Isabela gov’t promotes Abuan River as an ecotourism destination

Posted at 10:12 pm June 13, 2011

Tags: Beaches and Water Activities, Environment, Travel Tales and Tips

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By Anna Valmero

ILAGAN, ISABELA—The lush forests of the northern Sierra Madre shelters the majestic Abuan River of Isabela, dubbed as the country’s next whitewater rafting destination.

But more than attracting tourists to the area, it is seen as a way to promote sustainable ecotourism to save the Sierra Madre forest range and wildlife.

Abuan River is being groomed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines), Coca-Cola Philippines and the local government of Ilagan as a sustainable whitewater rafting destination under its umbrella project to conserve the Abuan watershed, said Luis Caraan, Isabela project manager of WWF Philippines.

“The headwaters of the Abuan River is located at the Northern Sierra Madre National Park so preserving the Abuan River will also help conserve the Sierra Madre forests,” he added.

The Sierra madre forests and watershed was under constant threat from small-scale logging and charcoal production some five years ago. If logging is not controlled, it may displace 130,000 families in Ilagan who rely on the river for freshwater supply and irrigation for their rice and corn fields, according to a WWF feasibility study in the area.

It should be noted that the Abuan River was used as the transit point of illegal logs from the Isabela side of the Sierra Madre forest and mountain range.

To involve locals with the conservation of the Abuan River, Caraan said they started an ecotourism project to give alternative livelihood to people and help them invest on the environment in terms of law enforcement and community-wide conservation efforts.

Some 256 former illegal loggers and log haulers – who went jobless after they were caught during the provincial-wide anti-logging campaign of former Isabela governor Grace Padaca – welcomed the ecotourism training programs of WWF.

The local government organized them into a group under the Villa Gracia Agroforestry Developers Cooperative, Caraan said in a phone interview.

Under the agroforestry project, locals were given seedlings of fruit trees and cash crops, the produce of which they use for their daily consumption and a small part is sold to the market, Caraan added.

“We are giving them training on how to tour guests in the area. Previously, we brought eight members of the cooperative and the local government unit to Pagsanjan in Laguna to see how a sustainable river ecotourism site works,” said Caraan.

At least 18 of them have been certified as local ecotour guides by WWF and the Department of Tourism. Caraan said they aim to train more of the cooperative members as the local tourism market grows over the next few years.

“Slowly the locals are seeing the benefits of ecotourism and the role that they play in caring for the environment. Over the next five years, we see the local cooperative running their tourism agency and continuing the conservation work,” said Caraan.

While the income of ecotour guides is lower compared to the P6,000 weekly salary of log haulers (bugadores) in the rivers, they see the importance of not needing to go away from their family for two months to transport the logs plus the risk of getting nabbed by authorities, Caraan said.

Aside from whitewater rafting, tourists can also go trekking, swimming, and scaling cliffs and waterfalls in Abuan River.

To schedule a trip to Abuan, you may contact Luis Caraan at 0927-6556845 or email him at lcaraan@wwf.org.ph.

(Photos used with permission from Luis Caraan and Gregg Yan)