A rapid assessment of farm forestry in Bohol: characterization constraints and recommendations

The statements above reflect the radical shift of P hilippine forestry throughout its history. But although an increasing number of people recogni ze that smallholders plant and nurture trees, these trees and their productive and protective functions are still invisible to the eyes of many, particularly policy-makers. Thus, the role of farmers as effective land managers and reforestation agents continues to be i gnored. The reality is, however, that in the Philippines perennial tree farming is no longer neglected, as some government officials stated a few years ago (NEDA 1981 as cite d by Kummer 1992), and the numerous observations of increasing tree cover in m any parts of the country (Garrity and Agustin 1995; Pasicolan et al. 1996) indicate that tree cultivation is widespread. In this paper tree farming is simply defined as: farmers gr owing trees on their land for economic return. As such, it applies to any type of tree, no t just timber. The island province of Bohol, Central Visayas, is just another of such pla ces where widespread, and mostly spontaneous, tree planting has been taking place. O fficially, reforestation efforts in Bohol started in the 1960s, when the Philippine governmen t successfully planted Swietenia macrophylla (hereafter referred to as mahogany) in Bilar and D agohoy reforestation projects. In the following years, tree planting gai ned momentum as people in the vicinity of the project area started to plant mahogany at a large scale, encouraged by the demonstration effect of the reforestation, governme nt support of tree planting with free seedlings, Local Government Unit (LGU) initiatives, and demand for lumber.

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