness through education and advocacy. In 2003, Sen. Kiko allocated 6M pesos worth of project assistance for Bantay Kalikasan’s La Mesa Ecopark Project. La Mesa Ecopark is a venue providing for healthful outdoor recreation and a true forest experience. It is a living classroom and laboratory for environmental education and aims to be a center for biodiversity conservation.

Seven years ago the major water source of Manila was in peril. The La Mesa watershed was heavily denuded and ravaged by squatters and illegal logging. With the rapid population growth, it was only a matter of time before the La Mesa Dam would have dried resulting in what would have been a major water crisis at the country’s nerve center.

On June 1999, the ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Kalikasan took on the major job of stopping the forest denudation and reforesting 1,500 hectares to secure the water source for the La Mesa Dam as well as to absorb the noxious carbon dioxide from Metro Manila.

The long-term goal is to convert the La Mesa watershed into a huge nature park and bio-diversity reserve for educational purposes and appreciation particularly of school children and of the general public. One reason for the very low environmental consciousness of people in Metro Manila is due to their dissociation from nature. The establishment of a nature center within Metro Manila may be a good start to regain this lost Filipino value. Individual and corporate partners are being tapped to raise funds for the project.

To read more about the projects of Bantay Kalikasan, visit Bantay Kalikasan