From Baldish to Flourished Uplands

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) proposed the second phase of the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) development strategy to continue the good impact of the initiatives of the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO), a foreign entity which headed the foresting of the area through plantation establishment in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya. ITTO also led the formation of Peoples Organizations (POs) in the community, the Federation of Vista Hills, Kalongkong and Kalingkingan Upland Farmers, Incorporated.

All the PO's 250 members were trained under the CBFM Project about the technicalities of planting trees in the upland. They were provided seedlings of Mahogany, Gmelina, dipterocarp and fruit-bearing tree species that they started to plant in the 3,000-hectare CBFM area awarded to them. As the PO members were also awarded with stewardship certificate from the CBFM, the were also trained to develop vegetable farms in their own CBFM areas. These farms are of great contribution for their financial needs for all their produce are being sold at the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal or at the Bayombong Market. The local government unit of Bayombong helped establish wheel paths to help the farmers easily bring their products down.

Good practices came from unexpected transformation that were recognized by different entities. The PO was awarded as the Number One Model Sustainable Development Project in Nueva Vizcaya and in Region 2 for two consecutive years (2003 and 2004). The practices of the Federation were also acknowledged internationally through a sharing made at the ASEAN Social Forestry Network Exchange Program that took place in Malaysia last 2013.