Forest Endowment

The forest is a strategic conservation resource. The forest ecosystem acts as a major life support system of the environment, and any unwanted disturbance in its endowments will affect the functions of the other parts of the system.

The term forest resources covers natural forestland as well as the artificial forest or tree plantations in forest land. Forest land, however includes all land under the public domain with or without actual forest. Currently, the forest lands in the province account for 45.7% of the total land area of 870,660 hectares.

Protected Areas

The declared protected areas in Quezon Province are the Mount Banahaw-San Cristobal Natural Park (Lucban, Dolores, Sariaya, Candelaria, and Sampaloc), Quezon National Park (Pagbilao and Atimonan), the Minasawa Island Wildlife Santuary (Burdeos), and the Alibijaban Island (San Andres). More sites are being studied, with documents being processed, and resolutions being forwarded for their possible declaration as protected areas.

By and large, the forest areas occupying these protected sites are the remaining forest stands of the province or a low 9% of the total forest lands of 398,299 hectares, or 4% of the total land mass of the province. The forest situation is in a critical stage, which could have already reached the threshold limit of the forest to non-forest land ratio.