Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
cancellation of all logging permits and suspension of issuance of other permits
(ABC 2004). Earlier efforts of reforestation were not only directed at large-scale
forest plantations but, particularly since the 1980s, also at small-scale tree planta-
tions and forest management. In fact, the Philippines are one of the leading coun-
tries in on-farm tree growing and decentralized programs of community-based
forest management.
The past and ongoing tree growing and reforestation initiatives are summarized
by CIFOR 2003 and described as follows:
The first formal rehabilitation efforts in the Philippines can be traced back to reforestation
by students of the campus of the University of Philippines at Los Banos in 1910. This was
followed by numerous Government-initiated projects that involved the planting of trees to
reforest denuded areas. By 1973, there were 91 government reforestation projects (46 in
Luzon, 31 in Visayas and 14 in Mindanao) with reforestation funds derived from timber
concessions. Some private companies (such as Paper Industries Corporation of the
Philippines PICOP and Provident Tree Farms) reforested via tree plantations within their
concession areas. PICOP also pioneered smallholder tree farms among upland farmers near
the concession through partnerships.
The 1970s saw the birth of social/community forestry with programs such as Forest
Occupancy Management (1971), the Family Approach to Reforestation (1971), Communal
Tree Farm (1974), and the Integrated Social Forestry Programme (1982). From the late
1970s-80s, there were numerous community forestry initiatives funded by agencies such as
USAID, the World Bank, Ford Foundation and GTZ. There was also major NGO pioneering
work on agroforestry and agriculture. In 1986, a 14-year National Forestation Programme
was launched with a target area of 1.4 M ha to be reforested by 2000. This programme was
given a boost by the ADB/OECF loan for $240M in 1988 for what became the Forestry
Sector Project. Under this project, traditional methods of reforestation gave way to contract
reforestation by families, communities, corporations, academic institutions, NGOs and
LGUs. It also included watershed rehabilitation and encouragement of industrial reforestation
through new agreements.
The 1990s continued to see numerous community-based and integrated development
projects funded by Asian Development Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation,
World Bank, International Tropical Timber Organization, FAO, KFW (Kreditanstalt für
Wiederaufbau) development bank and others; and executed by the state, NGOs, Local
Government Units (LGUs), and People's Organisations (POs). Community based forest
management through different types of tenurial instruments was adopted as the national
strategy for reversing the destruction of the Philippines' remaining natural forests and for
rehabilitating degraded lands. Besides social and community forestry, reforestation activi-
ties have also included large-scale government and industrial plantations and private tree
farming. The latter has cropped up spontaneously in response to market demand, particu-
larly in Mindanao, Luzon, and Cebu. It has been suggested that private land reforestation
in the last decades may have actually led to increased forest cover in places. New forest
cover inventories that are underway could help clarify the situation.
Table 1.3 gives an overview of the reforestation efforts under different forest man-
agement and tree growing programs using different types of tenurial instruments
from 1980 onwards. Notwithstanding these massive efforts to control deforestation
through the establishment of forest and tree plantations, they have had limited suc-
cess even in more recent times. Remarkable high losses for forest plantations
occurred, i.e., 92,800 ha (5.2 percent reduction) per year for the period 1990-2000
and 46,400 ha (5.4 percent) per year for 2000-2005 (FAO 2006b). Besides these
records, Lasco et al. 2001 report a success rate of not more than 30 percent for a
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