Skip to main content

Forestry students reach out to rural communities to advocate forest conservation

By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff reporter

Vintar, Ilocos Norte—The rugged terrain surrounded by dry and deteriorating hilly mountains at remote Brgy. Dipilat, about 10 kilometers from the town proper is all worth it for students and members of the Junior Foresters’ Association (JFA) of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) if only to let villagers here appreciate the value of a healthy forest equals a healthy living.

As part of the forestry week celebration on Feb. 2-7, the MMSU-College of Agriculture, Food and Sustainable Development in Batac City spearheaded the event dubbed as, “The Forestry Profession for ASEAN Integration.”

Charlie Batin, organizational adviser of the JFA said the celebration highlights the conduct of a seminar on Environmental and Natural Resources Laws in the landslide-prone area of Dipilat village.

Mr. Batin said this initiative aims to foster environmental awareness for sustainable forest management, leadership among forestry students and forestry professionals and promote camaraderie as pre-requisites for ASEAN integration.

This year, the association purposively selected a remote village in Vintar town where charcoal-making is prevalent in the area.

As part of the environment conservation efforts of the university, Batin said his students opted to reach out rural communities here and advocate measures to make peace with nature by putting a halt to destructive activities like cutting more trees and the practice of “kaingin” system or the so-called slash-and-burn farming.

Aside from the seminar attended by about 60 participants, the forestry week also featured an exhibit and forestry Olympiad such as Quiz bee, poster-making, seed, wood and leaf identification.

The Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines under Presidential Decree No. 705 ensures the protection, rehabilitation and development of forest lands, in order to ensure the continuity of their productive condition.


In view this, forestry students took the initiate to increase public awareness about these environmental laws and regulations governing forest lands to support re-oriented government programs, projects and efforts to properly manage, utilize, protect, rehabilitate and develop remaining forest lands in the province.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Empanada festival: A celebration of good taste and good life

By Dominic B. dela Cruz & Leilanie G. Adriano Staff reporters BATAC CITY—If there is one thing Batac is truly proud of, it would be its famous empanada-making business that has nurtured its people over the years. Embracing a century-old culture and culinary tradition, Batac’s empanada claims to be the best and tastiest in the country with its distinctive Ilokano taste courtesy of its local ingredients: fresh grated papaya, mongo, chopped longganisa, and egg. The crispy orange wrapper and is made of rice flour that is deep-fried. The celebration of this city’s famous traditional fast food attracting locals and tourists elsewhere comes with the City Charter Day of Batac every 23 rd  of June. Every year, the City Government of Batac led by Mayor Jeffrey Jubal Nalupta commemorate the city’s charter day celebration to further promote its famous One-Town, One Product, the Batac empanada. Empanada City The Batac empanada festival has already become an annua

PIDS expert says income tax cuts justified; warns gov’t of revenue loss

Proposals to amend the personal income tax schedule appear to be well-justified. However, these proposals should include measures that will allow government to recover the revenue loss from lower income taxes. Dr. Rosario Manasan, senior research fellow of state think-tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS), said at a seminar sponsored by the Philippine Senate, that government should look for new revenue measures to compensate for the projected revenue loss that will arise as a result of the implementation of any of the various proposals to restructure the personal income tax. Currently, there are several income tax reform proposals pending in both houses of Congress. All of them, according to Dr. Manasan, have the same objective of addressing the phenomenon of bracket creep, which results from “non-indexation to inflation of personal income tax brackets”. Simply put, bracket creep occurs when employees’ income increases over time as a result of inflation. Th

PGIN honors Ilocano heroes of past, present through Heroes Walk

SPO1 Allan Lampitoc Franco of Banna, Ilocos Norte and PO2 Jovalyn D. Lozano of Adams, Ilocos Norte receive a resolution of commendation, a certificate of college scholarship grant to their family members and a P20,000 cash incentive each from the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte represented by Governor Imee R. Marcos and Vice Governor Angelo M. Barba in recognition of their bravery and heroic acts in the Mamasapano clash in Maguindanao on January 25. Mr. Franco and Mr. Lozano were recognized on March 10 in time for the unveiling of the second batch of Ilocano heroes at the Heroes Walk located along the Sirib Mile in Laoag City.  (Lei Adriano) By Jennifer T. Pambid PGIN-CMO In honor of the heroes who brought freedom, fame and glory to the province as well as to the country in the past century, the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte (PGIN) through the Education Department and Sirib Youth Office launched the second batch of Ilocano Heroes Walk on March 10, 2015.