Hundreds of years ago, the tropical rainforest that covered most of the island of Mindanao had nurtured the island’s river system. With abundant rain, the trees in this forest were always green, the green foliage of branches and treetops spreading out like a huge umbrella to shade the forest floor. Lianas, rattan and other vines hanged from the tree branches and canopies, providing natural highways for monkeys, squirrels, civet cats and lizards. The mesh of tree roots kept soil erosion in check. Aided by the thick covers of leaves and other debris, much rainwater was absorbed and retained in the soil. The water seepage from the watersheds fed the springs and tributaries of the rivers. The forest maintained the ecological balance by hosting a variegated fauna and flora. Greens, decaying logs and debris were fodders to insects and other herbivores at the bottom of the food chain.
The primitive people that once inhabited the forest lived in harmony with nature. They lived off the forest by hunting and gathering fruits and nuts. Later they became farmers, clearing and burning patches of the forest and planting tubers, bananas, tobacco and grains. When the soil worn out and grasses began to invade the fields, they then cleared a new place in the forest or moved to another area. Since the forest population was sparse, the damage to the forest ecology was minimal. The deserted farms would slowly recover with undergrowth of shrubs, ferns, grasses and second growth forest. Much later, people started cutting trees at the rate beyond the ability of the forest to rejuvenate. New waves of people settled in logged areas and opened farms.
When we arrived in Maigo in 1951, the abandoned steel rails of logging trains were still intact, laid along the unpaved national highway. The logging operations in the virgin forest of the coastal towns of Panguil Bay started at the beginning of the 20th century. Logging trains transported the logs to a coast in Kolambugan for shipment abroad. As the logging operations of crawled up into the mountains, the trains had to give way to McCormick and Mercedes Benz trucks.
The slow but inevitable death of the Maigo River started when the foreigner-owned Findlay-Millar Timber Company got a concession to cut the trees in the watersheds of Maigo River and the rivers of nearby towns that drain into the Panguil Bay. Legal logging is now limited to reforested areas since the virgin forests are gone. Illegal loggers cut whatever trees left by legal logging. Slash and burn farming by kaingineros, hasten the degradation of the lands. Many uplands and steep lands remain denuded; the absence of vegetative covers revealing man’s utter failure as stewards of the lands.
