‘Splendor in the grass’

The Justice Department thumbed down former president Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo’s bid to hopscotch through five countries, without Philippine extradition pacts, in search for medical bone specialists. That sparked controversy.

Fine. A democracy has ways to settle such disputes. There are, however, other lower-decibel issues that impinge equally on national interests. We must keep an eye on them too.

Scorch-earth razing of Asia and Pacific trees in the 1990s pattern, for example, has been curbed, reports “Forest Beneath the Grass.” This new United Nations study says forests are slowly recovering, despite threats from fire, illegal loggers and climate change

“Asia and the Pacific reversed forest loss faster than any other region in history,” Food and Agriculture Organization’s Eduardo Rojas-Briales told delegates gathered in China for the Second Asia Pacific Forestry Week (Nov. 7 to 11).

“Over the last five years, new forests sprouted by 4 million has. annually,” notes FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010. “Asia has gained 2.2 million has.”

We’re not out of the woods yet. Losses in Africa and South America approximate one Costa Rica. “Rates of deforestation is still very high in many countries. Primary forests continue to burnt or chain-sawed.”

The last “virgin” forests, in Samar, are being chopped down. Less than a bare quarter is left of the 27.5-million hectares that the Philippines had late 16th century “The Philippines was first Asian country to liquidate it’s forest wealth after World War II.”

Logged-over areas, in Asia and the Pacific, are smothered by an invasive grass species: cogon or blady grass. On disturbed soil, Imperata cylindrica morphs into a monoculture that chokes other species.

Cogon blankets over 6 million has. here. “(Your children’s ) panoramas will be of drab landscapes, blanketed by sterile cogon grass, not the verdant meadows we knew as youngsters,” the late National Scientist Dioscoro Umali said at a 1990 UP commencement address.

Yet beneath this pernicious grass are potential forests, the new UN study stresses. Where would these saplings sprout from?

They’d come from people given a stake in planting and thereafter protecting forests, wrote British Broadcasting Corp.’s Mark Kinver. Locals were “a key factor in halting loss of forest cover in Asia and the Pacific.” Thru ANR or “assisted natural regeneration” projects, they’ve turned forest deficits into start of surpluses.

ANR differs from traditional reforestation projects, funded and directed by bureaucrats in remote capitals. It is a low-cost forest restoration and rehabilitation technique that can convert cogon-smothered areas back into productive forests. How?

In return for jobs, local communities reforest—with a twist. They thumb down imported species, favored by large-scale plantations or agro-forestry schemes. Instead, they plant indigenous tree species and hew closely to “the natural process of plant succession.”

This approach ensured “site protection and monitoring,” “Forest Beneath the Grass” report notes. “Such schemes enhanced ecosystems, restored biodiversity and increased carbon storage.”

“Success of ANR hinges on effective involvement of local residents in its implementation,” explained FAO senior forestry officer Patrick Durst, in presenting the report’s findings in Beijing. “It is vital that local communities are given incentives.”

Locals quickly see ANR benefits. These come in “a number of guises, such as diversity in harvestable crops, cost-effective land management, hunting grounds and improved ecological services.

Is ANR really new for the Philippines?

Apparently not. In 2006, FAO, Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Bagong Pagasa Foundation trained 200 foresters, NGO staff and community representatives on ANR.

This approach can reduce costs of reforestation by half, assessment of the three-year quarter-of-a million-dollar project concluded. It successfully prevented fires and enhanced local biodiversity.

These “sprouts of hope” led DENR to launch an “Upland Development Program” to support ANR practices on over 9,000 hectares. The initial funding supported a variety of ANR projects from Balagunan, Davao del Norte to Danao in Bohol.

Philiex Mining and Shannalyne Inc. signed Memoranda of Understanding with DENR for extending ANR pilot sites. In addition, ANR became a selection criteria for the “Best Mining Forest Program” award, starting 2010.

“Perhaps, the most creative innovation emerging from the ANR project is an ‘over-the-counter’ carbon trading scheme negotiated between sister-municipalities of Danao (Bohol) and Makati City (Metro Manila),” FAO’S Durst adds. “Makati will offset part of its carbon footprint by supporting forest restoration, through ANR, in the hinterlands of Danao.”

Field implementation of ANR, however, bogged down with these initial probes. DENR secretaries, notably in the twilight of the Arroyo administration, were hamstrung by increasingly partisan brawls. “Lack successful field-based ANR examples” blocked buildup of a broader official constituency.

Did the intense discussions at the Second Asia Pacific Forestry Week in Beijing recast official mind-sets here on “small-in-size but large-in-impact” initiatives? That remains to be seen.

There are, meanwhile, potential forests waiting to spring up beneath the sterile cogon grass. They overgrow stumps of trees, felled by loggers who, years ago, scrammed with the loot.