The Tasaday’s uncharted rainforest in 1971

Map of 45,000-acre reservation proclaimed in 1972

    In April of 1972, in response to a request from Manuel Elizalde and Charles Lindbergh, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos proclaimed a 19,246 hectare (45,000 acre) reserve for the exclusive use of the Tasaday and their nearest neighbors, the Manobo Blit,who lived at the edge of the forest. The reserve was intended to be large enough to include the other groups with whom the Tasasday inter-married, the Sanduka and Tasafeng.

    Rainforest covered a large portion of the reserve, blanketing the sawtooth mountains at elevations from 3,000 to 4,000 feet. This was about 50 miles inland from the Celebes Sea, and an uncertain distance  from the nearest towns of Lake Sebu and Surallah. The only roads were  partly completed logging roads, and the distance to be travelled through jungle and forest and over mountains was incalcuble.  

The proclaimed area was uncharted and pristine with mostly primary growth; the only secondary growth appeared to be the result of landslides, lightning strikes and fires    The logging companies who had claims on the land and whose roads were approaching it were angry and disappointed because the reserve proclamation prohibited them or any other developers from harvesting the forest’s abundant stands of timber and rich store of minerals. The rainforest’s 200-foot-high hardwood trees were considered extremely valuable, and the lure of riches inspired many efforts to obtain the land from the Tasaday.

    The forest had great value also for the many thousand of residents in surrounding lowland valleys for whom it formed a major share of the watershed serving the region. Protection of the forest was imperative in a country replete with stories of tropical rains causing mountain slopes denuded by logging to erode and release mudslides that buried villages with considerable loss of life.

(L to R) fog shrouds mountainous interior forest 1974;  Lobo picks fruit along jungled stream,1972, and forest remains instact in 2005.

Government Grants a 46,000-acre Reserve

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