Miarayon, Talakag, Bukidnon – One of the most heart-rending sights that I see whenever I move around the island of my birth, Mindanao, is the bald mountain ranges stripped bare by logging companies decades ago.
After raping the forests, the logging companies who won the logging concessions because of their connections to the Central Government decades ago, took off leaving behind impoverished people, mostly Moro tribes and Indigenous People.
Some of the loggers even had the temerity to come back decades later under a program called the Integrated Forest Management Agreement which allowed them to cut down again second growth forests.
To add insult to injury, the IFMA is granted by government under the pretext that the IFMA awardee will start a sustainable foresty program in the area.
The idea of cutting down forest trees to plant trees again is one of the most preposterous if not ridiculous programs of government I have ever encountered.
When I was Agriculture Secretary, I asked Preasident Rody Duterte to stop the operations of an IFMA holder in the Salog Mountain Range in Zamboanga Peninsula which was cutting down trees even where there is an existing national logging ban.
Last time I heard, they are back at it again.
They are so powerful and influential that they could circumvent the law.
Even their security guards are recognized by the military as SCAAs.
But rather than sit it one corner and drown ourselves in sorrow and helplessness, I believe we have to come up with a different strategy to bring back the trees to the deforested highlands of Mindanao.
Last Tuesday, under the program called Green Mindanao Project, the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) started an advocacy and awareness campaign on the need to plant fruit trees in the mountains.
Six Hass Avocados planted at 1,440 MASL in Miarayon, Talakag, Bukidnon may not be a grand way to start this advocacy but since MinDA has a very puny budget allocation, we will have to rely on the participation of farmers and the private sector.
It may take years before the program will even make a difference given the hundreds of thousands of hectares which have been deforested but we have to do it just the same.
Planting fruit trees could still be the best option for us who would like to see the mountains green again.
After all, wala naman sigurong mag-logging ng Avocado, Coffee or Mangosteen.
Join us as we start the Green Mindanao Project which will benefit the next generation.
#GovernanceIsCommonSense!
#InterGenerationalResponsibility!
#WeDoThisForOurChildren!
(This video presentation was produced by the Beauty & Bounty of Mindanao Media Team for the Mindanao Development Authority.)
https://fb.watch/aNGT0aIjeh/
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