http://www.malaya.com.ph/jul20/envi3.htm
BY JOJO DUE

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – In a bid to promote social equity and democratize access to natural resources through people empowerment, environment officials here met for the first time with officers and members of a local people’s organization to map out a five-year plan to protect and conserve the remaining forests of Zambales.

Dr. Sofio Quintana, deputy director of the DENR Central Luzon, said the plan laid down specific strategies for the protection and conservation of forest resources using local initiatives and indigenous knowledge systems in community forestry.

Under the Community Resource Management Framework (CRMF), the 232-strong Loob-Bunga Settlers Association, Inc. (LBSAI) vowed to: reforest 70 hectares of denuded portions of their community forests; develop 50 hectares into agro-forestry; protect and maintain 140 hectares of watershed area to boost the local water supply; use 50 hectares for grazing and pasture; and, set aside 40 hectares for possible mineral exploration.

LBSAI is a federation of nine people’s organizations composed mostly of Aetas displaced by 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

“The plan seeks to squarely settle the issue of kaingin or slash and burn farming, squatting, illegal logging, forest fires and pests and diseases in community forests,” Quintana explained, adding that more than 80 percent of the total 400 hectares under the community stewardship of LBSAI have now been effectively placed under forest management.

Alfredo Collado, chief of the Regional Community-Based Forest Management Program Office (RCBFMO), said the plan will set the direction and tempo for the people’s organization in the implementation of the various livelihood, forest and natural resources activities in their Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) area.

Collado said the plan includes the protection of adjacent forestlands as well as the identification of livelihood opportunities for community members, such as serpentine and chromite exploration, ecotourism, vegetable farming and livestock and fish production in areas with low slopes.

The Loob-Bunga CBFM area has been selected a model site when the DENR launched the five-year Enhancement of the Community-Based Forest Management Project (E-CBFMP) in 2004 with technical assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).