General Nakar, Quezon

Background

General Nakar was a former barrio of Infanta that became a municipality in 1949 thru Executive Order 246. It has since become a 1st class municipality. The name is in honor of the late Guillermo P. Nakar, a hero of World War II. It is the northernmost and biggest town in the province of Quezon, with an estimated total area of 161,579 hectares, including the contested part, which is 17% of the province’s total land area. General Nakar[1] is south of Dingalan (Aurora), southeast of Don Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan, north of Real and Infanta, Quezon, east of Rodriguez, Antipolo City, Tanay (Rizal), and Norzagaray (Bulacan). It faces the Pacific Ocean, Polillo Straight and Lamon Bay on the eastern side, and its western boundary embraces the Sierra Madre Mountains. It lies between 121⁰15’ and 121⁰38’ east longitudes and 14⁰34’ and 15⁰13’ north latitudes.  Its highest peak is Mt. Malabito on the eastern border of Barangay Umiray. 

The municipality is mostly hilly and mountainous with approximately 133,299 hectares or 82% above 18% slope. Almost 40% are above 500 meters above sea level elevation and 60% are below 500 masl. Almost all of its 16 or 17 watersheds drain to the Pacific Ocean (refer to watershed map). With a very high rainfall rate of _____ per year the scale of erosion is wide (See Erosibility Map – reference in latter section) causing excessive siltation and flooding of downstream areas as evidenced by the great flood in 2004. After the 2004 catastrophic floods, the configuration of land and rivers further downstreams have slightly changed, areas for cultivation were reduced, and communities’ livelihood were disrupted. Indigenous communities were forced to relocate settlements closer to the coastal areas. Banks of rivers are almost at the periphery of high density urban housing areas. 

Of the 161,769 hectares total area of the municipality, 151,342 hectares or 94% are classified as forestlands. Three watersheds within its territory, namely Umiray, Kaliwa (part in Rizal) and Kanan watersheds have the capacity to supply water to nearby municipalities and even Metro Manila. Umiray River is supplying water to the Angat Dam through the 13-kilometer Umiray-Angat Transbasin Project tunnel to meet water demands of Metro Manila and agricultural lands in Bulacan. Kaliwa watershed supplies water to the Marikina Watershed that in turn supplies Metro Manila. Aside from this, the MWSS is prospecting to augment the 4,000 MLD supply of Angat Dam with 1000 MLD per day from the the Kanan watershed, because water demand in Metro Manila is expected to reach 5,200 MLD by 2015.

General Nakar is also an important biodiversity area. A large part of the Mt. Irid-Angelo, of the southern Sierra Madre Mountains, which is considered key biodiversity area (KBA: #18 or Mt Irid-Angelo Binuang, and Candidate KBAs: C12, C13, C14) for conservation under the international Convention on Biological Diversity[2], is within its boundaries (Conservation International-Philippines, DENR, and Haribon Foundation, 2006). However, most of the endemic flora and fauna in these areas are threatened and some have become rare and endangered brought about by disruption and fragmentation of their habitat. After the large-scale logging that ended in 1986, some forest lands were rapidly converted to other uses particularly upland agriculture. Kaingin increased brought about by migration by lowland settlers including those from neighboring provinces and regions. Confounding these is the small-scale illegal extraction of timber, charcoal production, and small-scale mining. From 1993 to 2005 alone, primarly forests in General Nakar declined by almost 45% (Haribon Foundation, 2010).