MANILA, Philippines – Being a jewelry designer and gemologist by trade, it’s easy for German-Ilonggo Josef Sagemuller to spot diamonds in the rough. One such gem he has been polishing these past few years is the tropical jungle created by his parents 21 kilometers from Bacolod City.

“These are my parents’ legacy,” Josef says, gently patting a towering tree in his family’s vast property. “This land has been in my family for over a hundred years, but it certainly wasn’t this lush when my mother inherited it,” he grins. “My parents had to plant these trees in the late 60s because the soil had become unsuitable for agriculture. Illegal logging and the rampant practice of slash and burn farming had left the land barren.”

Josef’s trailblazing parents, Reinhard and Corazon Sagemuller painstakingly reforested 140 hectares of the land through the years, thereby creating an oasis the family now calls the Tambucol Sanctuary. Located at the foothills of Mt. Kanlaon , it is arguably not only the last lowland forest in Bago City, Negros Occidental, supplying communities with free water and irrigating 80 hectares of rice land, but it also provides a natural habitat for wildlife.

Hearing a shrill cry coming from the dimness of the jungle, Josef pauses, “That’s a Kingfisher, one of the 226 bird species we’ve recorded seeing here. Quite a number are resident and endemic. Some birds are endangered and quite rare.” he adds, glancing up into the Gmelina trees and pointing to a grey-streaked Flycatcher darting through the branches. “I’ve noticed that more migratory birds have started taking refuge here. That’s a good sign. I can almost hear Kevin Costner saying, “If you build it, they will come,” he adds with a chuckle.

At 35, Josef is the youngest of the Sagemuller brood. Despite sounding like a walking encyclopedia on trees, Josef is quick to deny that he is a flora and fauna expert. “Whatever I know today, I learned from my parents, experience and books. I owe a lot to the way I was raised. Mom always loved plants, while everyone in Papa’s family was an animal lover. In fact, my German paternal grandfather raised show chickens,” he shares. “I think my knowledge was also born of my eagerness to understand and protect the environment. My parents have always taught me to be respectful of all living things. Because of them, I learned that birds and trees do have the remarkable ability to make people feel good.”

Tabucol Sanctuary is the first satellite center of the Negros Forests and Ecological Foundation (NFEFI) in Bacolod City, an environmental NGO. Their conservation breeding program produced the first Visayan Tarictic Hornbills bred in captivity. The foundation needed a place where the animals could heal before being released into the wild.

“One of the functions of the Tabucol Sanctuary is to serve as a ’soft release’ site for the NFEFI’s birds and Philippine Leopard cats,” says Josef, slowly approaching a clearing where two Philippine hawk eagles are kept until they are ready to be released. The wooden cages are built around tree clusters with only nets to keep the animals contained.

“I have several other valuable wards I cater to 24/7,” laughs Josef, peering into a caged owl to check on its wing. “This has become a rehabilitation center for injured animals from time to time.”

Josef’s concerns cover more than just an occasional wounded animal. “I used to see monkeys swinging in the trees, but hunters have wiped out entire families of them. Wild birds are shot in the area for sport and traps are set to catch boars and deer. Some of them gnaw through their legs to break free.” He adds, “At one time 20,000 narra trees were cut down in less than a week in one of the more remote areas of the jungle by illegal loggers. The list of destruction goes on and on.”

Josef realizes there is a constant struggle between the needs of the local inhabitants and those of the natural environment, but he remains optimistic that people will learn from his family’s example. “My parents’ conservation efforts have allowed the sanctuary to take an entirely different evolutionary path, resulting in direct economic benefits for the locals. I cannot take on all the people who violate our country’s environmental laws or the ones who encroach on our property and leave irreversible damage in their wake, but I can try educating them to co-exist with nature without having to deplete our natural resources.” He adds with a twinkle in his eyes: “Who knows, I may one day be able to turn everyone into a happy tree hugger like me.”