FIVE DIFFERENT ENDEMIC SPECIES OF TREES FOUND IN ILIN -
9/16/2005
On September 14, 2005 five thousand wildlings of five different endemic species of trees are on their way from Luzon to Mindoro to be raised for another year in the IVAFMS nursery. They are Apitong, Palo Sapis, Yakal, Lawaan and Guijo. One thousand each. We are so happy about this. It is a great feeling to be able to help preserve something that otherwise might perish someday. A brief description of each of the species is as follows:
Dipterocarps such as Apitong, Yakal, and Guijo please link to:
www.fieldmuseum.org/vanishing_treasures/V_Apitong.htm
For Palosapis please link to:
http://pt.defined.net/cgi-bin/bissphl.exe/spd?SID=356796516&spd=8014&tx=PL
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THREE GENERATIONS TO BUILD A RAINFOREST, IS IT POSSIBLE? -
9/1/2005
by Joseph J. Reynolds
7th edition of Asian Spirit Inflight Magazine - (Asian Spirit)Nestled away off the southwestern tip of Mindoro, where San Jose is located, are two islands comprising about 115,000 hectares, separated by a tidal channel about one kilometer wide. Many of the beautiful attributes described about such locations hold true here, but this story is not about the beauty of the countryside as much as it is about the toil of a people with backbone and the will to survive hardship while using the help of a simple but bold plan to build a rainforest.
Ilin Value Added Forestry Management Services Foundation is founded by a westerner and a Filipino born and raised on the island of Ilin, educated in the trade of agriculture and trained about forestry in Japan. The westerner, having spent years in tropical forests in Latin America, began working in the Philippines in 1986 when he found the deforestation nearly beyond belief and in desperate need of reversal. The Filipino brought his lessons learned from the Japanese and began planting trees in his barangay of Iling Proper in the late 1980’s. Nearly 12 years later each man’s destiny crossed paths and they began working together to reverse the deforestation on Ilin and to bring the forest back to where it truly will be called a forest, and even into the distant future a rainforest, perhaps.
For five years the Foundation has targeted its teaching energies at creating a locally based economy while it germinates seeds in its nursery, grows seedlings for up to 18 months and then plants the young trees on private land under agreements with the landowners. It is the landowner who shepherds the various plots of trees. More than 20,000 trees are in the ground and another 20,000 in the nursery waiting to be planted in July. Each year the ability to germinate more and more seeds becomes a reality.
The ultimate goal of the Foundation is to create a forest that has approximately 2,000 trees per hectare consisting of 165 endemic species along with numerous other species of endemic plants and fauna and to teach the locals how to make a good living from a living forest, that is sustainable, comforting to those in it and protective of the watershed, the soil and the surrounding reefs; and an environment for cross cropping.
The usual question is “How long will it take to produce a rainforest?” Not long when considering that the original took thousands of years after waiting perhaps millions of years for all of the environmental conditions to be right. The Foundation believes that its approach to this endeavor is first to educate the locals about the benefits of a sustainable forest, second to help Mother Nature so we can bypass the millions of years she would otherwise need to prepare the right environmental conditions. The project reaches out to other parts of the Philippines to find the right species to grow, however, some of them require the protection of an already existing forest in which to get started. So, the Foundation first plants a non-en-demic species of tree that is very compatible to the hostile environment of an already denuded forest. Imagine a rocky desert, how do you plant a forest in that? The true mahogany does quite well in such an environment when the seedling is robust, about 18 months old, and cared for during the heat of the dry season. We plant during the rainy season, water and fertilize during the dry season paying the local landowner for his help. This method saves several thousands of years right there. When the mahogany grows for about six years we are ready to thin and to replant systematically with the endemic species. Wow, thousands of years more saved again.
The Foundation believes that with the right support of the locals, its neighbors and outsiders it can complete the reforestation portion of the project in three generations. After all it took 50 years for thousands of loggers to denude more than 96% of the forests in the Philippines. What is three generations to build back a small prototype that can be replicated elsewhere in the Philippines and even around the tropical world? Imagine once again, all the oxygen our atmosphere is now crying for that it once used to receive daily from the tropical forests before deforestation. Think of the consequences of not spending the next three generations reversing deforestation, when will the atmosphere suffocate?
The Foundation’s major asset in this quest is the local people. The elders saw the forest before it was denuded in the 1960’s. They used to hunt deer, wild pig, monkeys, rodents and birds during their times as did their forefathers for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years. The efforts of the Foundation and its Filipino co-founder have gained the support of the children who are schooled in buildings where just outside their windows are trees more than 12 years old, providing shade and comfort to them. It is the parents of these children who must be provided the opportunity to earn for their families through methods that help build the forest rather than continue to destroy it for charcoal and subsistence. Each of us can help!
To arrange a private tour of the IVAFMS project please write to jreynolds@ivafms.com or contact the staff at Sikatuna Beach Resort in San Jose, Mindoro Occidental when visiting. (The author is a co-founder of IVAFMS.)
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THE DREAM OF A RAINFOREST -
3/31/2005
By Almond N. Aguila
The Philippine Star 03/15/2005By the time i wrote this story the world had changed drastically. Overwhelming landslides swept across Luzon. Then, apocalyptic tsunamis consumed everything along the shores of the Indian Ocean and literally altered the earth’s topography.
But it was a clear day when we left Sikatuna Beach Hotel in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro for Ilin Island. The waters of the South China Sea splashed our faces in the motorized banca, a reality away from Nature’s wrath in the months to follow.
Our host, Joe Reynolds, did not hold back on tales of his adventures. Born to a family of esteemed military men, he was–at various times in his life–a special agent for US intelligence, a diamond miner in South America and an international businessman. When we reached Ilin, it became apparent he was also a dreamer.
Awaiting our arrival was the stark opposite of Joe. Short, dark and shy Adel Declito grew up on the island and–despite an opportunity to migrate to Japan–never craved for city living. The two-term barangay captain of Iling (confusingly an area on Ilin Island) is best known for planting trees. He too is a dreamer.
The two use the word "destiny" to describe their first meeting. Though he speaks Niponggo more fluently than English and has only known Joe for four years, Kapitan Adel has become his best friend. They have different versions of that fateful meeting, both of which sound quite providential. What is clear is that Joe unintentionally landed on Ilin and Adel became his accidental host. Before long, they realized that they had one thing in common: trees. They sealed their unlikely partnership without so much as a handshake the second time they met.
Ilin Value-Added Forestry Management Services Foundation (ivafms) is the result of their collaboration. Simply put, the two dreamers are taking on the incredible task of building a rain forest on Ilin island.
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