Zubiri pushes for implementation of agroforestry program

Senatorial candidate Juan Miguel Zubiri is calling on the government to fasttrack the grant of reforestation permits to non-governmental organizations and cooperatives that are willing to re-green denuded forestlands under a little-known program which has opened four million hectares of land to agroforestry.

Zubiri said the full implementation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Order 2005-05 may solve the twin problems of deforestation and unemployment.

The DENR order, issued two years ago, "releases at least four million hectares of open and unproductive forestlands for the establishment of agroforestry farms and plantations," Zubiri said.

Individuals and groups can apply for a permit to plant, under a joint venture scheme with DENR, a minimum 50 hectares, with a combination of timber species and "economically beneficial crops," Zubiri said.

Zubiri lauded the program, saying it would invite community participation in reforestation, "a program government cannot do alone, given its lack of funds and manpower in regenerating eight million hectares of logged-over land."

"If government privatizes tree-cutting, which is harmful, why can't it do the same to tree-planting, which is beneficial?" he said.

The opening up of the country's uplands is also expected to make a dent on the country's unemployment problem, Zubiri said. "This will ease up the pressure for more lands for cultivation. Unemployable rural labor can go up the hills and be able to take care of land bigger than what they can possibly rent in the lowlands."

To make agroforestry a feasible project, the DENR allows non-endemic forest species like mangoes and other fruit-bearing trees, to be planted on lands released for agroforestry, Zubiri explained.(PR)