BY: REY ANTHONY H. CHIU
TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol, June 8 (PIA) –The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) carves a way towards allowing communities some degree of ownership to reforested lands, in a bid to finally make government tree planting projects sustainable.
Thus revealed Community Environment and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) for Talibon, Elpidio Palaca, at the recent Kapihan sa PIA in Bohol.
Here, government and even foreign funded reforestation projects sagged, and authorities noted the lack of community ownership in the project which proved to be the bane.
DENR reforestation projects often contract communities to plant the trees in timberlands and pay for each tree planted.
“This scheme,” observers said, “creates a lull in the money earning venture of residents because after they cover the idle patches, there would be no areas to cover.”
“Unless there is a real need to replant,” they unite in their comments.
Idle timberlands where government reforestations are done are the same patches of lands used by communities for pasture.
Here, when the grasses mature and the livestock would have hard feeding times, residents burn entire acres so new shoots could re-grow and younger green grass for pasture would be available.
The burning would also kill the newly planted seedlings, making the same fields available for another tree-planting contract, according to DENR field men who have noticed the rather recurring burning incidents.
To make up for the problem, the DENR still contracts communities to plant trees, some of them fruit trees and then issue certificates of Community based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMA), DENR Bohol Palaca shared.
Of the almost 9000 hectares of reforested lands under CENRO Talibon, around 25% are fruit trees, Palaca conveyed during the radio forum on the air set for the Environment Month in June.
With fruit trees and with CBFMAs acting as tenurial instruments, contract growers issued with the proper documents can use the resources in the area, Palaca asserted.
He said communities are in the most favorable position to defend and own the plants, knowing that they can even earn from the trees they grow, the aging CENRO added.
Since 2010, Bohol has amassed a little over 10,000 hectares of new forest cover, a rather low target compared to the wide patches of areas neighboring islands are setting for the National Greening Program, DENR said. (mbcn/rahc/PIA7-Bohol)