The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has opened a 55-meter-long hanging bridge in Nueva Ecija, which will be essential to the rehabilitation of the 44,000-hectare Pantabangan- Carranglan Watershed.
According to DENR-Central Luzon Executive Director Paquito Moreno Jr., the bridge was funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as an Agroforestry Support Facility subproject under the 10-year Forest Land Management Project (FMP) in the Pantabangan-Carranglan Watershed.
He explained that the bridge will connect farm areas to market towns, reduce transport cost of agricultural products, minimize post-harvest losses and, most of all ensure easier access to social services, such as health and education.
Moreno pointed out that "this 55-meter Calaocan hanging bridge, which traverses the Deguireg river, will be of great help not just in the conduct of developmental activities within the watershed, but will likewise be fundamental in uplifting the lives of the local communities as this will serve as a channel to increase local trade and productivity."
He said the completion of the hanging bridge is one of the DENR’s strong commitments to uplift the socio-economic well-being of local communities while conserving and protecting the environment.
The FMP was launched in 2012 and has already rehabilitated 14,133 hectares of denuded forest lands in the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed.
Last year, the project was able to construct a 3.7-kilometer farm-to-market road at Barangay Conversion in the municipality of Pantabangan, which benefitted some 350 upland farmers and their families.
FMP is a 10-year reforestation project that aims to rehabilitate the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed, one of the biggest protected areas in Central Luzon, through collaborative and comprehensive community-based forest management strategies.
It also integrates conservation and development-oriented activities with participation and capacity-building of local communities to rehabilitate degraded forestlands in three critical river basins, including Upper Magat and Cagayan in Cagayan Valley, Upper Pampanga in Central Luzon, and Jalaur in Iloilo.