CEBU CITY (PNA) – The Region 7 office here of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR 7) will implement a ban on bird hunting and introduction of new tree species within the Buhisan Watershed Forest Reserve in the wake of a caterpillar infestation in some 150 hectares of teak trees within the reserve.

“As part of the control measures, we will strictly implement the ‘no-hunting of birds’ within the Buhisan watershed as these birds are predators of these insects,” said DENR 7 Executive Director Leonardo Sibbaluca in a statement.

“We urge the community, local government officials and residents there to help us in enforcing the ban by reporting to us the violators,” he said.

Sibbaluca was referring to the teak skeletonizer (Eutectona machaeralis) or gravid moth, which has infested 80 hectares of the 150 hectares planted with teak trees.

The teak area represents 12.68 percent of the reserve’s total land area.

According to a team of foresters from the DENR’s Ecosystems Research and Development Service, the gravid moth’s larvae, which is the most destructive stage of the moth, consumes leaf tissues and leaves the veins intact.

Sibbaluca said the agency aims to plant new types of vegetation within the 631-hectare reserve, as one of the long-term measures to ensure biodiversity to curtail the spread of the infestation to other types of trees.

“Strip thinning of teak plantation by planting new or other type of species or multistory vegetation to diversify the pure stand of teak in the area is one of the long-term measures,” he said.