Upper Caliban-Imbang Watershed

The Upper Caliban-Imbang watershed in Campuestohan near Bacolod City, is a 1,000 hectares part of the Northern Negros Natural Park (NNNP). There are four communities found in the watershed where community organisations benefit from the government reform programs to protect the area. With these communities, several initiatives have been conducted across the years for the restoration and management of the Upper Caliban-Imbang watershed.

 

These include; community organizing, habitat restoration, soil & water conservation, agroforestry, livelihood assistance, and community-based forest protection. After these initiatives 500ha of denuded area was rehabilitated using indigenous trees as planting materials, resulting in a now vibrant 1,000ha natural forest landscape in the watershed. 

 

To support community conservation drive and strengthen capacity building of community members, additional sources of sustainable livelihoods were initiated in the area. These include; 1) organic coffee growing, 2) understory crop cultivation, and 3) an endemic tree nursery. 

 

Many farmers planted coffee in their farms as one of their primary crops, introducing the Arabica (Coffea arabica) variety where high demand and price is on-going when grown organically. The Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture for Rural Development (NISARD) have helped these coffee farmers in the planting and marketing of the organic coffee, leading to certification from NICERT as "organic coffee" for international sales. 

 

In most farms understory crops are planted to augment additional food or income. Coffee crops will be intercropped with root-crops locally known as “Saylan”, “Bisol” or “Taro” (Colocacia sp.). This provides additional income and food for the household and for livestock.

 

Since 2012, the communities have produced not only coffee, but more than 200,000 indigenous tree seedlings at the community nurseries. These seedlings provide stocks for tree planting activities within the watershed and other reforestation areas, but some were sold to private individuals or groups to provide income to the communities while also promoting native species reforestation.