Road To Food Sovereignty! Practical, Doable Strategies Key To Effective Eco Program

Hardcore environmentalists had criticized the Green Mindanao Program I designed and pushed as Chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) which calls for Industrial Tree, Fruit Tree and Bamboo Farming as a strategy to encourage people to plant trees.

Mas gusto nila na Balete at mga native tree species ang I-promote ng Green Mindanao Program para daw manumbalik ang kagubatan.

Of course, I understand the passion of the environmentalists but I am a practical person and while indeed there are ideal set ups that we would like to achieve, napakahirap mangyari.

Maganda talaga magtanim ng Balete at native tree species sa mga nakalbong kabukiran, pero sino ang magtatanim at mag-aalaga?

Kung walang pakinabang at walang kikitain ang magsasaka, hindi mo mapilit na magtanim ng kahoy ang mga iyan. They need to survive.

Ito ang isa sa mga dahilan kung bakit falure ang ating reforestation program na kumain na ng bilyon-bilyon na pondo sa nakalipas na mga dekada.

For as long as the main objective of our re-greening program is environmental protection alone without consideration for income generation, it will fail.

Before former Environment Secretary Gina Lopez was rejected by the powerful Commission on Appointments, may mga engagements na kami and I proposed to her a collaboration between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

Inter-related kasi ang forest protection with food production.

I proposed the “Bantay Kagubatan Program,” which I personally designed where poor rural families would be allocated 5 hectares in the denuded forest lands of the country to plant trees.

There would be two kind of trees to be planted – industrial to include Falcata and others which would be harvested later and the native species which would be left to grow.

For every tree seedling that grows in the farmer’s allocated area, he would receive a monthly incentive totaling about P5,000 and in addition he would be supported by the DA with livelihood projects like free-range chicken raising and others.

Upon the harvest of his industrial tree, the farmer gets all the income and it is estimated that at current prices, three hectares of industrial trees would lift him out of poverty after 8 to 10 years.

Unfortunately, Gina’s confirmation was waylaid in the CA and while we continued our linkage after she returned to the private sector, the Bantay Kagubatan Program was literally dead in the water.

It could be revived though through a legislation which would institutionalize a practical and doable environmental and ecological program to be undertaken by a well-funded inter-agency body which would handle the program.

The creation of a National Forest Conservation and Water Management Authority or a similar body is the answer to save our country from an imminent disaster.

Gina Lopez is gone but her dreams and mine will never die.

#GovernanceIsCommonSense!

#KungGustoMaramingParaan!

(The first photo was taken in the Mountain Province in 2016 while the rest of the photos were part of my presentation to Gina Lopez when I introduced the Bantay Kagubatan Program.)