(EID-012) “MONO-CULTURE VERSUS BIO-DIVERSE FORESTS”

A debate is now raging in the media on the pros and cons of planting renewable feedstock for bio-fuel production. Proponents of bio-fuels claim that there is really no issue about losing agricultural lands to bio-plants, because they say that they are going to utilize vacant lands, instead of using the existing farm lands.

As I see it however, the real issue is not whether or not vacant lands will be used. The real issue I think is whether or not to grow bio-plants using the mono-culture approach, or the bio-diversity approach. This is not the first time that the issue has cropped up in our midst, because we have already seen how soils die after continuous planting to rice, a problem that has awakened us to the need for multi-cropping, also known as mixed cropping.

In the provinces of Agusan Del Norte and Agusan del Sur, there is a popular myth that the Gemelina tree variety is no good, because it depletes the soil. As it now turns out, it is mono-culture that is to blame, and not the tree variety itself.

An American named Joseph J. Reynolds has successfully developed a vacant property in Occidental Mindoro into a bio-diverse forest, and his project now stands as a solid proof that large volumes of desired tree varieties could be produced in a mix of many other varieties, in effect avoiding mono-culture.

The logic behind the Reynolds project is actually very simple, because it simply restores a previously denuded area back into its original condition, back to what God had made it to be, so to speak. Just as the commercial loggers of yesteryears were able to harvest large volumes of trees in the natural forests before, Reynolds is able to do the same thing now, albeit in a man made forest now, made the natural way.

Adding to the appeal of the Reynolds approach is the fact that the existing residents of the denuded areas are the same people that he hired to become the tree farmers and caretakers of the project. These people now actually receive salaries for their work, even while the trees are still growing, but on top of that, they also get a share of the harvest, as if they are part owners of the tree farm. For the first time in my life, Reynolds was able to convince me that it is possible to restore a lost forest to its original, natural form. Hopefully, his model could be replicated nationwide.