DENR NAMES 29 PRIORITY AREAS FOR COMMUNITY

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
Thursday, 20 October 2016 00:00 |

The environment and natural resources department has identified 29 areas to transform
into "income-generating sites" to improve the lives of marginalized communities through
the agency's AREA MANAGEMENT PROGRAM (AMP), according to its chief, Regina Paz
Lopez.
The DENR chief said that through the AMP, the agency will make these identified areas selfsustaining in a well-protected environment, and with people happy because they are free
from hunger and poverty.
"The AMP will provide alternative sources of livelihood that promote the preservation of the
environment and natural resources," Lopez added.
Of the 29 priority areas, 13 are located in Luzon, 6 in Visayas and 10 in Mindanao.
The AMP areas in Luzon are Chico River and Mt. Pulag in the Cordillera Administrative
Region; Zambales; Laur in Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija; Sierra Madre in Cagayan; Sierra
Madre in Nueva Ecija; Kaliwa Watershed in Marikina and Sierra Madre; Batangas Coastline
and Verde Passage; Laguna Lake; Palawan; Sibuyan Island; Romblon; Occidential and
Oriental Mindoro; and Sorsogon.
The priority areas in Visayas are the provinces of Guimaras, Antique, Samar, Bohol and
Cebu, and the city of Iloilo.
Saranggani, Caraga-Cantilan, South Upi, Marilog, Mt. Hamiguitan/Mati, Talaingog in Davao
del Norte, Rajah Buayan, Dinagat Island, Tawi-Tawi, and Lanao del Sur make up the areas in
Mindanao.
The areas will be evaluated based on available resources, as well as needs and
requirements, which will become the basis in determining possible livelihood opportunities
similar to those in established ecotourism zones like the La Mesa Ecopark in Quezon City,
and Ugong Rock and Iwahig Firefly Watching in Puerto Princesa, Palawan.
Following the convergence model, the civil society, academe, business sector, concerned
government agencies and the community will be brought together to help build the model
development areas.
Among the possible livelihood activities to be implemented in these areas are massive tree
planting including hardwood and fruit trees; coffee processing and trading; bamboo
propagation; manufacture of woodcraft from gemelina lumber and furniture from bamboo;
and tiger grass farming and soft broom production. ###

ASEAN FORESTRY EXPERTS GATHER IN MANILA FOR

CLIMATE CONFAB
Thursday, 20 October 2016 00:00 |

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is hosting the first ever
regional workshop on social forestry and its potential to climate change mitigation and

adaptation in Southeast Asia on October 20-21 at Bayleaf Hotel in Manila.

The two-day workshop brings together some 50 forestry experts and policymakers from
the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to map out short- and long-term
actions on social forestry as a major strategy to help member-countries meet their
respective nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement on
Climate Change.
The initiative builds on the recognition in the Paris Agreement of the important role of
forests to achieve real reduction in the global emission of greenhouse gases in the short
and long term.
The theme for the 1st ASEAN Forestry Working Group Workshop on Social Forestry and
NDCs is "Operationalizing the Paris Agreement towards Developing ASEAN Guidelines to
Strengthen Social Forestry Integration in NDCs Planning in ASEAN."
Among the speakers during the meeting are: Dr. Pham Quang Minh of the ASEAN
Secretariat on ASEAN Vision on Food, Agriculture and Forests Perspectives on Linking
Social Forestry and Climate Change; Dr. Maria Brockhaus of Center for International
Forestry Research on Framework on Forestry and Climate Change; Dr. Doris Capistrano of
ASEAN Social Forestry Network on Gains and Good Practice of Social Forestry and
Contribution of Social Forestry and Climate Change Agenda.
Director Ricardo Calderon, chief of the Forest Management Bureau of DENR will speak on
the National Perspective of Linking Social Forestry and Climate Change.
The Philippines, through the DENR, is currently the chair of the ASEAN Working Group on
Social Forestry.
The workshop aims to further strengthen the contributions of social forestry to regional
climate change plans and the NDCs of respective ASEAN nations.
According to the Center for People and Forests of the Regional Community Forestry Training
Center for Asia and the Pacific or RECOFTC, forest areas placed under social forestry
schemes in the ASEAN only cover 15 million hectares or roughly 3.5 percent of the region's
total forestland area of 434 million hectares in 2013.
The center is an international non-profit organization that focuses on capacity building for
community forestry in the Asia-Pacific region.
In its report, the center cited the Philippines and Vietnam as having the biggest
contributions to social forestry at 26.12 percent and 25.08 percent, respectively.
Other countries cited in the report were Thailand with 2.23 percent; Cambodia, 1.8
percent; Myanmar, 0.13 percent; and Indonesia, 0.11 percent.
Social forestry as a national forestry conservation in the Philippines traces its roots in 1982
with the issuance of Letter of Instruction No. 1260, which consolidated three of the
government's upland conservation initiatives (Communal Tree Farming, Forest Occupancy
Management, and Family Approach to Reforestation) into one comprehensive program
called Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP).
ISFP was designed to provide security of tenure to forest occupants through a 25-year
Certificate of Stewardship Contract or Certificate of Forest Stewardship Agreement, and
enhance the capability of farmer-beneficiaries to sustain the economic productivity and
ecological stability of their settled lands.
In 1995, then President Fidel Ramos issued Executive Order No. 263 adopting Community-

Based Forest Management (CBFM) as a national strategy to achieve sustainable forestry

and social justice with social forestry scheme as a key framework to implement the
program.
CBFM was premised on the principle of "people first and sustainable forestry will follow."
To date, a total of 1.6 million hectares of forestland are being managed by 1,884 people's
organizations granted with 25-year CBFM agreements, which is renewable for another 25
years.
Of the total number of people's organizations benefitting from CBFM, 892 have enrolled
their areas in the National Greening Program, the government's massive reforestation
program that doubles as an anti-poverty measure. ###