Northwest Panay Peninsula NP, Philippines

Participatory 3D Model of the Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park in the Philippines

The Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park is located on the island of Panay, in the provinces of Aklan and Antique of the Philippines which was proclaimed a natural park by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on 18 April 2002 (Presidential Proclamation No. 186, 2002). The Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park has an area of 120.09 km2, found within the municipalities of Nabas, Malay, Buruanga, Libertad and Pandan. The site is home to a wide range of flora and fauna of the Western Visayas, as the Visayan leopard cat, the Visayan warty pig, the Visayan spotted deer, the Negros bleeding-heart dove, the blue-naped parrot, the Visayan hornbill, Walden’s hornbill, and the Panay monitor. The Northwest Panay Peninsula Natural Park is also an important watershed. The forest of the Natural Park channels the water from the rains into a system of springs and rivers that provide water for over 100,000 inhabitants. The water for Boracay Island and the hundreds of thousands of tourists that visit there every year is also provided by the Northwest Panay watershed.

Pic_175_panay-headw_300pic_178_Culasi_300During the months of August-November 2002, after the proclamation of the NP a series of 1:5000-scale Participatory 3D models were constructed which included the Municipalities of Tangalan, Ibajay, Malay, Nabas, Buruanga in Aklan Province, and Libertad, Pandan, Sebaste, Culasi in Antique .

The models have been completed with the active participation of 647 members from the local communities. The models supported discussions on historic trends and resources were described as of 1940, 1970 and 2002. Factors affecting changes and their impact, were discussed and analyzed.

map_loc_phi_nwpipapic_179_Culasi_300The Local Government Units (LGUs) formed three alliances: NACADA (Aklan, 5 LGUs), LIPASECU (Antique, four LGUs), NPPBMC (Buruanga Peninsula, five LGUs) to address sustainable management and protection of the natural resources of the peninsula. The objectives of the P3DM exercises were (i) to provide the LGU Alliances with tools to strengthen their collective capacities for effective and efficient management of their coastal and terrestrial resources and (ii) to provide venue for greater community participation on natural resource profiling, services

The models have been produced by the Northwestern Aklan Coastal Area Development Alliance (NACADA) and the LIPASECU (Libertad, Pandan, Sebaste and Culasi Bay-wide Management Council) in the framework of the Philippines-Canada supported Local Government Support Program (LGSP).  The programme has been supported by the Foundation for Philippine Environment (FPE), Biodiversity Conservation Trust or BIOCON and Green Forum – Western Visayas (GF-WV)