DENR, LGU ink partnership on effective forest management

MAYANTOC, Tarlac — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the municipality of Mayantoc, Tarla signed a memorandum of agreement last month to jointly support the development and maintenance of community-based forest management (CBFM) area in Barangay Maniniog through its Cacupangan People’s Organization. Signatories to the MOA were regional executive director of Region 3, Regidor de Leon, DENR-JICA E-CBFM project advisor Hideki Miyakawa, and Mayantoc Vice Mayor Iluminado E. Pobre, Jr.

The CBFM area is one of the additional model sites in Central Luzon to be supported by the DENR-Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project on the enhancement of CBFM in the Philippines (E-CBFM). It covers 72 hectares which are predominantly covered with established tree plantation such as gmelina, mahogany, ipil-ipil, mango, coffee and other agricultural crops. With its inclusion, there are now eight model sites in the region which are recipients of the project’s technical support.

The CBFM area showcases the critical role of protected watershed no matter how small it is, in ensuring the continued farm productivity especially rice in the lowlands. In the case of this CBFM area, its watershed provides water to a dam previously funded by JICA, which augments the irrigation system of about 1,000 hectares and service the agricultural lands of Barangay Maniniog and adjoining barangays.

CBFM is the country’s national strategy on sustainable forest management. It adapts the principle "people first and sustainable forest management follows." DENR-JICA E-CBFM is a five-year project (2005 to 2009) to enhance CBFM implementation in the country. Initially, the project focuses its efforts in Region 3, afterwhich some activities will also be undertaken in two other regions in the country. – Benny Enriquez