In Infanta, Quezon, the story of mangrove conservation did not begin with a grand tourism plan or a large environmental program.

It began with people who had seen what happened when the forest disappeared. Fishponds replaced mangroves. Trees were cut for charcoal. Fish became harder to catch. Mudcrabs became less common. Flooding exposed the community to the consequences of damaged coastal ecosystems.

For the people who would eventually form the Alitas Farmers and Fisherfolks Association or AFFA and the Binonoan Producers Cooperative or BIPCO, protecting the mangroves was not an abstract environmental campaign. –> It was about survival.

Decades later, the results can be seen in the forests they helped restore, the wildlife that returned, the livelihoods now linked to conservation, and a younger generation taking over the work.

Their stories also offer a practical lesson for communities hoping to build their own organizations around tourism, environmental protection, livelihood, or social development.

Community ownership did not happen at the beginning. It had to be built.

From Fishponds Back to Forest

When Quintin Aveno began working with fellow farmers and fisherfolk in Alitas, much of the area was devoted to fishponds.

For communities dependent on fishing, aquaculture appeared to offer an obvious source of livelihood. But Aveno and his fellow community members eventually saw the limitations.

Fishponds could produce, but they occupied a defined space and offered limited ecological functions. Mangrove forests were different.

They provided habitat for fish and other marine life, protected coastal areas, and supported a wider ecosystem. Aveno recalls a time when fishing was difficult. Today, the story is different.

As mangrove areas recovered, the community began seeing more fish, mudcrabs and other species. What had once looked like land with little immediate economic value began producing benefits that extended beyond a single harvest.

For Aveno, this became one of the strongest arguments for restoration. The community had experienced the difference itself. That experience became their message.

AFFA Began With 17 People

The organization that would become AFFA started as a different formalized group with 17 members.

The group emerged at a time when larger capitalists were interested in converting more areas in Infanta into fishponds.

Aveno and other community members challenged that direction.

He also recalled instances when mangrove trees were being cut despite the absence of official approval from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. The challenge was not simply stopping people from cutting trees. The larger task was convincing the community that keeping the forest could provide greater long-term value than converting every available area into production ponds. That required persistence.

AFFA reached out to appropriate government offices and worked toward changing the designation and management of areas that had been devoted primarily to aquaculture.

The Hardest Part Was Changing the Community Mindset

One of the most important lessons from Aveno’s experience is that community ownership cannot simply be declared. People have to see a reason to participate.

For AFFA, that reason came through years of observing the connection between mangrove rehabilitation and livelihood. Aveno repeatedly communicated the value of mangrove forests. The message had to be sustained. It had to be repeated across generations. It also had to move beyond meetings and paperwork and become part of everyday community life.

As of writing, Aveno is approaching his 70th birthday. His son, Sheruin Aveno, is now the elected president of AFFA.

That succession says something about the organization’s development. The conservation work did not stop with its founder. It moved into the next generation.

Aveno said he has continued teaching his children about managing the mangrove ecosystem. He believes early exposure to nature conservation can shape how young people view the environment later in life.

For him, this is also a response to a changing generation.

Young people now have access to new technology, artificial intelligence and industrial-related livelihood opportunities. Those opportunities can change how they relate to their communities and natural surroundings.

Aveno’s answer is to introduce conservation early. If young people grow up understanding the value of the ecosystem, he believes they are more likely to carry that responsibility forward.

In Binonoan, The Forest Welcomed Something Unexpected

Several kilometers and community stories away, another organization was following a similar path.

Marcial Coronacion, founder of BIPCO, remembers a different set of environmental problems.

In the 1970s, portions of the original Binonoan area were heavily affected by the harvesting of mangrove wood for charcoal. The damage eventually became visible to the community. The loss of mangroves affected the ecosystem and the people depending on it. Rehabilitation efforts later began through government programs, initially involving individuals before moving toward organized community participation.

That transition eventually helped create a stronger role for people’s organizations. For Coronacion, organizing the community was a way of giving conservation a structure.

The group could coordinate members, communicate with government agencies, manage the area and create a system where the community itself had a stake in protecting the forest. But nobody expected one of the most interesting results of their rehabilitation work.

The giant fruit bats found their new home in Binonoan.

The Unexpected Arrival of the Fruit Bats

In 2014, giant fruit bats began appearing in the rehabilitated mangrove forest as the new residents.

At first, the community thought there was only one species.

After two years of study authored by biologist Paul John S. Tolentino, he identified three different fruit bat species. The Acerodon jubatus which is the Golden-Crowned Flying Fox which is the largest bat in the world by weight, the Pteropus vampyrus or the Giant Flying Fox that has the largest wingspan of any bat and the Pteropus hypomelanus or the Island Flying Fox which is the smallest of the 3 new fruit bat residents in mangrove forests of Binonoan.

The fruit bats had found a place where they could live with less disturbance.

That discovery gave the mangrove forest another ecological role. Fruit bats are efficient and prolific seed dispersers, according to SLSU Professor Dr. Violeto Coronacion. Their movements can help spread fruit seeds across large areas. Dr. Coronacion also said that a biodiversity study is necessary about the effects of increasing population of these incredible flying mammals in the immediate area. I see the study as a precursor for niche explorer communities such as bird watchers and reptilian documenters to gain interest in the mangrove ecosystem of Infanta.

A 2024 study cited by the Sir Marcial found through GPS tagging that the feeding range of the fruit bats can extend roughly 50 kilometers, reaching areas toward Rizal province, Polillo Island and as far as Aurora province and crossing the Sierra Madre range.

For BIPCO, the significance goes beyond having fruit bats in a mangrove forest. These flying mammals are part of a larger ecological system. Their movement can contribute to the dispersal of indigenous fruit-bearing trees, linking coastal conservation with forests farther inland.

The community had begun restoring one ecosystem. They were seeing connections that extended much farther and further.

Conservation Can Become a Source of Income

BIPCO needed tourism to further increase the income stream of the association. Visitors can come to the area and learn about the mangrove ecosystem and its bats. Entrance fees provide funds that can help maintain the site while also contributing to family livelihoods.

This created another important connection –> Conservation could generate income –>Tourism could finance conservation.

And visitors, YOU, could become part of the message.

“You play an important role in the continued conservation of these mangrove forests.”

The organization used tourism activities as a way to explain why the mangrove forest needs to remain protected and why communities across the Philippines can benefit from restoring similar ecosystems. This is where BIPCO’s community-based approach becomes particularly relevant to other organizations.

The forest is not treated simply as a tourist attraction. The tourism activity supports the work of protecting the resource that visitors came to see.

According to Dr. Violeto Coronacion, there is an ongoing study with researchers from Japan to find solutions for sustained income in nature conservation and preservation. This is crucial. I see the study to be an added model of success for more Community-based managements around our country.

The Birth Pains of Community Ownership

BIPCO’s transformation did not happen overnight. Coronacion had already been involved in local leadership by the late 1990s, when he became punong barangay. He encountered proposals and studies concerning the effects of fishpond operations in the identified 17-hectare area.

One decision became particularly important. He refused to sign the assessor’s land survey and proposal to convert the area into fishponds because, according to his account, the community had not given its consent. That decision was bigger than a signature. It reflected an emerging principle.

A community should have a voice in decisions affecting the resources on which it depends.

Coronacion pushed for the formation of a cooperative so that community participation could be organized and formally represented. The organization eventually evolved from BIDECO into BIPCO. BIDECO had initially focused on agriculture.

After the devastating 2004 Infanta flooding, members gained a deeper understanding of the role mangroves could play in protecting the community. Mangrove rehabilitation became a larger part of its work.

The lesson here is significant for communities forming their own organizations. A people’s organization does not have to begin with a perfect structure. It can evolve as members learn, experience setbacks and respond to changing community needs.

From Three Communities to a Shared Conservation Effort

BIPCO, AFFA and the Binulasan community-based forest management group eventually became partners of the Infanta local government in rehabilitating and protecting the municipality’s mangroves.

That partnership created another layer of community ownership. The organizations were no longer working in isolation. Government provide institutional support. Communities could provide local knowledge, participation and day-to-day stewardship.

Tourism could provide an additional source of income and public education. Researchers could help document ecological changes. Each sector had a role.

The community remained at the center.

This model also explains why international visitors have taken interest in AFFA’s work. Aveno said international benchmarking groups have been surprised by the level of participation of people’s organizations in the success of their conservation mission.

For the community, that participation was earned over years. It was built through repeated work, communication and direct experience.

The Watchtower That Came From a Product Competition

BIPCO’s bat watchtower provides another example of how community initiatives can grow through small wins.

The organization had won the Niyogyugan Best Product Championship three times. The prize money was eventually used to fund the bat watchtower, and also the Shared Facility for Infanta Suman Production, according to Ms. Claire Oliva of the Infanta Quezon Culture, Heritage, Arts and Tourism Office.

For visitors, the structure is now part of the tourism experience. It features a watchtower where tourists can see the giant fruit bats from a safe distance.

For BIPCO, it represents something else. It is a physical reminder that income generated through community activities can be directed back into conservation.

The Real Product Is Community Ownership

It would be easy to look at AFFA and BIPCO and focus only on their mangrove forests, wildlife and tourism activities.

The more important story is the people behind them.

Neither organization became a functioning community-based model simply because a government program provided a project area.

The members had to participate. They had to argue for their position. They had to work with government agencies. They had to deal with changing livelihoods. They had to convince other people that conservation could produce tangible benefits that is sustainable. They had to keep the message alive long enough for younger generations to inherit it.

That is the difficult part of community-based development. Infrastructure can be constructed. A tourism site can be promoted. An organization can be registered. But community ownership requires something deeper. People need to believe that the resource belongs to their collective future and that protecting it benefits their families. I think AFFA and BIPCO gradually reached that point through years of participation.

A Forest That Remembers the People Who Saved It

The story of Infanta’s mangrove forests is ultimately a story about persistence.

Sir Quintin Aveno said their original organization started with merely 17 people.

Sir Marcial Coronacion pushed for organized community participation when decisions about the 17-hectare area could have gone in another direction.

Their organizations survived leadership changes, environmental problems and changing economic conditions. Some of the original AFFA members have already passed away. Yet the organization continues, although name has change, but still with the same spirit.

At BIPCO, the forest that was once damaged by excessive harvesting became a habitat for fruit bats. The fruit bats became an attraction. The attraction became part of a tourism program. Tourism became another source of support for conservation.

And the conservation message reached people who might otherwise never have seen the connection between a mangrove forest, a bat, a fisherfolk family and a mountain forest hundreds of kilometers away.

And those benefits create a reason for the next generation to continue the work.

AFFA and BIPCO show that community ownership is not something an organization receives on its first day. It is something people build, decision by decision, season by season and generation by generation.

In Infanta, that long effort has produced mangrove forests where fish can return, bats can find shelter, families can earn, visitors can learn and communities can see the value of protecting what they once risked losing.

The most important achievement may be the forest itself. But behind that forest is something harder to measure.

A community that decided it was worth protecting.