How This Tourism Hotspot in the Philippines Turns Into an Environmental Conflict Zone

[Music] the misuni ji reserve is a quick day trip from the capital of manila attracting thousands of tourists every year before the pandemic [Music] it's part of the upper marikina river basin protected landscape a sprawling mountainous area of over 26 000 hectares just outside metro manila the reservation was established by the government over a hundred years ago it drains into the marikina river which then feeds into the pasig river a historic lifeline running through the capital of the philippines masungi is a private institution tasked by the national government with conserving the area they've taken what

used to be a deforested area and turned it into one of the country's most popular geotourism destinations where tourists hike among limestone cliffs sea rare flora and fauna and climb floating ropeways today we'll be going around with sisters and in billy dumalian as appointed trustees of masungi they lead the efforts to protect the watershed no matter the danger or threats from those who want to claim the land [Music] hello hello and billy i'm sorry we're yeah up to the reforestation site hopefully you get to see the work we've done so far [Music] the watershed's beauty

has attracted nature lovers and curious tourists but it has also attracted land grabbers who illegally developed these areas deforestation is a long-standing problem in the philippines under the marcus dictatorship commercial logging became a central industry across the philippines 300 000 hectares were cleared each year during the 1970s and 80s now hundreds of hectares are illegally cleared every year from this watershed alone a number that has gotten drastically higher since 2015. less forest cover means more devastating floods and landslides when tropical cyclones hit the philippines every year in 2020 the country recorded its worst floods in

45 years the legacy trail shows the progress masumi is making in restoring the deforested areas visitors come here to plant their own trees and walk among its bamboo line path through the efforts of people like ann and billy the masungi ji reserve has been able to protect 430 hectares of secondary forests and 2270 hectares of grasslands from deforestation we're here in the reforestation areas one of the first areas that we started to work on back in 2017 so i'm so happy to see them almost already my height from being this small yeah and what kind

of tree is this this is a nara tree nice most of the 60 000 trees that we've already planted i think a lot of them are nara trees our national tree you see the impact of all the things that you're doing come to life so that's very rewarding so tell me about how this all started i guess it started started all the way back in 1996 when our dad had a joint venture agreement to do sustainable development in the area so back then in the 1990s when we were about six years old it was just

a lot of grasslands and a lot of fields um lots of happy memories and our youth were spent here one vivid memory is just following my dad my dad's footsteps like literally um just going through the mountains and you know uncharted territories and just watching him pick up some stones and place them neatly or pick up trash collecting them along the way so i feel like until now that's what what i'm doing as well we're here at amihan 700 meters above sea level it has one of the last pine forests in the area the rest

has been cleared due to human activity before masuni took over [Music] so over here we have a clear view of the mountain it may look green but as you can see it's lost most of its forest cover and you can actually see patches of land where some locals have burned down the grasses to make way for agriculture [Music] but the threat is not small-scale agriculture it's commercial interest the watershed is a prime target for development activities like real estate and mining despite being a protected area three quarrying companies gained mining agreements covering a total of

1 500 hectares overlapping with masungi these quarry operators fence off forest land cutting the access of the gee reserve foundation and its rangers neilbert marquez is a forest ranger who is at the front lines of these daily dangers [Music] [Music] [Music] in highly urbanized country like the philippines land is a valuable commodity that companies and powerful individuals try to control for use or investment in 2016 a group of 40 armed men occupied a portion of the reserve and began taking down masumi's perimeter fences when park rangers asked them to leave they were fired at with

machine guns [Music] just this july two forest rangers were wounded after being shot in the head and neck during their evening rounds conservationists believe the attack is related to the closure of illegal establishments in the protected area uh [Music] i've met up with anne and billy again and we've reached a peak called nanai a filipina word that means mother it's views like this that attract tourists after a day of hiking looking out over the forest from this great height feels like a slice of paradise the beauty of this natural landscape stands in stark contrast with

the dangers faced by those trying to protect it on billy's first day on the job in 2016 she was greeted with gunfire did you always know that it was going to be this tough to just take care of nature the first sunday that i was supposed to have with masumi somebody called our house and i heard machine gun fire on on the phone so you know my first day was tough but it only became tougher from there you thought it wouldn't get any worse yeah i thought that it was it was not the norm like

it was gonna be a pretty um unusual thing but that's not true the more i experience these the more i get angry the more i see how complicated everything is and how big the problem is and sometimes of course i get overwhelmed by these issues like i feel like i can't solve this on my own but those experiences also compel me to see that you know this is why we exist this is why masumi exists as a designated protected area no private entity can own or develop land in the watershed but that doesn't stop people

from trying there have been over 20 encounters with land grabbing groups since masungi started their conservation efforts in 1996. they had to defend the reservation from five land grabbing attempts in 2020 alone property [Music] had to confront the same group of armed men after they set up an outpost within the reserve [Music] [Laughter] [Music] so we're on our way to see one of the permanent uh encampments of a group that ann and billy have previously clashed with they were the same man behind the fencing off of some areas of the nature reserve we just want

to see what they're up to and you know maybe we can even talk to them [Music] [Music] so there's a there's like a shed over there which apparently is being used by the men who are claiming this area [Music] this is like more than 100 trees cut down this is crazy how can they do this we tried speaking to the people in the camp but they refused to be interviewed on camera they said they were there to plant crops but wouldn't tell us who told them to build there the sisters believe this is part of

a larger plan to claim ownership of the forest area this wasn't here months ago uh this is probably part of the recent tactic they've been running to occupy and possess the land along with burning the area really lost for words i didn't see this until today one of the companies that masumi believes is involved in land grabbing is green adam and its parent company rubloo inc they claim to be a green company with sustainable energy projects its chairman is louisa tikman a retired police general recently convicted of graft [Music] while protected land cannot be privately

owned indigenous people may claim it as their ancestral domain several domaga tremontado tribe members filed the case against masungi represented by rubleu's company lawyer the case was dismissed earlier this year after the judge ruled that the claimants could not prove that they were legal representatives of the tribe we scheduled an interview with a lawyer of green adam and rublo to get their site there is no dispute actually this is a clear misunderstanding and i think that that is a misperception ruble was no claim in any portion of the watershed area okay it has claimed on

the excluded excluded areas from the water reservation what do you think about the advocacy of masungi and the efforts to preserve the upper marikina watershed in general it is it is a very loud double and commendable undertaking i'm telling you that it's a good thing but then again while pursuing something noble and something good we should not also forget the rule of law all right okay am i correct attorney in in our research that assisted this group in uh filing charges against masumi the lawyers i am the lawyer and it's for free it's pro bono

because i've been already attached to them since 2018 i volunteered to help them not through blue [Music] masonry has accused rubloo of deploying armed guards in the area something the company denies they insist that it's the indigenous people themselves who are leading the fight against masumi and paying for armed security they are not in the forefront it's it's the maggots who are in the forefront the ruble is only just behind them the armed guards have been recorded on video saying that their employer is blue what can you say about that because [Music] the philippines has

a long history of violence against environmental defenders and is one of the deadliest places worldwide for conservationists in 2019 43 land and environmental defenders were killed in the philippines according to rights group global witness always the same pattern a beautiful place and the tragedy behind it as the problems of land grabbing illegal logging and destructive mining persist the government also faces accusations of not doing enough to protect the country's remaining forests the department of environment and natural resources acknowledges these dangers under secretary jonas leonis says government employees face daily threats to their personal safety as

well i want to talk specifically about rubloo incorporated [Music] [Music] they're also relying on the rights of the indigenous people it appears that we allow the private sector to lead the way in protecting these very important areas um is that model sustainable shouldn't the public sector shouldn't the government be doing the job for example that is that masumi is doing it hello so we need the support of everybody because uh environmental concern is not a concern of one agency by the concern of everybody [Music] there's one group we haven't heard from we've heard a lot

about ancestral land and companies claiming to represent indigenous people it's time we listen to the people who are rooted in this land so we're on our way to meet some of the members of the dumaga tribe these are people who have lived here for generations and have recognized rights over the watershed [Music] foreign [Music] in 2016 when anne started the misumi ji reserve brand and opening the trails to limited visits i knew it was going to be big i knew that there were going to be lots of challenges so again i knew that i needed

to join and i needed to support that goal into that mission nasuni has grown to be such an intimate part of our lives i go as far as saying it's my younger brother so just imagine leaving your younger brother vulnerable it kills me i always say this it's the regret of my lifetime if i don't do anything to save it i think it's our calling so we will always be working on conservation [Music] [Music] i've come to see masungi beyond its famed attractions through the stories of environmental defenders like ann and billy there were expands

generations and involves huge risks the dangers that rangers face the community work of advocates these add up and take root filipino conservationists are not naive to the danger they work in spite of the danger because they understand that the alternative is a risk they cannot take while there's a history of violence there's also a history of courage of hope that in spite of it all something worthwhile will grow [Music] you