Restoration of Philippine Native Forest by Smallholder Tree Farmers - Smallholder Tree Growing for Rural Development and Environmental Services - page 316

Management Agreement), 20,000 ha tree farms and 94,000 ha under agroforestry leases
(Forest Management Bureau Statistics 2003). Assuming that even 10 percent of these
areas will be devoted to the planting of ITS, it still represents an enormous 500,000 ha !
This is even more than the targeted plantation area identified in the Revised Forestry
Master Plan. Devoting portions of this area for timber production is important in order
to contribute in lessening the current wood product importation amounting to US$162.9
million (Forest Management Bureau Statistics 2003). With appropriate investment cli-
mate and incentives, stable market, appropriate technologies, supported by policies
friendly to smallholder tree farmers, domesticating ITS has bright prospects in restoring
the Philippine native forests. The discussion below includes both a number of con-
straints that affect the planting of ITS and a number of recommendations that will
capacitate smallholder tree farmers to plant ITS in their farm lots.

15.4.1 Prioritization of Potential ITS

The ITS for potential use in upland farms are so diverse and numerous that develop-
ing technologies for each species is virtually impossible. It is imperative that technical
experts, local communities, indigenous people, wood industry officials, concerned
government officials and other key stakeholders in the uplands meet and discuss
together to identify the ITS that will be most useful and promising in their respective
regions. The prioritization procedure is founded on the basic principles of tree domes-
tication that is farmer-led and market-driven process. A more detailed procedure for
setting priorities for multipurpose tree improvement was described by Franzel et al.
(1996). The scheme provides science-based practice for species priority setting. This
exercise will significantly cut down the long list of ITS and must be done for each of
the biogeographic regions. Unfortunately, even for the national tree planting program,
the priority listing of species seemed nebulous. Consequently, the vague direction
weakens the various initiatives and efforts in plantation development.
Some regions in the Philippines have initiated studies and prioritization, e.g.
Region 10 (Northeastern Mindanao) has published a list of Indigenous Tree Species
in the region which includes 195 tree species (Anonymous 2002). In an unpub-
lished material from DENR Region 8, (Eastern Visayas), the Ecosystem Research
and Conservation Division has actively investigated potentially valuable ITS in the
region. From the aforementioned lists, stakeholders can develop a consensus on the
priority ITS that tree plantation developers can select from.

15.4.2 Increase Availability of and Improve Access

to Quality Germplasm

Subsequently to species prioritization, the supply of quality germplasm is the next
step in the production system of ITS. Support for planting ITS can be increased if
the government and the private sectors or upland organizations will spearhead the
production and distribution of quality ITS germplasm. Genetically diverse and