The more than seven-kilometer Dilaing Bato- Calo Mambeja access road connecting the villages of R.A. Padilla and Bunga in Carranglan town in Nueva Ecija was recently turned over by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) here and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to ease the transport of farm produce from agroforestry plantations to the market, and enhance the government’s reforestation programs, environment authorities told.

 

Paquito Moreno, Jr., executive director of the DENR in Central Luzon, said the P58-million worth access road was funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as an “agroforestry support facility” in the 10-year Forestland Management Project (FMP) in the over 44,000-hectare Pantabangan-Carranglan Watershed (PCW), which will also speed up economic recovery and ease the delivery of vaccines and other healthcare essentials to some 1,400 families.

 

“Our upland farmers will have an easier time transporting their products like cashews and other agroforest crops to the market. It will also boost local trade and productivity and help in the prevention of forest fires,” he explained, citing a projection study that the access road will boost the productivity of site development and other agroforestry activities in the area to over 389 million pesos in the next ten years.

 

He said the transportation cost and travel time of goods and services will be reduced significantly and can minimize the losses of local farmers while children and families will have better access to healthcare, education, and other government services.

 

“We can also better protect our reforestation site since the access road can help us respond immediately during any forest or grass fire incident including tracking of timber poachers,” he added.

 

Marcial Amaro, Jr., assistant secretary for policy planning and foreign assisted and special project and concurrent director of Forest Management Bureau (FMB) expressed his sincere appreciation for the support of JICA in bringing support facility projects that will help in the forest and watershed rehabilitation and at the same time improve the socio-economic conditions of upland communities.

 

“This access road will provide to at least 4,000 site development subprojects and we have seen how extensively the FMP has changed the town of Carranglan,” he said.

 

The Dilaing Bato- Calo Mambeja access road is the fifth agroforestry support facility implemented by JICA for the last two years in the PCW after the 60-meter long bridge in Sitio Pamalayan in Conversion town in Pantabangan town; the eight-kilometer long Calaocan Irrigation Pipeline System and the 55-meter long Calaocan hanging bridge in Burgos village, and the 80-meter long Barat reinforced concrete bridge in Sitio Kanlungan, all in Carranglan town.

 

FMP is a 10-year reforestation project launched in 2012 with the goal of rehabilitating PCW and strengthening forestland management through the implementation of collaborative community-based forest management (CBFM) strategy.

 

It integrates conservation and development-oriented activities with participation and capacity-building of local communities to rehabilitate degraded forestlands in three critical river basins, including Upper Magat and Cagayan in Region 2, Upper Pampanga in Region 3, and Jalaur in Iloilo. (-30-)