MinDA Bamboo Program! TRIBES IN ANCESTRAL DOMAINS JOIN MinDA BAMBOO PROGRAM

Malaybalay City, Bukidnon – The Tagoloanon Tribe of Bukidnon has joined the Bamboo Industry Program by establishing their own nursery to produce seedlings for an Ancestral Domain Area of about 900 hectares.

A young Tagoloanon lawyer, Burt Estrada, is leading his people in seeking benefits from planting the Giant Bamboo by linking up the tribal assocition with the Bukidnon Giant Bamboo Resources Corp. and a US company.

Potentially, the 900-hectare Ancestral Land located in the watershed area of the Tagoloan River which flows from Bukidnon to Cagayan de Oro City could earn the tribe at least P180-million every year.

The Tagoloanon Tribe’s move could inspire other tribal communities in Mindanao to join the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) supported Bamboo Industry Development Program which targets an aggregate area of 1-million hectares to be planted to the Giant Bamboo in the next 5 years.

Tribal Ancestral Domains in Mindanao which have largely been undeveloped run to hundreds of thousands of hectares with families in these areas among the poorest.

On Jan. 19, Atty. Estrada, who is also the corporate secretary of the BGB Resources Corp., will join the Bamboo Summit in Cagayan de Oro City to represent the tribes in the Mindanao Bamboo Industry Council being organized by MinDA.

Development Bank of the Philippines President Emmanuel Herbosa will host the Summit at the DBP Regional Office in Cagayan de Oro City.

BGB Resources Chairman Rod Bioco will present a status report on the Bamboo Industry in Mindanao while MinDA will introduce the Green Mindanao Project which seeks to protect the watersheds, headwaters and springs by introducing Bamboo farming, Fruit Tree Farming and the Farming of High-Value trees, including the Agar Wood.

The Mindanao Bamboo Summit starts at 1 p.m. and will be livesrtreamed through Facebook.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

(This video presentation was prepared by the Beauty & Bounty of Mindanao Media Team for the Mindanao Development Authority.)