Rain forest returns in Philippine capital

Manila's only nature park benefits from 15-year effort to reclaim patchwork of farms, shanties

A tropical rain forest has regrown against all odds on the edge of the Philippine capital's biggest open-air dump, and is now a patch of green paradise in a sprawling metropolis blighted by giant slums.

The only nature park in Manila, the La Mesa watershed, a thicket about a fifth the size of Paris, wraps around a dam that stores drinking water for the metropolis of 14 million people.

"It's as if you've left Manila," Anton Haltland, manager of a car dealership, said after he and his friends spent half a day riding mountain bikes under thick canopies and knee-deep river crossings.

"As if you've slipped into a different time zone of a bygone era. ... It ticks all the boxes for challenge and beauty."

About 300,000 people visit the watershed and its more than 50 kilometers of nature trails each year, according to park officials.

The tropical rain forest within a city is the product of a 15-year partnership involving the national government, water companies and environmental groups.

Before then, the forest surrounding the reservoir had been largely burned off, replaced with a patchwork of farms and shanties that had been expanding in parallel with the nation's fast-growing population.

"Most of these informal settlers depended on the watershed's resources to make a living, so they cut trees for lumber, charcoal or firewood. The cleared areas were turned into vegetable plots," project manager Dave Azurin said.

To understand what would have happened to the area if not for the conservation efforts requires simply looking from a ridge across to the massive slums that border the watershed and are home to about 350,000 people.

One of the city's biggest open-air dump sites is also next to it.

But since the re-greening efforts started, more than 750,000 trees have been planted and are now home to 125 bird species, according to Azurin.

He said 99 of the tree species were endemic to the Philippines, and many of them were endangered.

More than 7,000 illegal settlers who were living in the watershed were also gradually relocated to nearby areas, thanks to free housing provided by the state water utility, the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.

Not without dangers

Nevertheless, the program has not been a complete success, nor without its dangers.

Unknown to many visitors, the park remains besieged by intruders who cut and steal trees, and at times even build shanties inside.

The park's first line of defense is a perimeter wall about the height of two adults, but trespassers easily use crowbars and hammers to make holes, according to forest ranger Exequiel Lobres.

"We'd plug a hole today, and they'd be back to punch another one through when no one is looking," Lobres said.

"It's a dangerous job. We're always fighting fires set off by outsiders. Some of them are armed."