The Kalahan sanctuaries: Promoting biodiversity

The Kalahan Reserve was established by a negotiated contract between the Ikalahan People and the Philippine Government. The contract, which was signed on May 13, 1974, was simply labeled Memorandum of Agreement # 1 (MOA#1) because it had no precedent. In that contract the Government was represented by the Bureau of Forest Development (BFD) and the Ikalahan were represented by the Kalahan Educational Foundation (KEF), a corporation which they established in 1973 for that purpose. The original MOA expired in 1999 but was immediately renewed with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which had replaced the former BFD.