BUGALLON, Pangasinan — The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) in Pangasinan and the provincial government have recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) for the development, maintenance and protection of a 20-hectare agroforestry farm in Barangay Cayanga here.
Supervising Environmental Management Specialist Nathaniel Pulido of the provincial government, in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Thursday, said one of the components of the MOA is the province’s adoption of a mountain area.
He said the provincial government started doing this last year, having planted forestry and fruit bearing trees in the said area and maintains and supervises the growth of those plants to date.
“Right now since it’s the rainy season, what we do is to clean the area, plant seedlings, fertilize the planted seedlings, while two of our personnel are safeguarding the farm,” Pulido said.
He disclosed that under the MOA, the provincial government will establish and maintain forest tree seedlings nursery within or adjacent to National Greening Program (NGP) sites for replanting purposes.
No cutting shall be done within the area without prior consent or approval from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) until the area is fully planted.
The DENR through the PENRO in Pangasinan donated the 20-hectare agroforestry farm to the provincial government as stated in the MOA.
City Environment and Natural Resources Officer Celso Salazar said the involvement of the provincial government in the development, maintenance and protection of agroforestry is a welcome action for them since it has no budget allocation.
“The NGP areas that are being funded by the government beyond three years no longer have allocation; hence we cannot compel the people’s organization to still continue monitoring and maintaining the area, considering that Pangasinan mountains are prone to fire incident during summer season, although the DENR had a MOA with the Bureau of Fire Protection regional office to assist us in protecting the forests from fire,” Salazar said.
Pulido further said that the provincial government under the mandate of Governor Amado Espino III aims to also provide livelihood to the residents in the nearby areas, who depend on the upland areas as their source of income.
“The governor commanded our office to hire the residents there, because there will be a showcase of income generating crops including high-value crops. This is included in the five-year plan for the development of the area,” Pulido said.
He added that the provincial government targets to make the farm a learning center for the employees and a tree library for the younger generation.
“We will plant varieties of trees, so that the younger and the next generation will be able to learn of these trees and hopefully will have deeper sense of environmental protection,” he said.
Espino emphasized the need to protect the area since it is a watershed, Pulido noted.
“It is important to preserve the area, so that there will be continuous supply of water for irrigation and residential use,” Salazar added.
The area is also envisioned to become a campsite or a tourist site in the future, said Pulido.
“With the work started by the province here, more volunteers are joining us in planting seedlings in the area,” he added.
The MOA signing between the provincial government and PENRO was held last week, with Espino representing the province and Raymundo C. Gayo representing the PENRO. (Hilda Austria/PNA)
