DENR allocates P100 M for forest management program

CLARK FREEPORT, Pampanga  ,Philippines – The Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR) has allocated an additional P100 million this year for livelihood projects for beneficiaries of the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) program.

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ramon Paje told participants in the CBFM Practitioners Congress here that DENR Undersecretary for Field Operations Ernesto Adobo would supervise the program once the CBFM office has been established.

“The first 100 peoples’ organizations to pass the criteria set by the CBFM office will be the recipients of the livelihood assistance. Those who will not be able to make it this year need not worry as the conferment of grants will be part of the annual DENR budget until 2016,” Paje said.

He explained that the idea of CBFM is built on the principle of social forestry as a people-centered development program.

The people would become development partners of the government to achieve a sustainable forestry program while promoting their socio-economic welfare.

Under the program, a management agreement is entered between the government and the upland communities – represented by people’s organizations that has a 25-year term and renewable for another 25 years, he explained.

He said that as forest managers, the people’s organizations would have the responsibility to occupy, enrich, protect, and utilize portions of forestlands granted to them.

The DENR have awarded CBFM agreements to about 1,790 upland communities were with a total area of 1.6 million hectares of forest.

Paje said the CBFM beneficiaries not only contribute in the protection of the forest because they are partners in the maintenance of the upland areas as part of the National Greening Program (NGP).

President Aquino had issued Executive Order No.26 that created the NGP to pursue sustainable development for poverty reduction, food security, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation.

The program aims to plant some 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares until 2016 in land that are considered as public domain.

These lands include forests, mangroves and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations and urban areas.