OVER threats of irreversible global warming now manifested in a series of manmade disasters, world foresters in a regional gathering in Bohol insist on a better way to re-generate forests at a low cost.
Despite President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s impressing on pro-environment programs and actively spearheading projects that could mitigate the effects of climate change, people have seen the monumental trouble of re-growing forests and are shunning away from the costs.
During the Regional Workshop for Effective Low-Cost Forest Restoration at the Bohol Plaza, Kazuyuki Tsurumi maintained FAO stand on the method called Assisted Natural Re-generation (ANR).
ANR is a forest restoration and rehabilitation practice for converting grass-dominated areas into productive forests. It is a simple, inexpensive and effectively relies on the natural processes of forest succession and promotes the regeneration of indigenous species adapted to the local environment.
In addition, it provides multiple benefits for local people, who play significant roles in ANR application, bared the project brief provided by the government environment agency.
“The underlying principle of ANR involves man nurturing nature. Man tends the existing rootstocks and young tree seedlings beneath the grasses by protecting them from fire and giving them the same care applied to planted trees, such as ring weeding, mulching and brushing, explains Paulino Manalo, project media consultant.
“It is so logical because if man has caused the destruction, it would just be natural for him to assist in restoring the degraded areas into forests,” Tsurumi said.
Tsurumi, world Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) representative in the Philippines press that ANR is not only practical but also allows endemic root stocks to grow above the carpet of cogon.
Tsurumi, along with the Asia Pacific region’s renowned foresters came to the Philippine workshop to advance the forging of efforts at promoting ANR as well as ensuring active government and community participation.
Tsurumi calls the ANR as a practical forest restoration technique and is but just in time to demonstrate the pivotal role it plays in the recent global attention to climate change.
“There should be no debate on the initiatives of forest restoration and rehabilitation, and with the ANR, it is so simple and easily adoptable for people.
Senior Forestry Officer for the Asia and the Pacific Mr. Patrick Durst also echoed the urgency of the call for environment mitigation by reforestation.
He said communities must act now and fast to regain forests and do away from the traditional and destructive practice of burning grasses which massacre the natural root-stocks of hardy pioneer tree species.
Time is of the essence. At the current rate we are restoring forest cover in areas that need to be protected, it will take us more than eight to ten centuries to restore our protective vegetation cover in vulnerable areas, the Forest management Bureau of the DENR said.
“No country will ever be shielded from carbon emissions, heat waves, rainstorms, tropical cyclones, rising seas, and other infinitely more destructive weather changes. With consuming urgency, communities must therefore act now and fast. ANR, alongside other comprehensive programs to address environmental problems, is a practical and effective way to cope and deal with the looming threat of climate change”, a conference press material bared. (rachiu/PIA)