Below is an article published by Sun Star:

Seventeen graduating human ecology students of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) provided a big lift to the realization of the watershed management plan of the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) regional office, particularly in the heavily denuded forests of Mount Data plateau.

The UPLB students were immersed in the communities surrounding the critical Bayudan River in Bauko, Mountain Province for one and a half months to study the cultural situation and formulate the needed information and education campaign (IEC) modules for the watershed rehabilitation and management plan.

NIA Regional Director Abraham Akilit said the newly formulated IEC modules are designed for the elementary and secondary students in Cordillera so they would be trained at a young age to value the importance of preserving the environment for the benefit of future generations.

He added that the UP students have presented convincing IEC modules which would be distributed to all elementary and secondary schools in Mountain Province to serve as additional educational materials for the students.

The NIA recently crafted an ambitious watershed rehabilitation and management plan to reinvigorate the heavily denuded forests of the region to ensure the continuous supply of water for domestic and irrigation purposes.

Numerous government and private groups in the region already expressed their all-out support to the adopted plan as they are all alarmed by the rapid depletion of water supply along the major rivers brought about by massive deforestation activities.

The groups and officials that extended support to the plan include the Regional Development Council (RDC), Regional Multi-Sectoral Forest Management Committee (RMSFMC), different provincial Agrarian Reform Committees (ARCs), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), various farmers and irrigators associations in the region, Benguet Governor Borromeo Melchor and Mountain Province Governor Maximo Dalog.

The UPLB is one of the partners of the NIA in the implementation of its various programs and projects designed to promote and improve the agriculture sector of the country.

Akilit admitted that the new introduction of watershed management in their program is considered as a shift in their traditional and conservative approach but it is really the call of the times due to the alarming state of forests in Cordillera.

One of the major activities lined up is the planting of over 200,000 various species of seedlings in the 16 barangays surrounding the dying Bayudan River to ensure continuous water supply even during the dry season.