Asean-SoKor, DENR partner in forest training center

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has partnered with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Republic of Korea (ASEAN-ROK) Forest Cooperation (AFoCo) in the establishment of a forest regional training center worth P700,000 in Candelaria town in Zambales.

Orlando Panganiban, head of the Forest Resources Management Division of the DENR-Forest Management Bureau (FMB) said the center will enhance the knowledge and skills of forest managers and peoples’ organizations to better restore and protect the ASEAN region’s forest as well as fight global warming and climate change.

“The ASEAN regional training center will serve as a demonstration area for the application of assisted natural regeneration (ANR) technology using the landscape approach to sustainable forest management and will benefit forest technicians, including members of peoples’ organizations,” said Panganiban.

“The center will develop and promote a 30-hectare demonstration area of ANR as a cost-efficient way of regenerating forest by enhancing the establishment of secondary forest from degraded grassland and shrub vegetation by protecting and nurturing the mother trees and their wildlings inherently present in the area,” he explained.

He said the objective of ANR is to accelerate, rather than replace, natural successional processes by removing or reducing barriers to natural forest regeneration such as soil degradation, competition with weedy species, and recurring disturbances like grass fire and grazing.

“In ANR, seedlings are, in particular, protected from undergrowth and extremely flammable plants such as cogon (Imperata cylindrical) and talahib (Saccharum spontaneum),” he said. As a protection effort, new trees are planted when needed or wanted, a process called enrichment planting.

According to Francisco Milla Jr., director of DENR in Central Luzon, the training center is a big support to the DENR and ASEAN member countries’ efforts at reforestation.

“This will enable us to fast-track the restoration of degraded forestland and watershed, and with ANR, forests grow faster than they would naturally,” he explained.

The AFoCo turned over to DENR half a million pesos worth of equipment, including generators, fire-fighting equipment, desktop computers, projectors and geographical positioning system units that will initially be used in the center to help improve the DENR’s reforestation efforts.

Organization of AFoCo was first proposed by the Republic of Korea in June 2009 to share experiences and technologies with other Asian countries in the forest sector as a forest cooperation organization. It was formally established in November 2011.