LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA - A workshop on sustainable land management (SLM) best practices was held recently at BP- International Makiling, Jamboree Site, Los Baños, Laguna.
Forester Engelbert R. Lalican of the Forestry and Environment Research Division (FERD), PCAARRD, together with other representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA) and University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) participated in the said seminar-workshop.
The workshop intends to address the issue of land degradation/reduction of soil productivity due to excess land use.
Other worskshop outputs as sought include the enhancement of the capacity of local partners on SLM and climate change adaption strategy; provision/development of decision tools that will help land managers understand local adaptations and innovations; and improved documentation and dissemination of SLM advocacy and activities.
Among the SLM knowledge and decision support tools discussed during the workshop was the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) methodology.
WOCAT is an established global network of Soil and Water Conservation (SWC) specialists dedicated to SLM.
An agreement which signifies the collaboration between consortium partners and all WOCAT Network worldwide was officially signed during the event.
As an overall goal, WOCAT Network seeks to unite the efforts on knowledge management and decision support for up scaling SLM among all stakeholders. WOCAT uses methodologies such as questionnaire on technologies (QT), questionnaire on approach (QA) and questionnaire on mapping (QM).
Another program presented during the workshop was the Conservation Farming Village (CFV): Towards sustainable upland development amidst climate change, a tripartite collaboration among the state universities or colleges (SUCs), the local government unit (LGU), and farmer.
As a modality, CFV seeks to effectively promote agroforestry and other conservation farming practices.
Having been implemented in 15 provinces of the country, CFV was designed to sustain and improve human lives through better livelihood, agricultural productivity, environmental security, and resiliency to climate change.
CFV adopts the community-based participatory approach to technology development, promotion and utilization. Among the activities included in CFV are trainings, seminars, site cross-visits, on-the-job trainings for students, and provision of IEC materials. To date, the program has developed 102 model farms in 570 hectares and more than 600 farmers have adopted the approach.
The use of Agroforestry Land Capability Assessment and Mapping Scheme (ALCAMS) was also tackled during the event. ALCAMS helps determine the best agroforestry system that will be established in the demonstration farms. It uses practical field procedures for designing agroforestry systems such as drawing/sketch of the farm, land use identification, delineation of slope variations, and soil fertility mapping using soil test kit.
Likewise presented during the event were the restoration of degraded forest through Assisted Natural Regeneration (ANR) implemented in DENR Regions 3, 7 and 11, and the compilation of the community-based forest management (CBFM) success stories from Nueva Viscaya, respectively.
The ANR activities include locating and marking of regenerants, ring weeding and grass suppression while the CBFM consists of enrichment planting and multiple-use agroforestry.