Managing and Conserving Lake Buhi: An Agroecosystems Analysis for Sustainable Development

The municipality of Buhi, which was declared as a watershed and forest reserve by virtue of Proclamation No. 573 on 6 June 1969, is one of the 35 municipalities in the province of Camarines Sur, Bicol Region. About 500 km. southeast of Manila, Buhi has 38 barangays, 10 of which surround Lake Buhi. As of 2003, the municipality had 81,342 inhabitants with an annual growth rate of 1.54 and a mean household size of 5.5. The Aeta are the prominent ethnic group living in the mountains of Buhi called Mt. Asog. They have made a legal claim of their ancestral domain, such that they have all the right to cultivate the said area.