BACOLOD CITY – Six local government units (LGUs) on Negros Island urged communities to help protect the environment and conserve natural resources during the opening of the Mount Kanlaon Natural Park (MKNP) Festival Tuesday, August 9.

These LGUs are Bago City, San Carlos City, La Carlota City, Murcia, and La Castellana in Negros Occidental and Canlaon City in Negros Oriental.

Bago City Mayor Nicholas Yulo and La Castellana Mayor Rhumyla Nicor-Mangilimutan, along with Denis Pinosa, protected area superintendent of MKNP, led the opening of the three-day festival at the Bantayan Park in Bago City.

The festival which ends Thursday, August 11, was celebrated annually but due to the pandemic, it was postponed for two years.

This year, Bago City hosted the celebration dubbed "Ang Pagbangon sang Kuminidad, Nasandig sa Pag-amlig sang Dunang Manggad (The Community's Recovery Lies on the Conservation of Natural Resources).”

According to Pinosa, the celebration commemorates the enactment of Republic Act 9154 or the Mount Kanlaon Law in 2001.

Pinosa said the law was made to protect, conserve, and develop the remaining natural resources, history, and culture and arts within the MKNP.

The law declared 2,435 hectares in Mount Kanlaon as protected area, according to Pinosa.

“This year, we wanted to enhance the biodiveristy values, strengthen life support system, and improve the quality of life of communities by bringing economic, social, and cultural sustainability,” Pinosa said.

Yulo said that it is also best fitting to celebrate this event simultaneously with the first Indigenous People (IP) Assembly in Bago City.

“We need the help of the IPs, they only not represent the katutubos, but their practices are a lesson that we should also keep in mind since they know nature than we do,” Yulo said.

Yulo said that Mount Kanlaon is not only about the mountain and volcano. “It’s also about taking care of the Earth, of our natural resources as they play a very crucial role in balancing of the nature,” he added.

“We have to make a contribution because we are very much affected of what is happening around us,” Yulo said, adding that he is hoping climate change can be reversed.

Yulo said that of all creations on Earth, the most destructive are human beings, but the solution also lies in humans. “If we only break the cycle which we live in this modern world, we could bring back the glory in nature and we will live in harmony with nature,” he added.

Further, the festivity is also poised to continue to awaken the consciousness of the community, especially on the protection and conservation of the environment, including the MKNP, which is considered as the last frontier of the Negros forest, according to Mae Ann Furtos, senior tourism officer of Bago City.

Furtos said the local government is giving importance to its environmental advocacy.

The city hosts the Bago Watershed and Bago River that provide livelihood to thousands of farmers in the province by providing them water being irrigated to their farms, she said.

Bago City is also part of the Negros Occidental Wetlands declared as the seventh Ramsar Site in the Philippines and East Asian-Australasian Flyway Site.

Furtos said the southern Negros Occidental locality is also home to Irrawaddy dolphin which is considered as endangered and shy-type species of dolphin.

“Our local environmental programs and other initiatives really have international impact,” she said, assuring that the city government will continue to take necessary measures to protect and conserve the environment while developing its tourism sector.