UPLAND FARMERS TO MEET AT THE 2ND FOREST MANAGEMENT CONGRESS

Leaders of some 2,000 upland-based people’s organizations (POs) will gather on October 28-29, 2015 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City to chart a roadmap that will sustain the gains of the National Greening Program (NGP) through the Community-based Forest Program (CBFM).

Forest Management Bureau (FMB) Director and NGP national coordinator Ricardo Calderon underscored the significance of the two-day congress, that is to give recognition to the significant contribution of CBFM beneficiaries and partners in managing and protecting the country’s forest plantations, particularly those established under the NGP.

“The NGP has opened new opportunities for upland farmers to have alternative sources of livelihood as they are hired as laborers in seedling production, plantation establishment and in forest protection,” Calderon said.

With theme, Pagsibol, Pagkakaisa, Pagbangon, the event will serve as a venue for sharing good practices in the implementation of CBFM-NGP across the country, he added.

According to the FMB chief, President Aquino is expected to keynote the event.

High in the event’s agenda is to chart the roadmap towards strengthening the CBFM-NGP network aimed at developing investment capital and market linkages for program beneficiaries.

Another highlight of the event is the launching of the “Partnership on Capacity Building for CBFM-POs” between the DENR and the LANDBANK of the Philippines.

The partnership aims at improving the organizational and entrepreneurial skills of CBFM-POs to enable them to access credit facilities offered by lending institutions that promote countryside development like the Land Bank of the Philippines.

NGP is a convergence initiative of the government that seeks to improve the productivity of the country’s degraded areas through massive reforestation and agroforestry development. It seeks to plant 1.5 million hectares of degraded areas across the country with 1.5 billion trees by end of the Aquino administration.

The CBFM, on the other hand, is also a grassroots program being implemented by the DENR with the goal of improving the socio-economic condition of upland farmers.

Since its launching in 1995 as a national strategy to ensure sustainable development in the upland areas, CBFM now engages around 197,349 upland families consisting of almost a million individuals or roughly four percent of the 24 million Filipinos presently living in the country’s upland areas.

Under the program, a management agreement is entered between the government and the upland communities through their people’s organizations. The agreement has a term of 25 years and renewable for another 25 years.

As of October, around 1.2 million hectares have already been planted with trees under the NGP, generating some 2.2 million jobs.# Source – www.denr.gov.ph