A Forest of Hope Takes Root in Monkayo
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Camera traps at the heart of the Monkayo Pag-asa Carbon Forest recently captured two quiet but powerful signs of recovery: a Japanese Night Heron, an IUCN Vulnerable species, moving through the restoration site, and a Mindanao Squirrel leaping from one young tree to another.
During bird monitoring, another forest gem appeared: the South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher, a Mindanao endemic whose bright colors seem almost unreal against the green shadows of a recovering forest.
These were brief field records, but they tell a larger story. In a place that was once an agricultural patch, wildlife is beginning to return, move, perch, forage, and find cover. The trees are no longer just planted trees. They are becoming habitat.
This is the story of the Monkayo Pag-asa Carbon Forest, or MPCF, a 22.4-hectare restoration site in Purok Santol, Barangay Banlag, Monkayo, Davao de Oro. Before it became a carbon forest, the land was planted with corn, banana, sweet potato, coconut, rubber, and scattered fruit trees. Today, it is being restored into a native forest that can store carbon, support wildlife, provide green jobs, and become a living classroom for conservation.
The forest carries the name Pag-asa, after the world’s first captive-bred Philippine Eagle, who died in 2021. His name also means hope. For the Philippine Eagle Foundation, this name is both memory and mission. It honors a bird that changed Philippine conservation history, while carrying forward the belief that damaged landscapes can still recover when people choose to care for them.
The beginning of MPCF was an act of generosity. Inspired by a documentary on the Philippine Eagle, the Yap family donated the land to PEF for forest and biodiversity conservation. The agreement was clear: the land would not be sold or leased. It would be restored and protected.
Tree planting officially began on March 28, 2022. Since then, MPCF has reached one of its most important milestones: 19,597 trees planted. These trees represent more than 80 native and endemic species, selected to help restore the site’s original lowland dipterocarp forest character. The project uses rainforestation and modified Miyawaki approaches, combining pioneer, mid-successional, and slower-growing forest species to rebuild forest layers over time.
But MPCF is not a plant-and-leave project. Its real story is in the care that happens after planting day.
Since 2022, the Banlag Santol Kinaiyahan Workers Association, or BASAKWA, has been at the center of the work. BASAKWA members help collect wildlings, raise seedlings, haul planting materials, prepare the land, plant trees, maintain restoration plots, and monitor survival. The association is composed of members from 45 local families, making restoration not only an ecological effort but also a source of green jobs, skills, and livelihood support.
Local knowledge also shapes the work on the ground. BASAKWA members help identify familiar native species, manage bamboo clumps, plant lemon grass to reduce soil erosion, and use coconut husks and wood debris as mulch. These simple materials help control weeds, retain moisture, and enrich the soil without depending on synthetic chemicals.
This is one of MPCF’s strongest commitments. The project does not use invasive alien trees, genetically modified organisms, pesticides, or synthetic chemical inputs. Instead, the young forest is supported through regular watering, round weeding, mulching, shade management, pruning, staking, and close monitoring.
The nursery has become one of the site’s most important assets. It now holds more than 200,000 seedlings, many grown from seeds, cuttings, and wildlings collected within or near the restoration area. This helps ensure that the trees planted in MPCF are suited to the local landscape and climate.
Across the years, the forest has begun to respond.
Bird surveys, camera trapping, and field observations have documented 45 bird species at MPCF, including the Japanese Night Heron and the South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher. Seven amphibian and reptile species, most of them endemic, have also been recorded. In May 2025, the site became a sanctuary for rescued wildlife when the Monkayo Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office released seven Philippine forest turtles there. Some have since been detected again.
These records matter because restoration is not measured by tree numbers alone. A forest is not only a collection of trunks and leaves. A forest is movement, shelter, food, shade, moisture, and connection. It is a heron walking through cover. It is a kingfisher holding its place in the understory. It is a squirrel crossing from one tree to another because the young forest has begun to give it a path.
That is why the Mindanao Squirrel's leap is more than a charming camera-trap moment. It is a small sign that the structure of the forest is changing. The gaps are narrowing. The trees are growing into each other. Wildlife is beginning to use the space in the way a forest should be used.
MPCF’s milestones are also institutional.
In April 2023, the Municipality of Monkayo officially declared MPCF as a Local Conservation Area within its Comprehensive Land Use Plan, Forest Land Use Plan, and zoning ordinance. Through a Memorandum of Agreement with PEF, supported by Monkayo SB Resolution No. 97, the local government committed to help protect, promote, and enrich the site.
This recognition gives the restoration work a stronger future. Many restoration projects struggle because land tenure, local policy, and long-term financing are uncertain. MPCF is different. The land is owned by PEF, recognized by the local government, supported by barangay partners, and linked with the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office of Davao de Oro.
Every March 28, PEF marks MPCF Day, commemorating the official launch of the partnership in 2022. It is an annual reminder that forests do not return in a single planting day. They return through years of watering, weeding, monitoring, replacing losses, protecting young trees, and bringing people back to the land again and again.
Across the years, the work has grown through partnerships. The LGU of Monkayo, Globe, Cantilan Bank, TDCX, Reduce Reuse Grow, Rotary partners, NCCC Davao, SGS, Makati Development Corporation, and individual tree adopters through PEF’s Planting for the Future program have helped sustain nursery care, land preparation, planting, maintenance, and monitoring. More than 860 volunteers from 10 organizations and institutions have also joined restoration and nursery activities at the site.
Because of this, MPCF has become more than a restoration area. It is now a field classroom. Students, civic groups, companies, local government staff, and community partners come to learn how forest restoration works beyond ceremonial planting. They see the nursery. They help in the field. They understand that growing a forest is slow, practical, and deeply human work.
The next chapter is already forming. MPCF is being envisioned as a future site for PEF’s Conservation Academy, where local and international interns can gain hands-on experience in forest restoration, biodiversity monitoring, and species conservation. It is also being developed with long-term potential to support future rescue and rehabilitation work for Philippine Eagles.
For now, the strongest proof of progress may still be found in the quiet field signs: a Vulnerable Japanese Night Heron captured by a camera trap, a Mindanao endemic kingfisher recorded during monitoring, a pygmy squirrel caught mid-leap between trees.
These are not small details. They are milestones.
They show that the Monkayo Pag-asa Carbon Forest is becoming more than a planted area. It is becoming habitat.
Named after Pag-asa, the forest now carries his legacy in living form: hope taking root, growing taller, and slowly making room for wildlife to return.
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