The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (Jica-DENR) recently turned over new access roads in Banaue, Mayoyao, and Lagawe in Ifugao Province to upland farmers who also serve as stewards of vital forest resources.
The roads form part of the P1.8-billion Jica-DENR cooperation in the construction and rehabilitation of agroforestry support facilities under the Forestland Management Project (FMP), which began in 2012 in collaboration with Jica.
It is credited to boost conservation and rehabilitation efforts of over 70,000 hectares of forestlands covering a total of 24 sub-watersheds in the provinces of Ifugao, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija and Iloilo.
Jica and the DENR, the agency mandated to manage the country’s natural resources, have partnered to save critical watershed systems in the Philippines as a move to address climate change and improve the livelihood of farmers and grassroots communities dependent on forest resources.
The Philippines has more than 130 watersheds critical to supplying water for irrigation, domestic, and industrial use.
Government data shows that watersheds account for an estimated 70 percent of the Philippines’s land area.
This vital connection between forestland management and water resources was highlighted in the efforts of Jica and the DENR to conserve the critical river basins in Upper Magat and Cagayan, Upper Pampanga, and Jalaur in Panay Island.
“We join the Philippine government in their self-help efforts to sustainably manage the Philippines’s natural resources for the greatest good of the greatest number of people in the long term,” said Jica Philippines Chief Representative Sakamoto Takema in a statement.
“Conserving vital forest resources such as watersheds is critical to mitigating climate-change risks and giving Filipinos opportunities to improve their livelihood through sustainable forestland management.”
Takema said access roads help upland communities implement sustainable community-based forest management activities, protect and maintain a total of nearly twenty thousand hectares of forest areas in the Province of Ifugao.
Recognizing the value of watersheds to future generation, it comes as no surprise that FMP also encouraged the Philippine government to launch a national “Save Our Watershed” campaign in 2021 calling for stakeholders’ collaboration on watershed rehabilitation.
The DENR cited Jica’s support to establish watershed management councils under FMP to also involve people’s organizations, non-profit groups, and private sector in conserving this vital forest resource.
The FMP has two core components—comprehensive site development and technical assistance.
The comprehensive site development has several subprojects. These are mapping of watershed ecosystem, community organizing to strengthen partner people’s organizations and boost enterprise development in forest communities, site development or the rehabilitation of denuded areas in the watersheds by establishing forest, agroforestry, and soil and water conservation plantations.
FMP also involves policy making and construction of agroforestry support facilities including access roads, irrigation pipelines, pathways and bridges.