MANILA, Philippines?Catch glimpses of flying lizards, dragonflies and butterflies. Listen to mockingbirds chirp, and cheer on sea turtle hatchlings as they scamper from the sandy beach to the vast South China Sea.

Then, you might still have some time to take your kids on a ?flyby? through the forest at canopy level, 40 feet above the ground, zipping from tree to tree.

No, this isn?t a Discovery Channel film sequence. This happens right inside an Ayala Land Inc. sanctuary in Morong, Bataan?a sanctuary to animals unique to the area and a sanctuary to the lucky few who can afford it. One of its recreational cum learning area is a vast forest that functions as an eco-adventure backyard.

ALI?s first leisure community

Anvaya Cove is ALI?s first leisure community. ALI boasts that it is an eco-sensitive development.

With joint development partner Sudeco (real estate holding company), ALI uses its characteristic obsession to details in masterplanning a high-end community with Asian tropical architecture as theme.

The developer has utilized the template of a 320-hectare area of forested foothills rolling down from a backdrop of mountains meeting the sea for its Anvaya Cove family leisure community.

Wanting it to be as low impact of a development as possible, the developer created guidelines that would adapt to the natural lay of the land to ensure the preservation of wide open areas. The Cove is characterized by rolling hills of mango and narra trees and bamboo groves. It has a peak elevation of 130 meters above sea level.

Ayala pointed out that it avoided tampering with the natural groves of mango trees during development even if the area offered tempting lease opportunities. Around the mango grove alone, a 10,000-square-meter Mango Grove Park was built to protect over 30- to 50-year-old mango trees.

Anvaya Cove?s water exploration area was also moved farther out, since the area originally chosen was found out to have nesting eagle owls.

And then the nesting grounds of sea turtles (pawikan) also had to be ?shorelined? delineated for protection from potential beachcombers. Furthermore, on the other side of the cove, which forms a second cove, an elevated pond had also been declared a sanctuary of Philippine mallards (ducks).

?It?s a good home. We get a lot of help from the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines in terms of identifying which species are here. The group also identifies which trees are their habitats. We avoid habitats identified,? said resident tour guide Angeline Vigo.

Shout out for hatchlings

Security guards, who were the first to be assigned on site, were given additional training by the World Wildlife Fund and the Bantay Pawikan Inc, a community-based conservation center in Morong, on how to take care of the eggs left behind by the parent sea turtles. The guards collect the eggs during their patrol, put them in a small hatchery, and after 40 to 60 days (depending on the temperature), they hatch and crawl back to the water.

Vigo recounted how she was able to make all the Anvaya members and their children fall in line and have them witness the release of the baby sea turtles.

Membership first

You would have to become a member of the Anvaya Cove Beach and Nature Club first before acquiring residential lots at The Cliffside or the Seaside Villas.

A prospective resident can also choose to build a home at the Anvaya Cove?s second neighborhood?the Mango Grove?which offers the highest elevation among all the neighborhoods. Anvaya Cove?s third neighborhood offering is the Wood Park with elevation ranging from 50 to 95 meters above sea level.

From the marketing pavilion where the Inquirer Property was briefed, the Zambales mountain range loomed, and the Bataan boundary lay in the north. Anvaya is bordered by Zambales and South China Sea on the west.

Inquirer Property was able to take the nature trek with its winding paths and trails, and saw?aside from a flying lizard and a mockingbird?various medicinal and poisonous plants, vines that seemed to be snakes twisting around trees and on pathways, and gigantic roots from centuries-old trees. It?s the perfect place for deep-breathing, and you get to earn a ?nature badge? after exploring the forest.

Anvaya Cove is an additional 20-minute drive from Subic, and two-and-a-half hours from Metro Manila.

A couple of dive sites would also form part of Ayala?s future projects, and residents are encouraged to rehabilitate or preserve the coral gardens to inculcate in them a sense of ownership and responsibility for nature.

Preserve ecological balance

Future homeowners would definitely have to pitch in and preserve the ecological balance of the place, Ayala?s project masterplanners have stressed. Though the project may have deliberately been executed for minimum environmental impact, a certain level of environmental disturbance, especially on the coral reefs, had been observed.

?Anvaya? means family in Sanskrit. Thus, Anvaya Cove is designed for the family, and targets activities for children and teenagers.

Vigo related that local knowledge of Morong?s long-time residents would be incorporated into the Anvaya experience. She revealed that a number of Anvaya Cove?s lifeguards were former fishermen, so they have a thorough knowledge of the coast.

She said that developing a technology park (an option mulled over before Ayala came in) with factories was ?not bad, per se, but if you look at this area (Morong), it?s really best suited for ecotourism.?

?This is a more palatable development in terms of perception of our locals because we really don?t want our town destroyed by the influx of industrial locators,? Vigo quipped.