The proposed project location will be areas under the Community Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA) in the Watersheds surrounding Mt. Kalatungan and Mt. Kitanglad forest reserves which include the barangays of Dominorog, Tikalaan, Liguron (Talakag, Bukidnon), Balintad, and San Vicente (Baungon, Bukidnon). Elevation of the area ranges from 0 masl at the coastal area to 2,900 masl at the headwaters in Mt. Kalatungan. The CBFMA areas in these watersheds have either existing development agreements with multinational companies for banana, pineapple and palm oil plantations or are developed by the holders in subsistence farming methods.
The once forested watersheds are now threatened with encroachment from Illegal mining activities and Banana/pineapple/palm oil plantations which have destroyed the forest cover and has greatly eroded the hillsides and riverbanks resulting in flash floods.
These watersheds are tenured by the government to small-scale farmers who are mostly living below poverty lines. Some of them lease out their tenured lots to multinational plantations where they work as laborers. Some of them do subsistence farming where they collect firewood from the forest and burn them to process their raw agricultural products, resulting in increased deforestation and biodiversity loss. Due to deteriorating soil conditions, these farmers encroach in protected forest reserves to plant cash crops to make a living.
The main goal of this project to protect the remaining forest cover by restoring CBFMA areas surrounding national forest reserves (Mt. Kitanglad and Mt. Kalatungan). It also aims to provide livelihood for the communities while protecting forests. The proposed Agroforestry will be based on brown2green2brown principle: Restore degraded land by intercropping Coffee, Cashew & Bamboo under Coconuts and native trees and then valorize residues in a circular system. The goal is to give incentives to the forest stewards for them to engage in regenerative and non destructive agroforest activities in the buffer zones to the forest reserves of Mt. Kalatungan and Mt. Kitanglad.
The project aims to regenerate the watersheds in the CBFMA areas. Specifically, the project objectives are as follows:
1. Determine the quality of the soil in the CBFMA areas of the said watershed, (results of the assessment will be the basis of the type of seedlings and amount of organic fertilizers to be provided to the partner farmers);
2. Restoring degraded land in the CBFM areas through regenerative agroforestry farming;
3. Development of the existing model farm to showcase regenerative farming and show proof of more viable ROI compared to plantation use (banana), and explore potential areas for replication/scaling-up of the existing model to nearby CBFM areas.
4. Conduct training and seminars that highlight the need for ecological balance in the CBFM areas such as protection and/or enrichment of remaining natural forest. These include: a.) Capacity building to develop local farmers as champions on regenerative farming and forest conservation. b.) Capacity building on process documentation and recording of activities and cost/expenses (to illustrate a clear comparison between the income range from plantation rental vis-à-vis agroforestry farming);
5. Work with the farmer groups to discuss the limitations of CBFM so as to ensure that interventions on farming must be within the production zone and consistency with approved Community Resources Management Framework/Five-Year Work Plan of the CBFM