Bilar Eco-Park

Overview

The Bilar Eco-Park is a wildlife-viewing facility within the man-made mahogany forest on the Loboc–Bilar boundary in central Bohol — what the BPTO calls “the place where one can see and experience the beauty of wildlife.”

The surrounding forest is a roughly two-kilometre run of planted mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla), seeded as a reforestation project through the late 1960s and into the 1970s. The uniformly spaced canopy measurably cools the air beneath it, a noticeable drop from the open road. The forest itself is the more widely known attraction; the eco-park operates within or beside it.

The Bilar Tarsier sanctuary sits nearby, within the same municipality.

Location

Barangay Villa Aurora, Municipality of Bilar, Bohol. The man-made forest and eco-park lie along the Tagbilaran–Carmen highway (the road connecting Tagbilaran City to the Chocolate Hills), approximately 40 km from Tagbilaran. The site sits at the boundary between Loboc and Bilar municipalities.

Getting There

From Tagbilaran City, take a bus or van bound for Carmen or Sagbayan. The man-made forest / Bilar Eco-Park is along the main highway — most tour circuits and buses to the Chocolate Hills pass directly through. Travel time from Tagbilaran is approximately 1 hour.

Practical Info

• The man-made forest is roadside and accessible without a formal entrance
• As of January 2020, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) confirmed collection of an environmental fee for the man-made forest area (part of the Loboc Watershed Forest Reserve): PHP 30 for local (Filipino) visitors and PHP 100 for foreign visitors, authorized under DENR Administrative Order 2016-24 and formally adopted by the Protected Area Management Board in June 2019. [TO ENRICH: whether this PENRO fee is the same fee that applies to the Eco-Park specifically, or a separate charge — sources describe the fee in relation to the man-made forest/watershed reserve generally, not the eco-park by name.]
• Roadside stops for photos are common; the canopy road is a standard itinerary point
• The forest temperature drop is most pronounced midday during dry season
• Posted opening hours are 7:00 AM–5:00 PM daily, per aggregator listings tied to the same location; not independently confirmed by an official park or LGU source (see Notes)

What to Expect

The mahogany canopy forms a tunnel over the road, close-planted rows producing dense overhead cover — one of the most photographed images in Bohol tourism. The eco-park itself centers on wildlife viewing, though the exact species on display aren’t confirmed in the sources checked.

Bilar municipality also holds the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape, Logarita Spring, Duangon Cold Spring, Pangas Falls, and the Bilar Tarsier sanctuary — enough for a half-day combined circuit from Tagbilaran.

Notes

• Sources: https://guidetothephilippines.ph/destinations-and-attractions/bilar-manmade-forest; https://philippines.travel/activities/bilar-man-made-forest/index; https://forevervacation.com/bohol/man-made-forest

• The man-made forest entity (bilar-man-made-forest) is a separate record; this entity covers the eco-park specifically

• Opening hours (7:00 AM–5:00 PM) per Trip.com — Bilar Eco Park and Hiking Trail and its Singapore mirror, accessed 2026-07-28. Both list the same address (M38M+VRJ, Loboc, Bohol) and the same hours; this is aggregator/Google-Maps-sourced business-listing data, not an official park or LGU confirmation, so it’s noted with that caveat rather than stated as fully verified.

• [FACT NEEDED: species list for the eco-park’s wildlife-viewing component specifically]

• 2026-07-28 research round (fresh angle: TripAdvisor, Trip.com, Facebook, personal blogs, and cross-checking neighboring Bilar wildlife facilities): Bilar/Loboc hosts several distinct wildlife-adjacent facilities that are easy to confuse with “Bilar Eco-Park” but are not it — the Bohol Tarsier Conservation Area (already a separate entity per this file), the Rajah Sikatuna Protected Landscape, and the Bohol Habitat Conservation Center (formerly “Simply Butterflies,” Bilar; ~200 recorded butterfly species). None of these sources name “Bilar Eco-Park” itself as the location of a confirmed species roster. The park’s Facebook page (facebook.com/bilar.ecotour/) and a TripAdvisor review page (tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g1082590-d1124042-r323084604-Mahogany_Forest) both returned no accessible content (blank/403). A first-person blog, Maria Mercedes, “Bilar Eco Park”, accessed 2026-07-28, mentions seeing “the popular tarsiers” at Bilar Eco Park but the author states she did not actually enter the park (photographed the forest from outside only) — not a confirmed species list. Tag left in place; the eco-park’s own wildlife roster remains unconfirmed as distinct from its wildlife-themed neighbors.

• PENRO-fee TO ENRICH item, re-checked 2026-07-28: the original https://www.boholchronicle.com.ph/2020/01/13/denr-confirms-collection-of-environmental-fee-at-bilar-man-made-forest/ URL now 404s; a fresh search surfaced only re-summaries of the same underlying article, still describing the fee as applying to the “Loboc Watershed Forest Reserve which includes the dense man-made forest,” with passersby/road users on the national highway explicitly exempted — still no source names the eco-park by name. The same Maria Mercedes blog above states, in her own hedged words, “they have an environmental entrance fee which is I think more or less Php 50 only” for the eco-park itself — a different figure from the PHP 30/100 PENRO man-made-forest fee, which would support the two being separate charges, but a single blogger’s imprecise recollection (“I think more or less”) isn’t a credible enough source to write into the body as fact. Tag left in place.

• PENRO confirms collection of entrance fee at Bilar man-made forest, accessed 2026-07-17 (note: this URL 404’d on re-check 2026-07-28; content still referenced via search-result re-summaries, see above).