Palanan is located in The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park, where one of
the few remnants out of old tropical rainforest in the Philippines is. This
depends only on its rugged terrain along with that there are no roads there.
The only way to get to Palanan is to fly, when it's nice weather, by boat or
walking on the small paths. In The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park has
been established Palanan Forest Dynamics Plot (PFDP).
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Nestor outside his office.
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First, it has an area that is known as "The Special Use Zone which is 273ha
large, in this special use zone there is the plot which is 16ha, 400m x 400m,
with an access trail that goes straight through the plot. PFDP is part of a
global scientific network research in Tree Demographics.
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Today there are 20 Plots around
the world, which today is
coordinated out of the
Smithsonian Tropical Research
Institute - Center for Tropical
Forest Science (CTFS-STRI).
PFDP is today the largest and
the most monitored of the plots
that exist in the Philippines. The
idea of PFDP is to provide
statistics and information on
tropical rain forests that exist on
an island that is subject to
typhoons.
The plot is 16ha wide, 400m x
400m, is then divided into
smaller boxes that are 5m x 5m,
which is then documented all
trees and plants, with a radius of
2cm and wider.
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Johan inside the special use zone.
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I met the botanist Nestor
Bartolome early one
morning just outside
Palanan, where he parked
his motorcycle to start his
journey to his other office
located within the special
use zone, just before you
go into PFDP. It took us
about 1 ½ hours to walk up
to the office, where maps,
books, and many
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other things were. On the way we picked up the gamekeeper who is a short
and thin, small farmer living not far from the special use zone, his major task is
to contact the authorities if logging companies come to ravage rainforest and
sell the timber.We wandered first through open fields cultivated by the people,
then we went into the densely overgrown jungle, crossed both large and small
streams, sometimes the water went over our knees and then up in the mud
again. We went at a brisk pace to get to the office. Once at the cottage, we
had a break, we had some water and fruit and chatting a bit. We headed into
PFDP, walk along the access trail. You hardly dared to take a step beyond
the trail, thanks to all the scientific activity, but when Nestor did it, I did it too.
Nestor speaking, explaining the path of plants, flowers, trees and shrubs. He
explains that the uniqueness of the Sierra Madre tropical rain forest in
comparison with the Amazon example. is that it lies on an island and ravaged
by typhoons every year, which means that the trees can never be as huge as
in the Amazone. For those interested, I can tell that they have done an
outstanding job on the path of the special use zone, where they hung small
signs that tells its common name and Latin name, even so when you walk
along the access trail in PFDP. After a good lunch we walked back.
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Nestor with his motor bike.
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Facts about Palanan Forest Dynamics Plot
Special Use Zone: 273ha
The Plot: 16ha
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