Forest project boosts Benguet town’s income

By Susan Aro

KAPANGAN, Benguet -- A community- based forest management program in a barangay here has shown how it could strengthen cooperation and help a  community grow.

           

Danny Eke, president of the Sagubo Multipurpose Coop., adjudged by the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office as one of the outstanding coop recipients  of the CBFMP under Agrarian Reform Communities, said the program helped livelihood of the people and strengthened cooperation in the locality.

Eke said there was improvement in the living condition of the community with the advent of the project as residents were employed in planting wide forest areas.

PENRO provided P50,000 capital outlay for the establishment of nursery and other raw materials with co-op counterpart of P70,000.00 for planting and cleaning activities.

Instead of buying all seedlings, they opted to propagate and use some of the money to hire people to plant which later augmented income of people in the locality  while generating  people’s cooperation, Eke said.

In Sagubo, Kapangan, the CBFMP which started last year entailed  plantation of a 70 hectare forest.

Fifty hectares were planted with 66,660 mulberry cuttings while 20 hectares were planted with 24,440 Arabica coffee seedlings, said Eke.

Apart from erosion control, mulberry feeds on silkworm and its production strengthened the One-Town-One Product of Kapangan. 

Arabica coffee, on the other hand,  a premiere coffee has promising potential in the global market.

He said if all goes well and mulberry leaves are ready for harvest to feed on silkworm, each member of the co-op will be given a rearing house for silkworm.

Eke who is also the barangay captain of Sagubo said they chose to plant mulberry cuttings to uphold their OTOP.

Forester Dean Cuanso of the PENRO said implementation CBFMP under Executive Order 263 of then Pres. Fidel V. Ramos is a national strategy for sustainable development which the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program areas should adopt guided by policies and regulations.