Bat sanctuary gets ‘Bambusetum’ support

The Monfort Bat Cave, recognized as the largest single colony of Geoffroy’s rousette fruit bats in the Guinness Book of World Records, received support to build a Bambusetum, a collection of bamboo plants.
The bat sanctuary is located at Barangay Tambo, Babak, Island Garden City of Samal that houses about 2.5 million bats.
Norma Monfort, founder and president of Monfort Bat Cave and Conservation Foundation, Inc., said at the sidelines of the Kapehan sa Dabaw at SM City, that they signed on Feb. 7, 2019 a memorandum of agreement with the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Bamboo Council of Davao del Norte for the bamboo garden.
After the signing, they immediately planted 100 bamboo seedlings.
“They started to plant already for the bambusetum. All species of bamboos will be in a sanctuary by the bat cave,” said Monfort in an interview.
“They are also going to build a livelihood training center with the technology from China to bamboo furniture. I am really happy about that because they chose the Monfort as a showcase,” she added.
Monfort expressed that all bamboo seedlings are generated by the government stakeholders. “They will provide all the bamboos that we need and the materials,” Monfort said.
Monfort also expressed that the Rotary Club was essential in bringing all the stakeholders together.
“The Bamboo Council of Davao del Norte chose the site and because I am the president of the Rotary South, I was able to tie up all of them because this is going to generate a livelihood project. It’s very exciting because we have the Rotary club side by side,” she said.
Aside from the bamboo trees, the Department of Agriculture also pledged to support the bat sanctuary with fruit trees.
Monfort also continued to push for the funding source of chiropturium, an artificial bat cave, for an alternative space for the bats to live. “Also, I submitted a global grant to Rotary International to build a much bigger chiroptorium,” she said. We really need that as soon as possible,” she said.