A group of Haribon foresters recently conducted delineation and monitoring in one of Haribon’s restoration sites, the Manleluag Spring Protected Landscape (MSPL) in Mangatarem, Pangasinan.

The monitoring and delineation activity was spearheaded by the Haribon team, GIS Specialist Greg Azares, Forester Razel Ripalda, and Forester Miel Loria with assistance from the people’s organizations (PO), NAGMAKAPAK led by their president, Pedro Alleta and KAMAPAKA. The objective of this activity was to track the maintenance activities done by the POs with regard to their respective restoration areas.

Their activities ranged from monitoring the growth and development of the plants, gathering information from the community partners about the difficulties encountered in maintaining the plants, determining the specific boundaries of the areas planted by the community partners, to identifying sites that still need to be planted and restored, and citing recommendations and suggestions on other means and ways to improve the condition of the restoration site.

As mentioned by Forester Miel, tree planting doesn’t start and end there. Monitoring is much important because “we now assess the growth and development of the trees species planted.”

Delineation and monitoring activities are essential in strengthening the environmental protection initiatives in order to determine boundaries of the protected areas, planted areas, and help identify sites still needed to be restored.