Agroforestry revitalizes Isabela’s Abuan watershed

MANILA, Philippines - The National Geographic Channel (NGC) recently took a step in helping reforest the Isabela mountains through the distribution of 20,000 fruit trees to agroforestry farmers in the area.

The move, undertaken together with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), aims to halt global deforestation.

Half the world’s forests have now been cut down for agriculture, which still accounts for 80 percent of global deforestation, WWF noted.

“Agroforestry allows crops and trees to coexist, maximizing benefits. This increases land productivity, improves water recharge and minimizes erosion,” said WWF’s Edgardo Tongson.

Agroforestry is a unique approach to reforestation – allowing the balanced intercropping of trees, shrubs and crops to create more productive, profitable and sustainable plots.

Since 2009, WWF and its allies have helped farmers in Isabela plant 25,000 fruit-bearing trees, revitalizing 210 hectares of denuded pastureland. Fruit trees were chosen to provide farmers incentives to nurture saplings to maturity.

NGC distributed an additional 20,000 citrus, cacao, rambutan and guyabano saplings to Isabela farmers as part of its Earth Day Run 2013 commitment.

“We have taken National Geographic Channel’s goal of ‘inspiring people to care about the planet’ to heart, in our efforts to promote agroforestry with WWF,” said Fox International Channels vice president and territory head Jude Turcuato.

Combined with earlier corporate initiatives pulled together by WWF, this raises the number of planted agroforestry trees to over 40,000. The move aims to reforest Isabela’s Abuan watershed, a once-verdant forest which has since been converted to endless sprawls of corn and rice.

Shielding the eastern face of Luzon for 340 kilometers and spanning 359,486 hectares, the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park is both the Philippines’ longest mountain range and its largest protected area. Over 150 endemic animal species – from the iconic Philippine Eagle and Isabela Oriole to the critically-endangered Philippine Crocodile – slither, scuttle or soar above its vigorously-vegetated ridges. In turn, its forests provide water for an estimated 400,000 hectares of rice and corn fields.

The Abuan watershed is a vital part of the Sierra Madre.

Together with NGC and local government allies, WWF’s dream is to plant 50,000 agroforestry trees in the Abuan watershed by 2015.