Sustainable Solutions for the Cordillera Mountains

Cordillera Conservation Trust

Tignayan para iti Konserbasyon ti Kordilyera

Bonfires keep the people warm on cold nights in the mountains

Why the Cordillera?

E-mail: Cordillera.conservation.trust@gmail.com

The Cordillera region of the Philippines is acknowledged as one of Northern Luzon’s major watersheds. The headwaters of many of Luzon’s major river systems originate in these mountains and serve as irrigation for the plains that surround the Cordillera Mountain range; Chico River, Agno River, Abra River, Siffu River, Amburayan-Naguilian-Aringgay River System, Ahin River,  Abulog-Apayao River system. Taken together they have a total drainage area of 5,447,500 hectares, supplying most of the irrigation needs of Northern Luzon. These facts alone underscore the importance of the Cordillera mountain region in providing ecosystem services to a large portion of Northern Luzon.

 

Yet this is only a small fraction of the importance of the Cordillera Mountain Ecosystem, other factors such as biodiversity, energy production; mineral production as well as ecological maintenance functions such as; stream flow, nutrient cycling, soil stability, habitat, are among the other factors which make this region unique.

 

The mountain region is also the home of a varied number of indigenous groups. People who have the pride that no lowlander has the right to claim, the pride of being free while the rest of the Philippines was under the colonial rule of the Spanish. Ibaloi, Kankanai, Kalanguya, Iwac, Ifugao, Bontoc, Kalinga, Tinguian among these groups we find the people who have kept these mountains safe for centuries, Our homes are seemingly under siege, “development” has claimed the homes of many communities. The Cordillera being home to the bounties of the earth have provided life for generations, yet today people seek to destroy that which has given us life.

 

This diversity of people living in this region presents a challenge to the management of the Cordillera Mountain environment and yet they also provide a resource as we are people who hold a unique knowledge of our local environments and their utilization, knowledge which is a powerful asset in creating strategies to address the continued degradation of our mountain ecosystems.

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