PUERTO PRINCESA SUBTERRANEAN RIVER
NATIONAL PARK AND THE ANCESTRAL DOMAIN OF KAYASAN: A WORLD HERITAGE
Park management strategies include:
Ensuring the parks interests are considered favorably in any local development initiative.
Attending monthly barangay/community meetings.
Where appropriate, acting as a catalyst for community development including compiling and categorizing potential development projects.
Assiting ancestral domains to develop ecotourism related activities; and participation in local cultural festival
Part of the ancestral domain of Kayasan is under the jurisdiction of PPSRNP. Though it is a part of the buffer zone of the park, the management and administration is under the indigenous community, the Bataks and tagbanua that claimed the area. The certificate of the Amcestral Domain Claim (R1B-CADC-028) was awarded to the indigenous cultural community in which they have occupied since time immemorial.
SITE PROBLEMS:
Most effort goes into management of visitors to the underground river with considerable time being spent building positive relationships with the surrounding communities. Some problems are management issues that prove to be relevant to current involvement of local communities.
Basic issues include a requirement for effective protected area management training and uncontrolled development. The local community has difficulty to benefit from the tourism industry due to lack of skills. Tourist potential remains untapped due to lack of right infrastructure that caters to the need of a viable market.
The forest area is virtually uninhabited and subjected to only minor encroachment. The southern boundary abuts farmed areas of the domain but is generally protected by natural features and informal agreement with the Ancestral Domain. Two thirds of the rivers underground catchment lie outside the park, largely in the ancestral domain of Cabayugan, much of which is farmed. Agricultural pollution poses a considerable threat to the geological structure of the underground cave system, though follow up studies have been conducted and revealed no real threat to the underground ecosystem. Habitat loss and forest denudation poses a danger to the sustenance of the parks ecosystem. Watersheds and riverbanks are also being damaged. The ecosystem tends to degenerate in a pace faster than its regeneration.
In 1997, the number of visitors to the park rose to 40,000 from a mere 2,000 in the early 1980s. Until the end of 1998 a few visitors stayed at the cottages in the park, while most overnight visitors preferred to spend the night in Sabang. Though tourism is the only predictable source of financial sustenance, as well as opportunities for many local people to improve their standard of living, its uncontrolled development also serves as one of the major threats. In what appeared to be an ironic twist the unregulated flow of people who come to the park to commune with nature are leaving behind their lasting impression on its delicate system and altering it in the process. Animals have been observed to adapt into unnatural way of life. Feeding habits are altered. Breeding cycles are interrupted. And those who fail to accommodate curious sightseers are forced out by the unwanted commotion.
The most seroius constraints to the management include an ill-defined institutional structure, lack of adequate resources and boundaries that have no control over the catchment of the underground river of Cabayugan.
Within the ancestral domain (CADC area) some specific problems are identified.
Illegal activities e.g. gathering of almaciga resin of non indigenous people
LGUs are not oriented with the provision of ADMP and IPRA
Trend in permit acquisition
People from the community have lesser chances of sourcing better market demand due to inadequate information system.
