Location
| Land Area | Land Use |
Topography | Soil & Mineral
| Climate
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Sarangani, the Mindanao’s front door to
BIMP-EAGA, is the southernmost province in mainland Mindanao.
It is cut midway by General Santos City, giving its two sections
hammock-like shapes that hug the mountains and Sarangani Bay.
Sarangani is surrounded by the Celebes Sea,
Sarangani Bay, and the provinces of South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat
and Davao del Sur.
The province is also the coastal zone of SOCSKSARGEN
(South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, General Santos City),
one of the country’s fast growing development clusters.
It has seven municipalities (Alabel, Malapatan,
Glan, Malungon, Maasim, Kiamba, and Maitum) with 140 barangays.
Alabel, the provincial capital, is only 16 kilometers from General
Santos City.
With the province’s strategic geographical
location, it has great potential of becoming an industrial zone
in Region 12.
Sarangani has a total land area of 4,100.42
square kilometers. Among the municipalities comprising the province,
Malungon is the biggest with 896.63 sq. km. followed by Glan.
Maitum is the smallest with only 324.35 sq. km.
Part of Sarangani's vast forest lands
About 66 percent of the province’s total
land area is a forest land. Half of this is highly cultivated
for corn. These are in Malungon, Maasim, Malapatan, and Glan.
The province has vast forest cover with 30 percent
of the province’s total forest lands while 37 percent
is classified as alienable and disposable (A & D).
Dense forest cover is located at the western
side touching South Cotabato. The widest is found in the municipality
of Kiamba with 87 percent of the municipality’s total
forestland. Alabel is noted to have enormously denuded forestland
with 32.49 sq. km. remaining forest cover.
Grassland forms 19 percent of the total forestland found in
Alabel, and Maasim, mostly idled except for the latter’s
pastural activities.
Two percent of the total forestland figure is
croplands and coco estate distributed throughout the municipalities
while Glan, Maitum, and Malapatan are known for their vast coconut
plantations.
Flatlands, rolling hills, and mountains characterized
Sarangani’s terrain. The coastal towns of Alabel, Glan,
Maasim, Malapatan, Kiamba, and Maitum are made up of vast stretches
of fertile flatlands with slope ranging from 0 to 8 percent.
Mountains and rolling hills dominate the landscape
of Malungon and the eastern and southern fringes of Sarangani,
which border Davao del Sur and South Cotabato.
The province’s topographic characteristics
are attributed to the presence of Alip Range, Daguma Range,
Mt. Parker and Mt. Matutum. Mt. Busa, the highest peak located
within the province has an approximate elevation of 2,083m above
sea level.
Soil types of the province range from loam,
sandy loam, fine sandy loam, silty clay loam, clay loam, and
mountain clay soil. The province has also rich deposits of precious
metallic and non-metallic minerals such as gold, copper, iron,
silica, limestone, cement lime, coal, marble, gypsum, phosphate
rock, sandstone, white pebbles and guano.
Northeast monsoon and southwest monsoon are
the prevailing wind directions of Sarangani Province. These
are respectively from the months of November to March and June
to October.
There is no distinct dry and wet season in the
area. Average rainfall is 28oC evenly distributed throughout
the year. Thus, Sarangani is considered a typhoon belt area.
Annual rainfall is 79.6mm with 78 percent relative humidity.
April is hottest month while January is
coldest.
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