Photo by Tina Basco Philippines’ Best Practice to Combat Land Degradadtion...13 UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS Desertification and Land Degradation in ASEAN...14 Cambodia Improving Agricultural P
Trang 2Letters, articles, suggestions and photos are
welcome and should be addressed to:
Disclaimer: Views or opinions expressed
herein do not necessarily represent any
official view of the European Union or the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) Secretariat The authors are
responsible for any data or information
presented in their articles.
Contents
Volume 1, Number 1 October-December 2006
ABOUT YOU AND US
Thailand Integrated Desertification Control Activities
to Arrest Degradation 38
Vietnam Intensifying Environmental Protection 41
BOOKMARKS
Surfing the Web of Life 54
Philippines to Host 12th ASEAN Summit 56
39th ASEAN Day Celebrations Held in the Philippines 57
Setting the Directions for ACB 58
Cover: Sand dunes in Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Philippines Photo by Tina Basco
Philippines’ Best Practice
to Combat Land Degradadtion 13
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Desertification and Land Degradation in ASEAN 14
Cambodia Improving Agricultural Practices
to Enhance Soil Productivity 15
Indonesia Land Rehabilitation through Extensive Forest Programs 18
Lao PDR
A Strategic Vision for the Forest and Agriculture Sectors 21
Malaysia Promoting Sustainable Land Resource Management 25
Myanmar Long-term Plans to Arrest Desertification 29
Philippines Mainstreaming Agriculture and Rural Development Programs 33
Singapore
A Balance Between Development and Nature 36
ACB Hits the International Scene 60
Signing of the Host Country Agreement of the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity 62
Green Philippines Highways Project Launched with 5 Million Seedlings Planted 63
Working Together to Protect Life on Earth 64
PUBLICATIONS
Capsule Reviews of Some Training Resources Database Entries 66
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Editorial
Biodiversity will continue to bring
you information on biodiversity
con-servation and management and other
related concerns and issues from the
10 ASEAN Member-Countries
(AMCs) – Brunei Darussalam,
Cam-bodia, Indonesia, Lao Peoples
Demo-cratic Republic (PDR), Malaysia,
Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam
For the information of first time
readers, ASEAN
Biodiversity was first
published by the
ASEAN Regional
Cen-tre for Biodiversity
Conservation (ARCBC),
then a five-year project
(February 1999 –
De-cember 2004) funded by
the European Union
Since then ASEAN
Biodiversity has gained
a wide readership not
only in the ASEAN but also in 60
other countries all over the world And
withe the establishment of the ASEAN
Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), the
ASEAN Governing Board deemed it
essential to also endorse the regular
production of ASEAN Biodiversity by
the Centre
This maiden issue of ASEAN
Biodiversity under the ACB features
the country reports of nine ASEAN
countries on desertification and land
degradation These articles are
sum-marized versions of country reports
of each ASEAN country to the United
Nations Convention to Combat
De-sertification (UNCCD) The
UNCCD defines desertification as
“land degradation in arid, semi-arid
and dry sub-humid areas, resulting
from various factors, including
cli-matic variations and human activity.”
Accordingly, about 4 billion hectares(1/3 of the earth’s land surface) arethreatened by desertification, and over
250 million people directly affected
by it, and one billion people in over
100 countries at risk
Today, some 191 countries ing the 9 ASEAN countries) havealready become Parties to theUNCCD, and are obligated to “pre-pare national action programs at theregional and sub-regional levels”
(includ-In the ASEAN ports, you will note thatthe more commoncauses of these environ-mental issues that arenow threatening biologi-cal resources have beentraced to human-in-duced activities such asdeforestation, poor ag-ricultural practices in-cluding fertilizer use,and overgrazing Theseare over and above such natural di-sasters like the El Niño spells, flood-ing, global warming and others, whichsometimes could also be attributed tounregulated human activities Howeach country hopes to or is alreadydoing to combat this growing envi-ronmental challenge is likewise dis-cussed in the articles
re-Added to the Special Reportssection of this issue are two articlesthat briefly discuss some of the ef-forts of the Philippine government tocombat land degradation One isentitled “Philippines’ Best Practice toCombat Land Degradation and De-sertification” The author shares thatthe “Philippines best practice tocombat land degradation and incipi-ent desertification is a multiple-agency,-country, self-financed, internationaland local partnership of a commu-
nity/NGO driven project entitled
“Community Based Dry Land tershed Management Approach: ASmall Scale Grassroots Solution toCombat Desertification The authordiscusses the project’s guiding prin-ciples, among which are: reclaimingdegraded land through market-de-fined soil and water conservationmeasures; community initiatives andfarmer-lead collective actions, andself-help and shared responsibility par-ticipatory approach
Wa-The other article discusses theresults of a research study entitled
“Hastening Ecological RestorationUsing Beneficial Microorganisms”.The authors are hopeful that throughthe use of microorganisms, rehabili-tation of the environment would takeplace, vegetation would likely be re-stored, and ecological succession ofdegraded and denuded areas may beattained
You will also find inside thismagazine profiles of selected ASEANHeritage Parks, a regular section ofthis magazine The Parks profiled arethe Preah Monivong National Park
of Cambodia; the Nam Ha ProtectedArea of Lao PDR; and Mt KinabaluNational Park in Malaysia
This issue still has the 4-page out Focus section that describes plantand animal species within the ASEANregion In focus here are plant spe-
pull-cies, namely: Bauhinia malabaricum (Roxb.), Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth, Antidesma ghaesembilla Gaerth, and Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash.
There are a lot more interestinginformation you will find as you gothrough all the pages We hope that
ASEAN Biodiversity will continue to
inspire and keep you updated of thelatest news, reports and other infor-mation about biodiversity conserva-tion and protection and related issuesaround the ASEAN region
The theme for the second issuecoming out in March 2007 is “DataSharing and Biodiversity InformationExchange.”
We Are Back
Trang 4ABOUT YOU AND US
2006 in a Nutshell
4 September 2006 – Experts in
Indonesia say they have found
evidence suggesting that four
Javan rhino calves have been
born in recent weeks, raising
hopes over the prospects for a
species on the brink of
extinction Fewer than 60 Javan
rhinos are left worldwide, most of
them believed to be living in
Indonesia’s Ujung Kulon National
Park on the far west of Java
island A team of biologists and
wardens saw signs of baby rhinos
in the park, including small
footprints next to larger
footprints belonging to the
mother in a number of locations.
The team then came
face-to-face with a calf, identified as a
female, and her mother The only
other known population of the
Javan rhino, the rarest of the
world’s five rhino species, is in
Cat Tien National Park in
Vietnam – Reuters
20 August 2006 – Ecologically
rich Bueng Kut Ting, a lake in
Nong Khai province in Thailand
that has fed and nurtured
generations, will be proposed as
a new internationally
important wetland, or Ramsar
site If approved, Bueng Kut Ting
will be the 11 th Ramsar site in
Thailand and will give the area
the opportunity to receive
financial support for its
conservation and sustainable
development To local villagers,
the site is a source of food and
aquatic plants used for
handicrafts A recent survey
stated that there are at least
103 fish and 59 aquatic plant
species in the lake, which is also
home to an unknown variety of
birds and other aquatic species.
The lake’s ecology is threatened
by over-fishing, contamination by
toxic agricultural chemicals, a
rubber plantation on the
lakeshore, as well as introduced
species such as the water
hyacinth and sherry nail – Nation
14 August 2006 – Nine manta
rays were recently spotted for
the first time in 20 years
gliding in Mabini, Philippines In
addition to manta rays, divers
have also witnessed sea turtles
and dolphins returning to the area Working to restore the area’s once rich marine biodiversity, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), in close coordination with the local government of Mabini, has been implementing a coastal resource management program for several years, including the creation of community-based marine law enforcement units and funding other marine conservation activities Currently, WWF is assisting the local municipality in developing water-use and zoning plans for Mabini’s waters to further enhance coastal resource management in the area – WWF
9 August 2006 - Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) recently launched the project Making the link: The connection and sustainable management of Kon
Ka Kinh national park (KKK NP) and Kon Cha Rang nature reserve (KCR NR) The KKK national park contains 33,565 ha
of natural forest, equivalent to 80% of the total area of the NP.
It supports a range of mountain habitat types, particularly 2,000
ha of mixed coniferous and broadleaf forest containing Po mu (Fokienia hodginsii), which is listed
as near-threatened The NP also supports some of the most intact fauna and floral communities in central Viet Nam, notably a number of globally threatened mammal species, including Vooc
Va Chan Xam, Grey-shanked Douc, Vuon Den Ma Hung, Yellow-cheeked crested gibbon and Indochina tiger Six restricted-range bird species have been recorded at the NP, among which are the Khuou Kon Ka Kinh, and the chestnut-eared Laughingthrush which is endemic
to the Kon Tum highlands and was discovered at the KKK
national park in 1999 The project aims to establish a foundation of support and management to maintain the biological integrity and connectivity of KKK national park and KCR nature reserve – Viet Nam News
10 July 2006 - Scientists trying
to photograph wild tigers deep in the Indonesian jungle captured a glimpse of another endangered species instead - the Sumatran ground cuckoo (Carpococcyx viridis) An Indonesian-British survey team released rare images
of the short, brown fowl, with black and green plumes, taken with a sensor-triggered camera.
The July spotting, near Kerinci Seblat National Park in central- west Sumatra, was the third known recording of the bird since
1916 The Sumatran rain forests contain some of the world’s richest biodiversity but they are also among the world’s most threatened forests, due mainly to illegal logging – Associated Press
5 July 2006 - The latest survey
by the Global Environment Fund/
World Bank-funded Integrating Watershed and Biodiversity Management in Chu Yang Sin National Park in Dac Lac Province in Vietnam focused on fish and butterfly faunas A total
of 81 species was recorded, of which 76 species are found in the Mekong River Of the 81 species, three need further identification, including Acantopsis sp., Schistura sp and Schistura
sp Only one species recorded, Ca May, Chinese algae-eater (Gyrinocheilus aymonieri) is considered a nationally threatened species by the Red Book of Viet Nam Thirteen species recorded during the survey were additions
to the fish fauna of Viet Nam.
The butterfly survey was also the first for the park During the survey, a total of 244 species were recorded, among which only one represented a new record for Viet Nam Ten other species had not been found before in the Da Lat Highland Another noteworthy record was Buom Phuong Canh Chim Chan Lien (Golden Birdwing Troides Helena) (Papilionidae),
which is listed in the Convention
on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) – Viet Nam News
19 June 2006 - Indonesia has announced plans to create a marine protected area (MPA) over 1.2 million hectares off the eastern coast of the Derawan Archipelago in the Sulawesi Sea The area is an integral part of WWF’s Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion, which contains some
450 species of coral and supports
one of the world’s largest varieties of reef fish, as well as commercial and community fisheries WWF and The Nature Conservancy are currently working with the Berau District and local communities in developing a zoning plan that will include no-take zones, as well as traditional-use zones where only small-scale traditional fishing will be allowed Other zones will be set up for tourism, fishing and other recreational activities – WWF
8 June 2005 – Governments and various agencies celebrated World Ocean Day, which focused on the theme: Save Fisheries, Reduce Poverty Well-designed networks of Marine Protected Areas are vital for ensuring healthy, productive marine environments that can support well-planned development These areas will provide income and nutrition for local communities, direct and indirect revenue for national economies, and safe havens for fish and other marine life This World Ocean Day, Fiji has been presented with the Global Ocean Conservation Award
in recognition of its leadership in marine conservation In 2005, the Fijian government committed to establishing a network of MPAs covering 30 per cent of its
Manta Ray
© WWF-Canon / Jürgen Freund
A feather star in the Sulawesi Marine Ecoregion.
Sulu-© WWF-Canon / Cat Holloway
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waters by 2020 — one of the
largest areas of protected ocean
in the world – WWF
5 June 2006 – World
Environment Day (WED) 2006
celebrations were held in Algiers
with the theme “Don’t Desert
Drylands!” This is in line with
the declaration of 2006 as the
United Nations International
Year of Deserts and
Desertification As part of WED
2006, the United Nations
Environment Programme launched
a new publication on desert
tourism entitled “Tourism and
Deserts - A Practical Guide to
Managing the Social and
Environmental Impacts in the
Desert Recreation Sector.” The
tourism guide complements the
UNEP Global Desert Outlook report,
which describes how the world’s
deserts are facing dramatic
changes as a result of global
climate change, high water
demands, tourism and salt
contamination of irrigated soils.
– UNEP
22 May 2006 – Today’s
celebrations of International
Biodiversity Day will focus on
protecting the diversity of life in
drylands, in keeping with the UN
designation of 2006 as the
International Year of Deserts
and Desertification Forty-seven
percent of the Earth’s land
surface is drylands This includes
semi-arid lands such as the Karoo
and the Horn of Africa, savannah
landscapes such as the Eurasian
steppes and the North American
Great Plains, and Mediterranean
landscapes Dryland ecosystems
receive very erratic rainfall, and
as a result are very fragile The
Convention on Biological Diversity
Executive Secretary Ahmed
Djoghlaf called for rapid
implementation of the mutually
supportive programs of work of
the Rio conventions - the
Convention on Biological
Diversity, the Convention to
Combat Desertification, and the
United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change,
as “the solution to addressing
the root causes of desertification
and alleviating the escalating
risks of famine and disease
resulting from the failure of
dryland ecosystems.” –
Envi-ronment News Service
13 April 2006 - A new species
of freshwater stingray, known
as Himantura kittipongi, has been discovered in a river in western Thailand The stingray, measuring 60 centimeters (23.6 inches) in width, was first observed two years ago but has only now been confirmed as a new species by researchers from WWF-Thailand and the US-based Smithsonian Institute Thai rivers have been plagued by serious pollution, overfishing and dam building The new species was named Himantura kittipongi after prominent Thai fish expert Kittipong Jaruthanin who first observed the ray in 2004 – WWF
companies whose operations have replaced forests and companies who hold licenses to convert additional forest The map also shows distribution of elephants and information on elephant- human conflict – WWF
31 March 2006 - Huge nature reserves that stretch across national frontiers are being formed in Asia, South America and elsewhere, a sign that biodiversity has joined security and immigration as a border issue.
More than a dozen countries at the 8th U.N Conference on the Convention on Biodiversity in Brazil this week agreed to set up transnational parks or link national parks in the jungles of Borneo, the steppes of Central Asia and the Pacific Ocean islands of Micronesia In the Amazon rain forest, half a dozen governments are working to create up to four nature reserves Dozens of countries have agreed to meet a U.N goal to slow the pace of biodiversity loss by 2010.
Extinctions are now more numerous than at any time since dinosaurs roamed the Earth But many countries rich in biodiversity lack money Government officials
at the conference have lobbied environmental groups, corporations and the United Nations to help pay for managing the parks and protecting them from poachers In Borneo, a biodiversity hot spot that holds 6% of the world’s species of plants and animals and where 361 species were discovered in the last decade, the governments of Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia hope to stem deforestation by doubling a protected area to 84,950 square miles, an area nearly the size of Britain – Environment News Network/Reuters
overfished, threatening the livelihood of thousands of fishermen and an important whale shark population Swimming with whale sharks is contributing to the economy of the Philippines According to government statistics, some 7,000 tourists travelled to Donsol, some 500km southeast of the capital, Manila, in 2005 to visit the “gentle giants”, earning some PhP35 million (or US$623,000) WWF is currently working with local fishing communities on a fisheries management plan which will address such marine issues as illegal fishing and the exploitation
of fishery resources — issues that could affect the whale shark’s habitat and overall future in Donsol’s waters – WWF
© WWF Cannon Thailand
The Himantura Kittipongi freshwater stingray.
5 April 2006 - A coalition of conservation organizations has launched a new interactive mapping tool on elephant populations and forest cover on the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Sumatran elephants in Riau have declined by nearly 75%
over the past eleven years as a result of a shrinking forest habitat Without improved management, it is likely they could face extinction in another five years In 2003, there were approximately 400 Sumatran elephants in Riau The interactive map helps readers visualize forest loss in Sumatra’s Riau Province since 1982 In addition to identifying protected areas in the province, it also identifies
© WWF-Canon / Paul Forster
Sumatran elephant in Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia.
3 March 2006 - A one-year study conducted by WWF shows that 32.5% of commercially- important fish species are being
© WWF / Javier Ordóñez
Whale shark in Donsol, Sorsogon
21 February 2006 - The World Wildlife Fund announced the discovery of a previously unknown coral reef, located off the coast
of Khao Lak, Thailand Initial surveys reveal that the 270-ha reef is home to over 30 genera
of hard corals and at least 112 species of fish from 56 families Also found was a species of parrot fish (Chlorurus rakaura)
— first discovered in Sri Lanka and never seen in Thailand until now — as well as a rare species of sweet lips (Plectorhincus macrospilus) WWF is working closely with Thailand’s Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, the Department of National Parks, local communities and dive operators to manage the reef, which may ultimately be included
in a new marine national park – WWF
8 February 2006 – A team led
by Conservation International’s Melanesia Center for Biodiversity Conservation has found a “lost world” of new bird species, giant flowers, and rare animals
© WWF / Songpol Tippayawong
The newly discovered reef
Trang 6ABOUT YOU AND US
species and five forest palms previously unknown Scientists also discovered the habitat of Berlepsch’s six-wired bird of paradise, Parotia berlepschi, and captured the first photographs of the golden-fronted bowerbird displaying at its bower – a tower
of twigs and other forest materials it builds for the mating ritual Other discoveries included what may be the largest rhododendron flowers on record - almost six inches across Such abundance of food and other resources means the mountain range’s interior – more than 300,000 hectares of old growth tropical forest – remains untouched by humans, and the entire Foja forest area of more than one million hectares (2.47 million acres) constitutes the largest pristine tropical forest in Asia and an important region for biodiversity – Environment News Service
in the pristine forested Foja
mountains in Indonesia’s Papua
province Discoveries include the
first new bird found on the island
of New Guinea since 1939 - an
orange-faced honeyeater, which
has a bright orange face patch
with a pendant wattle under
each eye Large mammals that
have been hunted to near
extinction elsewhere were found
in the area in abundance, and the
scientists were able to simply pick
up two long-beaked echidnas, a
primitive egg-laying mammal that
is little known The scientists
found a new large mammal for
Indonesia - the golden-mantled
tree kangaroo (Dendrolagus
pulcherrimus) The discovery of
the tree kangaroo was the most
spectacular of all the team’s finds
as the species is believed to be
on the brink of extinction.
The scientists also found 20 new
frog species, four new butterfly
be carried out under a permit system International demand for the turtle from hobbyists and collectors in Europe, North America and East Asia is pushing this endemic species towards extinction The new report issues
a number of recommendations, including better national protection and capacity building for increased and improved enforcement – WWF
displaying at its bower
3 February 2006 – The death
of ten Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mekong River in Cambodia
is raising serious concerns about the survival of this already critically endangered population.
The WWF estimates that there are only 80 –100 Irrawaddy dolphins left in the Mekong, and they are restricted to a 190-km stretch of the river between the Cambodia-Laos border and the Cambodian town of Kratie Eight out of 10 of the dead dolphins were calves, continuing the trend
of high mortality in baby dolphins
in the Mekong The trend is suspected to be due to some form of environmental pollution.
At least one of the dead dolphins was killed by entanglement in fishing gillnets Fisheries bycatch – the accidental capture of non- targeted species – is one of the greatest threats to freshwater dolphin species – WWF
© WWF-Canon / Alain Compost
Irrawaddy dolphin
© Bonggi Ibarrando
Roti Island snake-necked turtle
19 January 2006 – A camera trap recently captured photos of
a critically endangered Javan rhinoceros in Vietnam’s Cat Tien National Park The Javan rhinoceros is perhaps the most threatened large mammal in the world, with only two populations known to exist in the wild In the Ujong Kulon National Park in Java (Indonesia) there are about 50 to
60 animals, and the second population is in Cat Tien National Park where only three to seven rhinos remain Throughout Asia, rhino horn is highly valued as a
is forbidden under Vietnamese and international laws, the illicit trade continues, and these creatures have already been pushed to the very brink of extinction – WWF
18 January 2006 – The United Nations Environment Programme introduced the guidebook “Energy Efficiency Guide for Industry in Asia,” which explores energy solutions through case studies in over
40 companies in nine countries across Asia It gives companies information they can use to reduce production costs through real company examples, a methodology, technical information, tools, and a contact and information database Armed with the guide, companies can improve environmental performance and reduce greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change The guide was developed by UNEP with national bodies in Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency The
“Energy Efficiency Guide for Industry in Asia” is the primary output of the project Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction from Industry in Asia and the Pacific
(www.geriap.org), which seeks
to support Asian businesses to address climate change by becoming more energy efficient, and thereby reducing green- house gas emissions and costs.– Environment News Service
© National Petrochemical Public Co Ltd.
Map Ta Phut Olefins Plant in Thailand uses natural gas as fuel.
Trang 7ABOUT YOU AND US
The ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity
Introduction
The Southeast Asian region is
known internationally for its great
importance to global biodiversity being
the natural habitat of up to 40% of
all species on Earth It includes three
mega-diversity countries (Indonesia,
Malaysia and the Philippines);
sev-eral biogeographical units (e.g.,
Malesia, Wallacea, Sundaland,
Indo-Burma and the Central Indo-Pacific);
and numerous centers of
concentra-tion of restricted-range species of
birds, plants and insects Species
richness by area is also much higher
in several ecosystem
types (e.g., lowland
rain forest, coral
reefs) than anywhere
else on Earth, and
overall species
rich-ness is known to be
very high although
most species have
not yet been studied
thoroughly and even
still unknown to
sci-ence Not being able
to discover all the yet
unknown species is
as alarming as the
extreme threats to
biodiversity
re-sources from human
activities and the substantial
degrada-tion of the natural beauty and
diver-sity of the entire region in recent years
These biodiversity resources evolved
and existed within the context of
natural ecosystems, and cannot
sur-vive in ruined or disturbed
ecosys-tems
There is however an emerging
awareness of a biodiversity sector that
has distinctive investment needs and
attributes, while also being
interac-tive with other sectors The
biodiversity sector includes almost
anything and everything that has to
do with saving biodiversity, studying
biodiversity, teaching about biodiversity
and using biodiversity, the four
all-encompassing roles of the ASEANCentre for Biodiversity or ACB
Origin of ACB
Although regional governmentshave each undertaken several steps toconserve biodiversity in recent years,each country had acknowledged inmore recent years that country-wideaction could not and would not beable to confront biodiversity issues,
which are now global in scope TheSoutheast Asian nations thus bandedtogether to protect and conservebiodiversity resources on a regionallevel in pursuance of the Hanoi Plan
of Action (HPA) The HPA lates among others the establishment
stipu-of the ASEAN Regional Centre forBiodiversity Conservation(ARCBC), which then became a jointcooperation project of the ASEANand the European Union (EU)
From 1999 to 2004, ARCBCsuccessfully established the network
of biodiversity institutions, thus tering stronger collaboration amongthe ASEAN Member Countries inaddressing biodiversity-related con-cerns such as the signing of theDeclaration on the ASEAN HeritageParks ARCBC had likewise formu-lated the ASEAN Guide on Occupa-tional Standards for Protected AreasJobs, which was duly endorsed byASOEN to be used by the ASEAN
fos-in the development of trafos-infos-ing grams and for prescribing perfor-mance standards in protected areamanagement Furthermore, it had
pro-funded various searches onbiodiversity that re-sulted in the discov-ery of more than 100new species of floraand fauna in theregion The researchprogram also spon-sored scholarshipsfor ASEAN youngscientists to studytaxonomy (plant andinvertebrate) in Eu-ropean universities
re-In addition, ARCBCdeveloped theBiodiversity Infor-mation Sharing Ser-vice (BISS) that made analysis of bulkbiodiversity data readily accessiblethough the web
Acknowledging and recognizingthe achievements of the ARCBC asvaluable and indispensable in address-ing the challenges confrontingbiodiversity in the ASEAN, theASEAN Ministers of the Environmentdecided during their 9th ASEANMinisterial Meeting on the Environ-ment in December 2003, to continuethe activities of ARCBC by establish-ing an institution with a distinct legal
By Gregorio I Texon and Monina T Uriarte
Former Philippines’ Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Michael Defensor (2nd from right) led the launching of the ACB in September 2005.
Trang 8ABOUT YOU AND US
entity to be known as the ASEAN
Centre for Biodiversity (ACB).
The New ASEAN Institution
The ASEAN Centre for
Biodiversity (ACB) is now an
inter-governmental and international
re-gional centre of excellence of the
ASEAN for policy formulation,
ca-pacity development, awareness
rais-ing and linkage-buildrais-ing with the
international donor community for
the sustainable use of biodiversity,
and conservation of biodiversity for
the present and future generations
of the ASEAN Member Countries
(AMC) The ACB was formally
es-tablished on 27 September 2005
when all the AMC signed the
ASEAN Agreement on the
Establish-ment of the ASEAN Centre for
Biodiversity
The ASEAN and the EU jointly
agreed to finance the establishment
and initial operation of ACB when
they signed the Financing Agreement
for ACB in April 2005
The ASEAN Agreement for the
Establishment of ACB also stipulated
that the Philippines will host the
ACB The Host Country Agreement
(HCA), which defines the
obliga-tions of the host country, was signed
on 8 August 2006 during the 39th
ASEAN Founding Anniversary
cel-ebration The Philippine
Govern-ment then ratified the HCA, which
is now with the Philippine Senate
for concurrence
The ACB will continue to hold
office at the ERDB Building located
at the Forestry campus of the
Univer-sity of the Philippines at Los Baños,
Laguna, Philippines, nestled at the foot
of the legendary Mt Makiling
Institutional Arrangement
The ACB Governing Board, which
is composed of members of the
ASOEN, provides overall guidance
and supervision, approves the annual
work plan and budget, and evaluates
the performance of ACB key officials
The key officers for the ACB arethe Executive Director, and a Direc-tor each for Networking, Partnershipsand Resource Mobilization (NPRM);
Program Development and tation (PDI); and Biodiversity Infor-mation Management (BIM) Detailedstaff from the AMC, recruited staffand consultants would support the keyofficials in the day-to-day operations
Implemen-of the Centre
As of this writing, two key ers have so far been selected andappointed by the ACB GoverningBoard (GB) They are the BIM Di-rector who reported on 01 Septem-ber 2006 and the NPRM Directorwho came on board on the 8th ofSeptember 2006
offic-The Centre’s Governing Board hasalso designated the NPRM Director
as the Acting Director for ACB fective 12 October 2006 (Please refer
ef-to the Profiles Section and the marks Section for related stories)
Book-Goals, Objectives and Components of ACB
The Goal of ACB is to facilitate
cooperation and coordination throughthe establishment of linkages to net-works of institutions in the ASEANand other parts of the world
Its overall objective is to
encour-age and enable the ASEAN region tomeet the call by the World Summit
on Sustainable Development toachieve a significant reduction in therate of biodiversity loss by the year2010
The ACB has five Project ponents These are:
Com-1) Policy Development and dination This component will encour-
Coor-age the formulation, development andcoordination of policies on conserva-tion, sustainable use, access andequitable sharing of benefits frombiodiversity at the ASEAN level Itwill also provide a venue for theformulation of ASEAN commonpositions on biodiversity issues ininternational conventions
2) Human and Institutional pacity Development The compo-
Ca-nent will promote the adoption ofthe ASEAN Guidelines on Compe-tence Standards on Protected AreaJobs in the management of theprotected areas of ASEAN This isintended to enhance competence ofstaff and improvement of perfor-mance standards on the job; designand implement training courses;develop instructional materials andteaching tools; provide exchangevisits and study tours and othermeasures to promote effectiveness
of protected areas staff
3) Digital Knowledge ment Capacity Enhancement This
Manage-component intends to enhance the pability of AMC to conduct regionaldata analysis; formulate data sharingstrategies and develop a uniform re-porting scheme, monitoring indica-tors and early warning system; andfacilitate reporting to national, regionaland international needs and commit-ments
ca-4) Promotion of Awareness on Biodiversity Values for the ASEAN Leaders and Public ACB will con-
duct a market survey to identify therelevant and effective messages forthe information materials as well asthe media and channels to be used
in order to enhance the capacity ofthe ASEAN leaders and the public toappreciate the values and importance
of biodiversity It will thus producevideo presentations, pamphlets andposters containing messages on theprinciples of biodiversity conserva-tion, sustainable use and access andsharing of benefits from biodiversity,and translate and publish conserva-tion guides to major ASEAN lan-guages
5) Sustainable Financing nism This component will plan, es-
Mecha-tablish and manage an endowmentfund to sustain the operations of ACB.For more information about theCentre, please log on towww.aseanbiodiversity.org.
Trang 9ABOUT YOU AND US
MA CONSUELO D GARCIA is theDirector for Biodiversity Information Management (BIM) of theASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB) As Director for BIM, herthree-pronged mission is to: (1) help unlock the power of andfacilitate the harnessing of biodiversity information in the ASEANMember Countries (AMC), the European Union (EU) and otherdata holder partners through a renewed culture of sharing viacommunities of practice; (2) develop and provide innovative ser-vices on biodiversity regional analysis and early warning systems;and (3) promote the use of standardized and harmonizedbiodiversity information to facilitate national and regional report-ing to key international biodiversity-related conventions In opti-mizing the use and management of biodiversity information throughACB’s BIM program, she hopes to contribute to the overall ASEANvision on reducing the loss of biodiversity through a knowledge-based policy development and information-supported decision-making process within the region
Prior to her post at the ACB, Connie worked on knowledgemanagement at the United Nations Economic and Social Com-mission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), where she initiatedthe pilot development of the Regional Advisers Database andfacilitated the transfer of an ADB-developed electronic newslet-ter application to UNESCAP At the ADB, she
last held the posts of Policy Officer andKnowledge Management (KM) Officer
at the Regional and Sustainable velopment Department As KM Of-ficer, her work involved serving assecretariat for the implementation
De-of ADB’s Knowledge ManagementFramework; undertaking businessprocesses and functional needsanalysis; supervising and managing
IT applications development projects
She also substantively contributed to ADB’skey working groups on initiatives relating to In-formation Systems Technology Strategy preparation, GIS pro-tocol and applications, performance management system, coun-try strategy planning and monitoring, and the ADBToday news-letter
Connie also served the Philippine government for 11 years.She was Assistant Chief, Information Services Division at theNational Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA)where she initiated the implementation of promotions and mar-keting of NAMRIA information products and services
Connie holds degrees in M App Sci in Remote Sensing fromthe University of New South Wales, Australia, M.S Fishery Biologyand B.S Marine Science from the University of the Philippines Shecompleted a coursework on Coastal Zone Management Planning atthe Asian Institute of Technology Under the MOU between UNEPand ADB, she worked as an intern on using Geographic InformationSystems for Environment Applications at the UNEP Regional Re-source Centre for Asia-Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand
ROLAND Y.C YAP is currently the Director of
the Networking, Partnership and Resource Mobilization of the
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), and has recently been
ap-pointed as the Centre’s Acting Executive Director Prior to his current
position and appointment, he has been developing a distinguished
career over the last 12 years in the private, public and NGO sectors
In the field of biomedical science, he hasserved as Chairman of the Asia PacificBioDevelopment Alliance, WilliamsburgBioProcessing Foundation (WilBio) Hewas also the Executive Director andChairman (International RelationsCommittee) of BioSingapore, an in-dustry/trade organization tasked
to create awareness, develop andpromote business networking op-portunities and maximize investmentand employment in the life sciencessector
Roland has held senior appointments in international
marketing and business development in the private sector;
informa-tion, defense relations and policy, public affairs, human resource
and organizational consulting, training and development at The
Min-istry of Defence; industrial relations, corporate restructuring and
planning, international affairs, leadership development at the
Singapore National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and general
man-agement and business governance at the Consumers Association of
Singapore (CASE)
Given Roland’s in-depth knowledge of business and human
resources issues in the manufacturing, electronics, building and
construction, marine engineering, chemical, metal, precision
engi-neering, and biomedical sciences industries, he was appointed by
the Board of Governors for Spirit of Enterprise to serve as their
interim Executive Director to drive initiatives to honor, inspire and
promote entrepreneurship
In the public sector, Roland has served as Assistant Director,
International Affairs and Leadership Development Departments at
NTUC and as Deputy Director at CASE He was also part of the
team that was involved in the US-Singapore Free Trade
Agree-ment process in 2003
Roland has a Bachelor’s degree from The National
Univer-sity of Singapore, Master of Arts in Criminology with
Distinc-tion from the University of Leicester (UK), Master of EducaDistinc-tion
in Training and Development from the University of Sheffield
(UK), and Master of Public Policy & Management (MPPM) from
Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) In 2001, Roland was
appointed as an Honorary Fellow of The International Centre
for Management in Government (Melbourne, Australia) and was
elected as Licentiate Fellow of The Institute of Training and
Occupational Learning, Liverpool, U.K in 2004 Roland has also
received training from international patent attorney firm Lloyd
Wise on patent rights, intellectual property, trademarks and
de-signs in 2005
PROFILES
Trang 10Usually overburdened areas are left
for rehabilitation, which poses a tall
order among environmentalists
par-ticularly foresters With such
condi-tions, natural regeneration or the
process of colonization is slow or does
not happen at all, commonly leaving
an open barren site Restoring lost
vegetation takes a lifetime because the
influencing factors towards plant
res-toration, growth and survival have
been ecologically disrupted: the soil
is infertile (generally deficient in
macro elements such as phosphorus,
potassium and nitrogen that are
es-sential nutrients for plant survival and
growth) Restoring such areas is
fur-ther challenged by eifur-ther loose soil
characteristics, which makes such
areas vulnerable to erosion and
run-off, or compacted, thus having poor
water-holding capacity
Rehabilitation of the areas described
earlier requires a combination of proper
selection of species and adoption of
appropriate technologies Among
indus-trialized countries, bioengineering has
proved to help the process of bringing
back the earth’s condition closer to its
former state This is done through the
combined construction of permanent
structures to hold the earth, and the
introduction of vegetation characterized
Hastening Ecological Restoration
Using Beneficial Microorganisms
By Aida B Lapis, Evangeline T Castillo and Paul J Cuadra
occur naturally and may therefore be uncontrollable, or may be
arti-ficially caused by or become consequences of human intervention under the
shadow of human needs Disastrous events that have occurred in the past
past have left natural ecosystems under grim situations Landslides and floods
are so prevalent that they have left the earth so devastated, with the
appear-ance that life will not exist in certain areas again On the other hand, human
activities that have been justified for economic reasons have degraded vast
tracts of heavy metal-laden areas after the extraction of precious metals like
gold through industrial mining.
SPECIAL REPORTS
by wide laterally growing root systems
or creeping plants that can easily nize open sites Such rehabilitationschemes need high input, which be-comes prohibitive especially for devel-oping countries due to financial con-straints Rehabilitation may be donevegetatively, but again, with the soilwhich is either of high acidity or alka-linity, lack of nutrients or poor water-holding capacity, plants can barelysurvive in the area
colo-However, nature has its own uniquecourse to arrest the economically, en-
vironmentally and scientifically difficultre-vegetation of marginal sites.The natural ecosystem is endowedwith a wide array of biological micro-organisms that have beneficial symbio-sis with plants Symbiosis of higher plantswith microbial organisms is an adap-tive mechanism to overcome adverseenvironmental conditions Mycorrhiza
as a symbiont, for example, was found
to be effective colonizers of disturbedhabitats
Foremost of these are the
associ-ated microorganisms: Enterobacter,
Klebsiella, Beijerinkia, Azospirillum, Pseudomonas, Nitrobacter and nitrifying
bacteria, the symbiotic microorganisms
Anabaena, the Rhizobium
nitrogen-fix-ing bacteria and actinomycetes Frankia and the large group of mycorrhizal fungi
(ectomycorrhizae, endomycorrhiza,ectendomycorrhizae, ericoid mycor-rhizae) Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungialone which infects almost all vascularplants is a highly diverse species withmore than 500 species worldwide
In slope rehabilitation works, highspecies biodiversity of these symbioticfungi were observed after two to fiveyears, and these tolerated environmen-tal stresses of drought and nutrient de-ficiency Species that thrived in degraded
areas (cutslopes) included: Glomus (G.
constrictum, G aggregatum, G arborense macrocarpus var geosporum, G palbidum, G cerebriforme), Acaulospora (A lacunosa, A laevis, A spinosa, A appendiculata, A bireculata), Gigaspora (G margarita, G gigantea) and Paraglomus occultum.
A case in point in the Philippines
is the application of mycorrhizal lants to the seedlings of selected indig-enous species planted in marginal soils.Initially the Ecosystems Research and
inocu-The natural ecosystem
is endowed with a wide array of biological microorganisms that have beneficial symbiosis with plants Symbiosis
of higher plants with microbial organisms is
an adaptive mechanism
to overcome adverse environmental conditions.
Trang 11SPECIAL REPORTS
Untreated one-year-old Benguet Pine (Pinus kesiya) Inoculated one-year-old Benguet Pine
Untreated eight-month-old Batino (Alstonia macrophylla) Inoculated eight-month-old Batino
Untreated one-year-old Kupang (Parkia roxburghii) Inoculated one-year-old Kupang
Trang 12Development Bureau, the research arm
of the Philippines’ Department of
Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR), embarked on the use of
in-digenous forest species for the
rehabili-tation of areas that are environmentally
restricted due to prolonged exposure to
weathering, physically and chemically
degraded, mined-out and quarried
Indigenous forest species that can
revegetate these sites were screened
Endomycorrhizal isolates of Glomus sp.
were inoculated to the seedlings at the
nursery stage and the seedlings showed
enhanced growth in terms of marked
height and diameter growth
The versatility of symbiosis in the
nursery was observed and the
mycor-rhiza had a high potential to develop
vigorous seedlings in the nursery stage
However, a greater challenge was faced
when these nursery-grown seedlings were
exposed to adverse field conditions
Nevertheless, employing additional
Aida B Lapis is the Supervising Science Research Specialist and Chief, Land Rehabilitation Section of the Grassland and Degraded Areas Ecosystems Research Division
of ERDB; Evangeline T Castillo is the Supervising Science Research Specialist and Chief, Hydrology Section, Grassland and Degraded Areas Ecosystems Research Division, ERDB and Paul J Cuadra is the Science Research Specialist II, Land Rehabilitation Section, Grassland and Degraded Areas Ecosystems Research Division, ERDB.
SPECIAL REPORTS
site preparation techniques foroutplanting of seedlings, such as widerplant holes five times larger than thesize of the seedling poly-potting bag,added compost and coir dust, plustiming of outplanting at the onset of therainy season, resulted in remarkable fieldperformance of the seedlings After oneyear of field exposure in the overbur-dened, heavy metal-laden and mined-out areas of mountainous Benguet Prov-ince in Northern Luzon, Philippines,
the seedlings of Agoho (Casuarina
equisitifolia), Benguet Pine (Pinus kesiya),
Kupang (Parkia roxburghii), and Batino (Alstonia macrophylla) inoculated with
Glomus sp significantly increased in
height and diameter compared withthose without inoculation
Initial results of field trials in a out area showed that inoculated Agohowere taller by more than 17% compared
mined-to those that were not inoculated, whilesignificant disparity of 13.5% was also
observed in its average diameter In thecase of Kupang, about 33% increase inaverage height and 13.6% in averagediameter were also recorded As forBenguet pine and Batino, minimalgrowth was monitored between controlledand untreated seedlings
Glomus, an endomycorrhiza isolatecollected from seed production areas ofNarra from different parts of the coun-try, was the microbial organism used inthis study As expected, inoculated Narragave the best growth performance ofalmost 82% difference in average heightand around 47% in average diametercompared to the untreated seedlings
In spite of the poor soil quality andharsh conditions in the experimentalarea, survival was relatively high for allthe species Agoho gave the highestsurvival rate of more than 96%, whileKupang had a 90% survival Batino, onthe other hand, had the lowest survivalrate of 74%, followed by Narra with85% and Benguet pine, 87%
Concluding Remarks
Microorganisms like mycorrhizae,when linked with plant roots or arti-ficially inoculated, will continuouslymultiply and thus enhance soil condi-tions for plant growth even in an im-poverished state Likewise, if we bringback to nature the diversity of micro-organisms lost when terrestrial ecosys-tems are abused, as well as the func-tional mutualism of microorganismsparticularly with higher plants liketrees, then the environment would berehabilitated and the vegetation wouldlikely be restored In the long run, eco-logical succession of degraded and de-nuded areas maybe attained.
Untreated one-year-old Agoho (Casuarina
equisitifolia)
Inoculated one-year-old Agoho
Untreated 18-month-old Narra (Pterocarpus
indicus)
Inoculated 18-month-old Narra
Trang 13The project had the following ements of governing principles ofsustainable rural development:
el-1 Reclaiming degraded lands withmonetary benefits through market-defined soil and water conservationmeasures (conforming to China’s prin-ciple of “Combating Land Degrada-tion is Profitable!”)
Live barriers and ties that have local markets and re-quire low cost simple technologies areselected through a series of discussionswith farmers and are given priority foruse as measures to reclaim degradedlands, improve soil fertility and reducesoil erosion For instance, pineapple,which has a good market price and iseasy to transport, was used as livebarriers for contour farming
crops/commodi-2 Community initiatives andfarmer-led collective action towardsneeds prioritization for self-reliance
Village leaders with the assistance
of the Country NGO Federation ofFree Farmers defined their problemsand recommended measures that thevillage can implement The final soiland conservation measures were dis-cussed with offers from local and in-ternational experts The initial longshopping list of probable measures waspared down to minimum doables and
is now being tested for suitability,acceptability, and economic returns tothe community
3 Self-help and shared bility participatory approach
responsi-All soil and water conservationprojects were decided after a series ofinformal and formal discussions withfarmer leaders and the general farmingcommunities, and where womenplayed a role in selecting crops for theirfood and marketing values Farmersprovided voluntary labor in implement-ing soil and water conservation mea-sures, such as the construction of smallretention dams, development of springboxes for domestic use, and irrigation
4 Transparency and communityownership-management of projectcapital
Farming communities and otherlocal farmers are made aware of theavailability and use of budget in theproject, and participate in the purchase
of materials
5 Mutual learning between andamong farmer experts, governmenttechnicians and international experts.This is accomplished through thepilot micro-watershed demonstration
on market-defined soil and waterconservation technologies
6 Farmer to farmer sharing ofknowledge and adaptation of soil andwater conservation technologies
7 Strengthening the role of ruralwomen in implementing indigenousand negotiated external sources ofsoil and water conservation technolo-gies
8 Strong participation and localsupport (governance) provided by theLocal Executive (Mayor of the Mu-nicipality of Dona RemediosTrinidad), an upland watershed mu-nicipality, who assigned the munici-pal technicians to the project, andhas further inspired the local com-munity to support the implementa-tion of the project.
SPECIAL REPORTS
The project was conducted in four
agro-ecosystem micro-watersheds
($28,500.00 each site) with the
collec-tive partnership support to the
multi-agency-financed land degradation
con-trol project composed of the:
1 Federation of Free Farmers,
headed by Mr Leonardo Montemayor,
former Secretary of the Philippines’
Department of Agriculture, who
pro-vided leadership and motivation for
the farmer’s collective cooperation in
all phases of project implementation;
2 Bureau of Agricultural Research,
Department of Agriculture, as source
of funds;
3 Bureau of Soils and Water
Management (BSWM) as
implement-ing agency, and source of additional
budget and locally- defined soil and
water conservation technologies;
4 Local farming communities, as
source of local labor and indigenous
knowledge, as project counterpart and
decision-makers in the selection of
technologies and the location site of
technology demonstration;
5 ICRISAT, an international
re-search institution based in India, and
headed by Dr William Dar who
pro-vided and shared their knowledge and
experience with local farmers; BSWM
local technicians and academic
re-searchers and teachers from the local
university involved in the project; and
6 Researchers and soil science and
agronomy professors in the local
uni-versity
Philippines’ Best Practice to Combat
Land Degradation and Desertification
By Dr Rogelio N Concepcion, Director, Bureau of Soils and Water Management
degradation and incipient desertification is a multiple-agency,
-coun-try, self-financed, international and local partnership of a community/
NGO-driven project entitled “Community-Based Dry Land Watershed
Management Approach: A Small-Scale Grassroots Solution to Combat
Desertification.
Trang 14DESERTIFICATION IS DEFINED BY
the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) as “landdegradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid
areas, resulting from various factors, including
climatic variations and human activity.” About 4
billion hectares or 1/3 of the earth’s land surface
is threatened by desertification, with over 250
million people directly affected, and one billion
people in over 100 countries at risk Twenty four
billion tons of fertile soils disappear every year
(www.unccd.int)
The UNCCD traces its roots to the Plan of
Action to Combat Desertification (PACD), which
was adopted by the United Nations Conference
on Desertification (UNCOD) in 1977 The Plan
was created in response to early concerns about
desertification and its global economic, social and
environmental impact By 1991 however, the issue
of desertification had intensified During the 1992
United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED), participants supported
an integrated approach to the problem,
emphasiz-ing action to promote sustainable development at
the community level The Convention to Combat
Desertification was then adopted in 1994, and
currently 191 countries have become Parties to
the Convention
Under the UNCCD, Parties are obligated to:
• Cooperate in the implementation of the CCD
at all levels, particularly in the areas of
collection, analysis and exchange of
informa-tion, research, technology transfer, capacity
building and awareness building, the
promo-tion of an integrated approach in developing
national strategies to combat desertification,
and assistance in ensuring that adequatefinancial resources are available for programs
to combat desertification and mitigate theeffects of drought;
• Prepare national action programs at theregional and sub-regional levels;
• Provide support (by developed countries) toaffected countries by providing financialresources and by facilitating access to appro-priate technology, knowledge and know-how;and
• Report measures undertaken to implementthe Convention
In ASEAN member countries, desertificationand land degradation is largely attributed to pooragricultural practices and deforestation Mosthuman activities that can lead to desertificationinclude:
• Overgrazing, which removes the vegetationcover that protects against erosion;
• Overcultivation, which exhausts the soil; and
• Deforestation, which destroys the trees thatbind the land to the soil
Poor irrigation practices raise salinity, andsometimes dry the rivers that feed large lakes Theintensification of human activities brings an in-creased greenhouse effect, causing global warm-ing Drylands are likely to be especially vulnerable
to effects of climate change (ww.adb.org).Exacerbated by other issues such as climatechange, land degradation and desertification hasbecome a major concern in the ASEAN Effortsundertaken to face this growing environmentalchallenge has been summarized in the followingUNCCD country reports of each ASEAN mem-ber country
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Desertification and Land Degradation in
ASEAN
Trang 15CAMBODIA HAS A TOTAL
area of 181,035 km2, comprising 20
provinces and three municipalities
The country is divided into three sides by
moun-tains with the large central plain containing the
Tonle Sap lake and river complex in the center
The central plains are extremely flat, and are a
result of long-term deposition originating from
the mountains within Cambodia and from
sedi-ments carried into the plain by the Mekong River
The Mekong River rises and falls approximately
nine meters each year, its height influenced by
melting snow in the Himalayas and rainfall in
China In Cambodia, the Mekong passes through
the province of Steung Treng, Kratie and Kampong
Cham until it converges with
Tonle Sap at Phnom Penh
When it reaches Phnom Penh,
the water divides and flows
down to both the Mekong and
Bassak rivers to Vietnam As
the river rises, some water also
flows back up to Tonle Sap
Lake The Lake can expand
tenfold in area to approximately 25,000 km2
between May and November Receding water
from the large reservoir flows primarily down
the Bassak and Mekong rivers and feeds many
irrigation areas
The 2002 National Report on the Convention
to Combat Desertification provides insights into
Cambodia’s efforts to regenerate environmental
growth in the country and prevent the increase in
drylands and degraded habitats that could lead to
desertification Following are some of the factors
that have led to environmental concerns in the
country
Land Usage
The natural ecosystems of Cambodia consist
of tropical forests, rivers, lakes, and coastal areas
Human activities have, however, continued to alter
Cambodia’s natural environment Forests have been
cleared for agriculture and the development of
rice ecosystems Human settlements and the
de-velopment of cities, towns and villages have ated urban ecosystems
cre-Cultivated land comprises 21% of the totalland and is mainly concentrated in lowland areasaround the Tonle Sap Lake and the north side ofthe Mekong River Upland crops and fruit gardensare usually found along the banks of the mainrivers
Forest and other natural vegetable areas arefound in the northeastern, northern and south-western parts of Cambodia Forest areas used tocover 73% or 13,320,100 ha of the total land area,
of which 47,622.30 were dense evergreen leafed forest Deciduous forests occur mainly inthe northeastern parts of Cambodia
broad-From 13,320,100 ha, rent forests are estimated atonly 1,300,000 ha Forests de-teriorated rapidly during the 20years of conflict, resulting indestroyed resources and con-tinued conversion to agricul-tural areas
cur-Despite a growth in cultural areas, Cambodia continues to experiencepoor crop productivity Lost soil fertility has beenattributed to the following:
agri-• Poor soils management and cultural tices;
prac-• Deforestation and shifting cultivation ofupland populations;
• Drought and floods;
• Increased acidity and/or salinity in some riceproduction areas;
• Lack of knowledge among farmers to prove soil fertility through modern technol-ogy;
im-• Extensive and careless fertilizer application;
• Lack of irrigation systems, poor water agement and drainage;
man-• Lack of mechanization for land preparationand other farm management;
• Poor research on soil conservation and provement; and
im-• Continuous mono-cropping practices
CAMBODIA
Improving Agricultural Practices
to Enhance Soil Productivity
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Trang 16Fertilizer Use
Fertilizer use in Cambodia
is considered small compared
to other countries in the region
Farmers have applied up to8,000 tons of organic fertilizersper year from 1965 to 1990 Inthe last two years, more than40,000 tons of fertilizers havebeen applied in Cambodia’sagricultural areas This pales incomparison with over 500,000tons to 1,000,000 tons thatwere being used in neighboringcountries in 1990 Still, it isbelieved that fertilizer use willcontinue to rise in the country
to further improve crop tion
produc-Human Activities
In Cambodia, the majorroot causes of soil erosion are deforestation, pooragricultural practices and gemstone mining in theborder between Cambodia and Thailand As aresult, massive erosion has taken place at thenortheast mountain ranges and high plateau alongthe main tributaries of the Mekong River, and atthe northwest high plateau, where sediments flowinto the Tonle Sap Lake In the 1960s, a sedimen-tation rate of 2 cm per year was recorded In-creased sedimentation of the lake is attributed todeforestation in the upper reaches of the Tonle sapwatershed and the flooded forest, gemstone min-ing, and increase in Mekong silt load due to de-forestation in other parts of the Mekong Basin
Forest Rehabilitation and Reforestation
To address the continuing environmental radation in the country, the government, throughthe Department of Forestry and Wildlife (DFW)under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry andFisheries has collaborated with other organiza-tions to rehabilitate Cambodia’s forests One suchproject, which was supported by the Japan Inter-national Cooperation Agency, aimed to strengthenthe DFW’s institutional and staff capacity inforestry management, and improve technologiesfor restoring forest resources
deg-Other efforts involved the Cambodia Tree SeedProject (CTSP) funded by the Danish Interna-tional Development Agency (DANIDA) Thisproject aimed to provide genetically suitable seeds
of good physiological quality from well-managedseed sources of priority woody species to meet theneed for the country’s tree planting activities Func-tions included the development of the institutionalcapacity of the national tree seed sectors inCambodia with special emphasis on indigenousspecies and regional cooperation The project alsoplans to establish model in-situ gene conservationplots, seed sources, and a seed laboratory
Agriculture and Food Production
Rice is the staple food of the population inCambodia and accounts for 68 -70% of the dailycalorie intake The remainder is derived from fish,maize, root crops, fruits and vegetables, and othercrops such as mung bean, soybean, cassava andsesame
To sustain economic growth and significantlyreduce rural poverty, Cambodia urgently needs
to improve the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
of agriculture and sub-sectors of crops, livestock,fisheries and forest, as well as related downstreamprocessing industries The agricultural sectorneeds to raise productivity and remove structuralconstraints such as inadequate transport infra-structure and weak control of water resourcesthat adversely affect trade Crop production wouldincrease with the application of modern tech-nologies Existing reforms must be adjusted topromote agricultural growth and rural develop-ment
Mekong River
Trang 17Institutional Agencies
Government agencies that are responsible for
water resource management include:
1 Ministry of Agriculture Fishery and
For-estry: Department of Hydrology,
Depart-ment of Fishery, DepartDepart-ment of Forestry
and Wildlife
2 Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy:
Department of Provincial Water Supply
3 Ministry of Rural Development: Department
of Clean Water Programs
4 Ministry of Environment: Department of
Natural Resources Conservation,
Depart-ment of EnvironDepart-mental Pollution Control,
Department of Environmental Data
Man-agement,
5 Department of EIA Review
6 Ministry of Public Work and Transport:
De-partment of Transport and Navigation,
Department of Sanitation
7 Ministry of Health: Department of Hygiene
8 Ministry of Interior: Phnom Penh Water
Supply Authority
9 Council for Development of Cambodia
(CDC): Department of Investment
Despite the number of government agencies,
various constraints have led to poor water resources
management These constraints include the
fol-lowing:
• Poor definition of roles, responsibilities and
relationships between institutions;
• Lack of physical capacity and resources for
The following actions are needed to bolster
agricultural production and improve soil
produc-tivity in Cambodia:
• Accelerate development of small-scale
ir-rigation systems using shallow tube-wells,
motorized pumps, and hand and treadle
pumps;
• Improve and rehabilitate existing irrigation
systems;
• Develop small storage reservoirs and canals;
• Optimize benefits of irrigation development;
• Improve farming systems;
• Intensify and diversify crop production;
• Expand and improve livestock production;
• Improve management and develop ate technologies for rice-fish farming andaquaculture schemes;
appropri-• Promote community-based forestry and forestry;
agro-• Improve land tenure and titling andstrengthen essential agricultural servicesincluding market research and develop-ment programs, delivery of extensionservices, input supply and distribution,credit, farm mechanization and post-har-vest facilities;
• Provide other essential social services andpublic goods; and
• Empower the poor through land title bution, access to common property resources,health and nutrition, and food procurementschemes
distri-Other than agriculture, follow-up actions garding forest management concerns include thefollowing:
re-• Eliminate illegal forest and wildlife activities,
as well as land encroachment;
• Lobby the National Assembly to discuss thenew forestry law;
• Continue to rigorously enforce laws that pend forest exploitation in concessions;
sus-• Encourage logging concessions to apply theCode of Practice for Timber Harvesting incompany operations;
• Review and recommend the cancellation ofconcessions that do not comply with the rules,regulations and technical advice issued bythe MAFF/DFW;
• Strengthen the support infrastructure such
as communications systems, equipment andtransportation to detect, prevent and sup-press illegal activities that may occur in forestestates;
• Strengthen genuine cooperation with boring countries to fight cross-boundary il-legal trafficking;
neigh-• Increase public awareness and encourage localresidents to participate in the protection offorest resource and reforestation activities;
and
• Continue to cooperate with international perts/organizations to develop and implementforestry and wildlife projects.
Trang 18ex-UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
INDONESIA HAS EXERTEDtremendous efforts in rehabilitatingdegraded land through reforestationand afforestation projects such as the Forest andLand Rehabilitation Programme (RHL) and theNational Movement on Forest and Land Rehabili-tation (GNRHL) These projects were launched
in Yogyakarta in 2003, a year after the NationalAction Programme (NAP) on Combating LandDegradation (CLD) in Indonesia was adopted
The strategy of combating land degradation inIndonesia is also integrated into the strategies ofthe agriculture, fishery, and forestry sectors
All strategies in the National Action Plan (NAP)have been incorporated into the National Devel-opment Plan 2004 To combat
land degradation, sustainableforest management (SFM) hasbeen integrated into forestrysector strategies that classifyforests according to their func-tions: conservation, protection,and production Each forestfunction detailed regulations and
is homogenous throughout Indonesia
The government has also adopted the UNCCDprinciples of participatory processes and consul-tative mechanisms These have been integratedinto the environmental frameworks to ensure thatstakeholders are involved in the processes ofplanning, implementation, and monitoring toevaluation Within the framework of sustainabledevelopment and the environment, stakeholdersgenerally include the central and local government,private sectors, NGOs, community-based organi-zations (CBOs), and key farmers
Institutional Measures Taken to Implement the Convention
The Directorate General of Land tion and Social Forestry (DG LRSF), which wasestablished by the Ministry of Forestry in 2002,
Rehabilita-is the National Coordination Body (NCB) inIndonesia The NCB appointed the Directorate
of Watershed Management as Indonesia’s National
INDONESIA
Land Rehabilitation through Extensive Forest Programs
Focal Point (NFP) in December 2002
The NCB initiates cooperation programs tocombat degraded land at a national scale andconducts meetings at least once a year to preparethe national report, determine Indonesia’s posi-tion and carry out an internal review of the NAP
It also provides the roles of the NFP in combatingland degradation that include mobilizing resources,integrating cross-sectoral activities, providingguidelines, and coordinating the activities of theprovincial and local stakeholders
New initiatives have been undertaken to tegrate the NAP into the national economic, socialdevelopment, and environmental planning system
in-One such initiative is the mentation of national move-ments such as the NationalMovement on Forest and LandRehabilitation (GNRHL); Na-tional Movement on Water Con-servation Partnership (GNKPA);and Agricultural, Fisheries, andForestry Revitalization.Empowerment of humanresources and institutions has not been carriedout specifically through the NAP at both thenational and local levels due to lack of financialsupport But training of human resources in terms
imple-of combating land degradation has been conductedoccasionally both at the national and local levelseven before the NAP was adopted
Participatory Process in Implementing the National Action Programs
Participatory processes have been carried outduring the formulation of the NAP through fieldvisits, community meetings, workshops, and dis-cussions in seminars, among others Measures toimprove community capability and participation
in land rehabilitation activities, such as socialforestry and the crop-livestock (CLS) program forupland conservation, have become the top prior-ity of the Government, NGOs, and CBOs
In the implementation of the NAP through theGNRHL program, the Government seeks the
Trang 19participation of NGOs, CBOs, and the private
sector One of the movement’s objectives is to
generate rural people awareness on the dangers of
land degradation and, in turn, encourage them to
rehabilitate degraded land For the period 2003
to 2007, the movement is targetting 3 million
hectares of the more than 70 million ha of
de-graded land in Indonesia in the hope of generating
a multiplier effect in other degraded lands of the
country
Mechanisms established for participative
monitoring include consultation, networking, field
visits, workshops, direct intra-personal
commu-nication, and electronic media Consultations are
not regularly conducted because of poor
sched-uling and budget constraints
A number of participatory awareness campaigns
have also been conducted, and deal with various
issues such as growing threats to ecosystems,
poverty eradication, land degradation prevention,
lessons learned and best practices These
cam-paigns include Planting One Million Trees,
Green-ing Indonesia, Plant Today Harvest Tomorrow,
No Forest No Life, Don’t Export Smoke, and
Combating Illegal Logging
Measures within the Framework
of National Action Programs
Efforts to rehabilitate degraded land include
the establishment of plantation forests,
commu-nity forests and private forests, management of
‘embung’ (small reservoir), and development of
agroforestry in East and West Nusatenggara The
construction of pipe and drip irrigation systems
also are significant investments being done in Palu
valley, Central Sulawesi The sustainability of thesesystems, however, is in doubt due to high main-tenance costs and unwillingness of some farmers
to pay for operational and maintenance cost
Measures to mitigate the effects of drought,based on the weather forecast, are also being done
by the Ministry of Agriculture and Public Works
The NAP has also established a Natural sources Database System, which is undertaken byBAKOSURTANAL (National Survey and MappingCoordinating Agency) In terms of forestry re-sources, the Forest Planning Agency (BAPLAN) doesthe Forest Resource Accounting (NSDH) as an inputfor a sustainable forest management program
Re-Water harvesting through the construction of
‘embungs’, infiltration wells, infiltration ditches (rorak), and application of mulch and organic matter
have been conducted to achieve a positive waterbalance (water surplus) This effort has to becombined with efficient use of water
Indonesia has a low capability in terms of veloping an early warning system for food securityand drought forecasting, particularly at the locallevel In some instances when the local govern-ment was not able to anticipate the occurrence ofdrought and the failure of crops, there was no foodallocated when famine occurred This issue has to
de-be addressed and mitigating measures must de-beintegrated into the NAP
Laws passed by the government relative to theUNCCD include the:
1 Law of Forestry No 41/1999
2 Decree of Minister of Forestry No 020/
2001 concerning Guidelines, Standard andCriteria of Forest and Land Rehabilitation
PROJECTS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IMPLEMENTED UNDER THE UNCCD
Project Timeframe Partners Involved
Forest and Land Rehabilitation (RHL) Programme Every year Local Government
National Movement of Forest and Land Rehabilitation 2003-2007 Local communities,
Embung (small reservoir)-based agriculture 2002-2004 Local government of NTT province
Enhancing food security throungh maize and 2002-2003 Local government of Belu district
horticultural development in the border of Indonesia
– Timor Leste
Cendana (Santalum albums L.)-based agroforestry 2002-2006 Local government of Belu,
Assessment of Gewang (Corypha utan Lamk.) 2005-2006 Local government of Belu district
domestication in the savana of NTT province
Trang 203 Decree of Minister of Forestry No 052/
2001 concerning Guidelines on tation of Watershed Management
Implemen-4 Law of Water Resource No 7/200Implemen-4
5 Government Regulation of ReforestationFund No 35/2002
Financial Assistance and Technical Cooperation
Funds for forest and land rehabilitation areprovided and mobilized by the Government andcoordinated by the Ministry of Finance and Min-istry of Forestry Though these funds come fromthe national budget and the Local Budget and Re-
forestation Fund, there have been problems in thebudgeting system and fund allocations for relatedMinistries
Measures have thus been taken to ensure access
by local stakeholders to fund sources throughinformation campaigns of the GNRHL and theWater Saving Partnership (GNKPA) These allowpeople to benefit from and utilize these funds forforest, land, and water rehabilitation and conser-vation activities In the GNRHL program, theGovernment supplies planting materials, while thecommunities make their land available for theprogram as well as take the lead in planting NGOsand independent organizations such as universi-ties then participate in the monitoring and evalu-ation of the conduct of the GNRHL
Funds from the Clean Development nism (CDM) scheme have also been explored and
Mecha-proposed for reforestation This project, whichhas been proposed by the Provincial Forest Ser-vice, is still in its initial stage
Benchmarks and Indicators
The Ministry of Forestry has implementedmeasures to assess land degradation through theinventory of degraded land, using standardizedand improved methods and criteria, satellite im-ages or aerial photographs, and Geographical In-formation Systems techniques As a result, thedigital data and the so-called “critical land” mapbeing used throughout the country since 2004are the bases for prioritizing rehabilitation pro-grams
Land degradation is also evaluated in thefield through the inventory of natural springs.For example, the decreasing number ofnatural springs from 726 to 256 is likely due
to land degradation Mapping of land slidesand flood prone areas, and the monitoring
of land productivity have also been used asbases for identifying land degradation inselected areas
Based on the inventory, degraded landhas increased significantly, mainly due to theimpacts of drought and flooding in most parts
of Indonesia The rate of land degradationattributed to drought and climate change sofar have yet to be evaluated quantitatively,except for isolated cases in research projects
In general, the rate of degradation has beenidentified qualitatively through: increasingfrequency of forest and bush fires, extensivearea of dead plants due to drought, increas-ing rate of harvest failure, decreasing number anddischarge of natural springs, increasing encroach-ment of livestock to forest, decreasing livestockpopulation, and increasing areas of abandonedland
Initial efforts have been done by the Ministry
of Agriculture to develop early warning systems tomitigate the effects of drought and land degrada-tion, but these efforts remain at initial stages andhave been used only in limited areas Governmentpolicies should therefore be expanded to encouragethe development of early warning systems.Benchmarks and indicators for the assessmenthave been formulated and included in the NAP.The Partnership Workshop of UNCCD held inBogor, Indonesia in June 2004 has revised andproduced a new indicative list of benchmarksand indicators.
Mt Kerinci
Trang 21Land Degradation in Lao PDR:
Causes and Issues
Land degradation is a worldwidephenomenon impacting nearly every country This
phenomenon has caught up with Lao PDR
not-withstanding its rich natural resources, including
water and forest resources Deforestation due to
improper agricultural practices and timber
extrac-tion, compounded by the increasing frequency and
magnitude of El Niño, which could last 6 to 7
months, have all contributed to the country’s land
degradation These factors have caused severe
long-term damages on soil conditions and ultimately
reduced the capacity of soil to yield crops especially
in the more remote rural areas
Natural disasters have also
been observed to contribute to
the country’s land degradation,
although these are less severe and
fewer than those occurring in its
neighboring countries Drought
is particularly prevalent in the
central and southern provinces
where it heavily impacts on
ag-ricultural production and the livelihood of local
farmers Flooding is also rampant, and occurs along
the Mekong River usually from August to
Septem-ber in the central and southern parts of the country
These areas represent almost half of the plain area
surface of the country where agricultural
produc-tion takes place Flooding in the north and east is
rare, although some provinces have been affected
in recent years Some of the worst floods that struck
the country in the last 40 years happened in 1966,
1978, 1983, 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995 To mitigate
the impacts of any future floods, the government
has begun collecting data from the most affected
areas by using Remote Sensing /Geographic
Infor-mation System tools
Forest fires are also common during the dry
season (February to April), particularly in the
mountainous north and northeast An unusual
drought that occurred in 1998 led to high
inci-dences of forest fires
Being a mountainous country, Lao PDR
expe-LAO PDR
riences a significant degree of erosion and tation when forests or vegetation cover is heavilydepleted The predominant soil types, heavy rainfalldata and topographic conditions of the countryindicate that Lao PDR is susceptible to erosion Arecent analysis of sedimentation data in the lowerMekong basin also suggests that sediment rates insouthern parts of Lao PDR have increased substan-tially over the past 25 years and are among thehighest in the region
sedimen-Lao PDR and the UNCCD
In the Lao context, desertification refers to landdegradation and seasonal drought caused by defor-estation and other inappropriate land use practices
such as slash-and-burn ture and overgrazing Also, therecent changes in climatic events,particularly the increasing occur-rence of El Nino, have causedthe emergence of a new climatepattern called seasonal aridity thatcould last from six to sevenmonths The provinces experi-encing this disaster include Huaphane, Xiengkhuang,and Savannakhet
agricul-Lao PDR joined the United Nations tion to Combat Desertification/Drought (UNCCD)
Conven-in September 1996 After ratifyConven-ing the UNCCD,the Lao Government then set up institutionalmechanisms for the implementation and coordina-tion of the NAP It designated the Science, Tech-nology and Environment Agency (STEA) as theNational Focal Point for the UNCCD, which isresponsible for coordinating the implementation ofthe UNCCD and other multilateral environmentalagreements A Technical Coordination WorkingGroup (TCWG) for the UNCCD has likewise beencreated to provide and recommend technical guid-ance to the implementation of the UNCCD TheGroup consists of representatives from the STEA,the Department of Land Planning and Develop-ment under the Prime Minister’s Office, the NationalAgriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI),the Soil Survey and Land Classification Center, the
A Strategic Vision for the Forest
and Agriculture Sectors
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Trang 22Departments of Irrigation, Planting and ogy; the National University of Lao PDR, the Ministry
Meteorol-of Labor and Social Welfare-Disaster ManagementOffice, the Department of Land Planning andDevelopment, and mass organizations such as theLao Women’s Union and the Lao Youth Union
With the institutions in place, the National ActionProgram (NAP) on Combating Drought/Desertifi-cation (NAP) was formulated in 1999 The strategiesand activities laid out in the NAP, which are beingimplemented by the Government to combat landdegradation and drought, have also been integratedinto the “strategic vision for the agriculture sector”
that was finalized in 2000 These activities coverissues concerning forestry, water resources,biodiversity, natural disasters, climate change, floodand drought prevention, and environmental publicawareness
National Action Program
deserti-Research Center, Forestry Department and ronment Department The main objectives of theNAP include food security, reduction of slash-and-burn cultivation, conservation of watersheds, en-hancement of livelihoods of the farmers, and pov-erty reduction
Envi-The NAP comprises four components: trainingand public awareness, prevention and mitigation,preparedness, and relief The activities for eachcomponent are shown in the table below.Although the government has detailed programsfor implementation, these have not been effectivelyimplemented at the community level because oflack of technical capacity and funding
Relative to the UNCCD, the government hasissued the following regulations and laws:
1 Land Law (1997) - Provides rules on themanagement, protection and use of land
2 Forestry Law (1996) - Provides principles,regulations and standards for the use of for-estlands and resources as well as their con-servation and rehabilitation
3 Water and Water Resource Law (1997) Regulates the management, exploitation, de-velopment, protection and sustainable use ofwater and water resources
-4 Mining Law - Provides a system of ment for the conservation, exploitation,
manage-Strengthening capacity of
national institutes and support
staff capability for forecasting
Strengthening local capacities in
the planning and implementation
of water conservation works,
including training of provincial
and district staff by providing
technical support to local
communities
Public awareness campaigns
aimed at enhanced community
mobilization
Sensitization programs to
advocate drought mitigation and
preparedness to senior officials
and decision makers
Training and Public
Awareness
Preventionand Mitigation Preparedness Relief
Feasibility studies to assessthe potential and feasibility
of water harvesting andconservation work
Area-specific studies: masterplans for water management(irrigation and soil/waterconservation, and waterbudgets) to optimize use ofreservoirs and groundwatersources
Drought insurance and financing
self-Study on local vulnerabilityreduction measures, building onconsiderable local knowledgeand coping mechanisms
Introduction of simple low-costirrigation technologies
Generation of power foruninterrupted power supply tothe agricultural sector
Employment generation
Improvement of droughtforecasting and early warningsystems
Contingency plans for droughtsconcerning: drinking water,food delivery, public health andnutrients for children, fodderand nutrients for livestock, andadequate resources at theoperational level
Calamity relief fund
Post-disaster assistancestrategies, includinginstitutional mechanismsfor administering reliefprograms, and effectivefood delivery system
Data collection and reporting ondamage and needs assessment
Employment generation
Trang 23mining and processing of minerals for local
consumption and export
5 Agriculture Law - Provides principles,
regu-lations and measures on agricultural
produc-tion activities and management as well as
promotes agro-ecological conservation
6 Environment Protection Law (1999) -
Speci-fies principles, rules and measures to
man-age, monitor, restore and protect the
envi-ronment, natural resources and biodiversity
7 Environmental Impact Assessment (2000)
-Establishes uniform environmental assessment
requirements and procedures for all
develop-ment projects
The NAP for UNCCD implementation is
linked to other fields of government policies and
strategies that include: the Lao National Growth
and Poverty Eradication Strategy (NGPES), the
Millennium Development Goals, the Government’s
Strategic Vision for the Agricultural Sector,
Na-tional Strategy on Forestry to the years 2020,
National Strategy on Environment to the year 2020
and Action Plan for the years 2006 to 2020 The
Government has encouraged private sector support
by providing tax credits for individuals and
orga-nizations whose projects involve afforestation and
plantation development for income generation as
well as the protection of soil conditions
Strategic Vision for the Agricultural Sector
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
for-mulated a strategic vision for the agriculture sector
in 1999 with the objective of explaining and
cap-turing the government’s policies, strategies and
program linkages for the agricultural sector The
vision also highly contributes to and corresponds
with the Lao UNCCD framework aimed at
mini-mizing land degradation and encouraging rural life
development The strategic vision ensures
agricul-ture production development in a sustainable and
environmentally sound manner for the two
differ-ent geographic agriculture lands: the flat land and
the sloping land
For the flatlands, the strategy is to maintain and
accelerate the pace of agricultural diversification and
intensification through increased productivity,
im-proved value-added processing and expanded
mar-keting and sales The policies and strategies support
a market-driven economy in the flatland areas that
would gradually expand to the sloping lands
For sloping lands, the problems are different
due to these sites’ remoteness, inaccessibility,
endemic rural poverty, poor credit and capital
accessibility The strategy emphasizes the mation of shifting cultivation farming systems from
transfor-“low-input: low output” systems to stabilize munities, enhance resource productivity, improvethe socio-economic environment, and minimize thedegradation of natural resources
com-Forestry Strategy Until Year 2020
Lao PDR is particularly endowed with valuable,productive and ecologically unique forests that arevital economic resources contributing to the con-sumption and income of the population, especiallythe rural poor Some 80% of the population reliesheavily on forests for timber products, food, fuel,medicines and spiritual protection Currently, theremaining primary forest is estimated at 41.5%
(9.8 million ha) as compared to 47.2% in 1992 and70% in the 1960s
The direct causes of forest loss are clearing andburning, unsustainable shifting cultivation practices,uncontrolled logging, and conversion to agricultureand other land uses These are exacerbated bywidespread poverty, rapid population increase andweak law enforcement
These conditions have necessitated the tion of Forestry Strategy 2020 (FS-2020), which wasinitiated in September 2000 Since then, severalconsultations and workshops were organized to reviewthe status and issues of the sector A land use andforest cover survey was also conducted to providedata in understanding the resource situation andanalyzing causes of changes in land use and forestcover After a series of consultations with relevantagencies, donors and other stakeholders, the Gov-ernment endorsed FS-2020 in early 2005
formula-The government vision for the forestry sector
by 2020 is to continue its leading role in the economic development strategy and encourage theparticipation of villagers in sustainable forestrymanagement with technical advice from the localgovernment
socio-Specifically, the targets of the forestry sector are to:
1 Improve the quality of existing forested area
of about 70% of the total land area by rally regenerating up to 6 million ha andplanting up to 500,000 ha in degraded forestareas This effort is an integral part of thelivelihood support system encompassing stablesystem water supplies and the prevention ofnatural disasters
natu-2 Provide a sustainable flow of forest productsfor domestic consumption and to generatehousehold income through sale and export
Trang 24This contributes to livelihood improvement,fiscal revenue and foreign exchange earningswhile increasing direct and indirect employ-ment.
3 Preserve the many species and unique tats, which are, for different reasons, threat-ened both within the country and elsewhere
habi-4 Conserve the environment through the tection of soil conditions, conservation of wa-tersheds and stabilization of the climate
pro-Water Strategy and Action Plan Until Year 2020
The government’s water resource strategy andaction plan was prepared to fulfill the country’s com-mitments on sustainable use and water resourcesmanagement To support long-term developmentobjectives, the water sector strategy and action planaims to:
1 Prepare water resources management plansfor priority rivers;
2 Prepare water distribution plans for each riverbody that has high levels of water use and issuitable for multipurpose water resourcedevelopment projects;
3 Create a setting in which different sectorscan make full use of existing information byaiming at complete and effective data man-agement;
4 Establish a centralized data compilation ter;
cen-5 Improve and expand the meteorology work; and
net-6 Concentrate on capability building, humanresources development, and integrated riverbasin development planning
Established Technical Programs and Projects to Combat Desertification
The Lao Government, with support from thecooperating partners, is implementing programsaimed at promoting effective environmental protec-tion and sustainable management of natural re-sources Functional integrated projects related tocombating desertification include the following:
1 Decentralized Irrigation Development andManagement Project This is aimed at estab-lishing sustainable irrigated agriculture throughthe irrigation management transfer process andstrengthening of Water Users Associations andagricultural extension Project sites includeBorikhamxay, Savannakhet, Vientiane Munici-pality, Vientiane, Luangprabang and Xayabury
2 Nam Ngum River Basin Development tor Project It seeks to foster and institution-alize integrated water resources management(IWRM) in Government at the central, pro-vincial, and district levels It also aims tosupport investment interventions in relativelydegraded parts of the Nam Ngum River Basin
Sec-to ensure sustainable watershed managementand to provide livelihood opportunities forthe poor and ethnic groups Project sitesinclude XiengKhuang, Xaysomboun SR (Spe-cial region), and Vientiane Province
3 Champasack Community Based DisasterManagement Project This projects hopes toenable the people of Champasack District tobetter cope with the perennial hazards ofdrought and floods on their lives and liveli-hoods It promotes community-based andenvironmentally sensitive approaches to di-saster-risk management
4 Champasack Disaster Management Project
2 It aims to reduce vulnerability to disasters(floods and drought) for 5,500 people in 10villages of Champasack District
Concerns and Recommendations
The Lao Government has significantly addressedissues related to UNCCD objectives through theformulation of relevant environment laws, policies,strategies, action plans and enabling frameworks.Ongoing institutional restructuring has continued
to bring sustainable land management issues intodeliberate focus and this is expected to enhanceresource allocation to the NAP implementation.However, there are several constraints in theUNCCD implementation Major obstacles includeinadequate financial resources, insufficient techni-cal expertise and lack of human resources.The NAP itself needs to be updated to make
it consistent with the National Social and nomic Plan till 2020, as well as the nationalpoverty eradication, environmental, forestry,agricultural and water action plans Strengthen-ing capacities are required especially on sustain-able land use and management, research andpromotion of appropriate technology for sustain-able agriculture production to appropriate areas.Coordination with relevant sectors for rehabili-tation of degraded forest needs improvement.Last but not least, increase in international tech-nical and financial supports is imperative to ensurethe implementation of UNCCD policies andstrategies in Lao PDR.
Trang 25Eco-PENINSULAR MALAYSIA IS
bordered in the east by the South
China Sea and to the west by the
straits of Malacca It is located between the equator
and 8º North latitudes and longitudes 99º and
120º East The Peninsula has an area of 13.2 million
ha of land, whereas in the eastern part of the
country, Sarawak has 12.5 million ha and Sabah,
7.2 million ha The country is dominated by the
Main Range along the middle of the Peninsula
The Main Range rises beyond 2,200 meters above
sea level (masl) and the secondary ranges that fan
out from it include the Keddah-Singgora Range
and the Gunong Bintang Range on the western
side while the Gunong Benom Range, the Gunong
Tahan Range and the East Coast
Range are on the east From
these mountain ranges, rivers
flow from hilly and rolling
low-lands toward the floodplains,
coastal flats and beach ridges
Malaysia has a hot humid
climate that is classified as
tropi-cal rainforest In the extreme
northwest of the Peninsula, where a distinct dry
spell occurs from December to February, the
climate tends to be tropical monsoon The main
annual rainfall ranges from 2000 – 2200 mm The
soil moisture regime is udic below 300 masl, and
perudic above this elevation The soil temperature
regime is isohyperthermic (>22ºC) up to 1200
masl, and isothermic (15-22ºC) between 1200 to
1600 masl Above 1600 meters, the
Montane-Ericaceous forests occur
A wide range of soils are found in the steep
areas from an elevation of 76 masl to 2000 masl
and beyond, representing major differences in
parent material, climate, vegetation and terrain
conditions A distinct characteristic of soils on
sloping land is shallower solum depth for those
derived from sedimentary parent materials, but
can be deep for those from igneous rocks
Desertification is land degradation occurring
in arid, semi-arid, dry dub-humid areas where the
ratio of the annual precipitation to
evapotranspi-MALAYSIA
ration falls within the range of 0.005 to 0.65
Most of Malaysia does not experience this form
of degradation except in a few regions in thenorthwest and northeast of the Peninsula where adry season occurs annually from January to March
Still, desertification is not a problem in those areas
as there is sufficient soil moisture to sustain thegrowth of most vegetation except in the soil fromthe sandy beach swales in the northeast of thePeninsula Water harvesting is also practiced soredistribution of water during drought is possible,
by building dams, cascading ponds and water tanks
at regional, plantation and farm levels
However, Malaysia is not free of land dation problems and there are real and constant
degra-threats from land degradation
Unlike dry regimes where landdegradation is attributed to lack
of rainfall, the threats of landdegradation in Malaysia are due
to excessive amounts of seasonalrain which can badly damageunprotected sites, especially slop-ing hill land, resulting in severesoil erosion and other associated problems such
as silting, water pollution and frequent flash floods
Land degradation is most eminent in fragile systems such as steepland and mountainous areasthat are considered environmentally sensitive ar-eas These areas are characterized by shallow soils,which can be easily degraded and eroded
eco-Degraded lands comprise problem soils, such
as mined-out land, peat land, land with acid sulfatesoils, impoverished sandy beach BRIS (BeachRidges Interspersed with Swales) soils, and areasunder shifting agriculture Degradation in theseecosystems occur either as direct damage to theland due to land clearing activities and soil ero-sion, or as deterioration to the physical andchemical properties of the soils, which may re-quire amelioration measures to restore the soilconditions Land degradation may not be a majorproblem in these ecosystems, but the scenario couldchange with increasing demand from a growingpopulation for more land for urban use and food
Promoting Sustainable Land
Resource Management
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Trang 26production Encroachment in these areas is table though steepland and mountains are pres-ently spared from massive development because
inevi-of the difficult terrain and strict regulations erning their use
gov-Malaysia enjoys considerable success in bilitating severely degraded mined-out land forproductive and economic use These areas havenow largely been reclaimed for crop production,aquaculture, duck rearing, and also for housing,recreation parks and golf courses
reha-The ability of Malaysia to keep land tion to a minimum can be attributed to thecountry’s strong advocacy for sustainable develop-ment The government is mindful of the dangersposed by indiscriminate land use particularly infragile ecosystems Policy guidelines have been set
degrada-in sustadegrada-inable land use planndegrada-ing, utilization andmanagement Technical guidelines for various types
of development have also been drawn to ensureenvironment-friendly on-site operations Legisla-tion has been enacted as a deterrent against landmismanagement and abuses
Soon after independence, Malaysia launched
a massive program to develop its agricultural sector
Development was directed at the conversion oflarge tracts of forestland into agricultural land forcultivation of important economic crops In the1960s and 1970s, land development was concen-trated on areas with favorable topography andsuitable agroclimatic zoning However, in recentyears, encroachment has become inevitable as moreland was utilized
Problem Areas and Degraded Lands
Problem areas include land with predominantlyfragile ecosystems such steepland, peat, acid sulfateand BRIS soils The steepland and the mountainstogether are the largest fragile ecosystem andoccupy 15.7 million ha of land (78% of the totalfragile land or 48% of the nation) Peat takes up2.6 million ha of land (13% of the fragile land
or 8% of the nation) This is followed by potentialacid sulfate and acid sulfate soils, which cover1.31 million ha (7% of the fragile land or 4% ofthe nation) BRIS and tin tailings together take
up approximately 0.5 million ha
Steepland and Mountains
Steepland refers to land with slopes of 25º and
up These occur in both the lowlands (<300 masl)and the highlands (>300 masl), while mountainsare found in the highlands In general, slope
increases with elevation although there are teaus and inner montane valleys with gentle slopesthat are potentially suitable for agricultural devel-opment These are few and far apart, extremelyexpensive to develop and highly susceptible to soilerosion
pla-Peat
Peat is a low potential, non-renewable resourcethat diminishes with use It suffers from waterlogging and hyper acidic conditions; poortrafficability; acute major and minor nutrientdeficiencies; subsides irreversibly and graduallydisappears when drained; and is prone to firehazards Nevertheless, more than 432,350 ha(46%) of peat land in Peninsular Malaysia havebeen drained mostly for agricultural activities Oilpalm is the dominant crop and covers 247,034
ha or 57% of the cleared land on peat Upondrainage and cultivation, peat decomposes andshrinks, resulting in subsidence and lowering ofthe ground surface In the first two years ofdraining the peat, the rate of subsidence was drasticand reached as much as 50 cm Subsequently, therate of subsidence reached only 2 to 3 cm perannum Peat fires contribute to serious air pol-lution besides destroying crops Now, no-burningrules, during dry periods are strictly imposed inareas close to airports
Acid Sulfate Soils
Acid sulfate soils are only found along coastalareas in the country Under natural conditions,there are potential acid sulfate soils subjected
to tidal influence and frequently inundated byseawater Land with acid sulfate soils must first
be reclaimed before they can be used for ricultural production Reclamation, however, istime-consuming, tedious, costly, delicate andcomplex, and requires multi-disciplinary exper-tise Major engineering works involving the con-struction of coastal bunds and tidal gates toprevent seawater ingression, and a complexnetwork of drains to remove excess water andsalts, are needed to make the land more suitablefor crop production However, reclamationresults in the formation of acid sulfate soils,which can render the reclaimed land less pro-ductive if amelioration measures are not imple-mented With proper agronomic and water man-agement and liming, such soils can be convertedinto highly productive soils for the cultivation
ag-of many crops
Trang 27BRIS Soils
The term BRIS is the abbreviation for Beach
Ridges Interspersed with Swales and refers to the
alternating parallel sandy beach ridges and low
depression areas, which are commonly found in
the coastal regions in Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah
and Sarawak In Peninsular Malaysia, it forms the
dominant landscape in the coastal areas of the
East Coast stretching from Kelantan in the north
to Johor in the south BRIS areas contain infertile
soils, which are composed predominantly of inert
sand particles The sandy nature of these soils
results in very low inherent soil fertility, poor
nutrient content and poor water-holding
capaci-ties, excessive drainage, and high surface
tem-peratures The low-lying swales are prone to
flood-ing durflood-ing the monsoon Although some of the
BRIS areas have been cultivated successfully for
tobacco, vegetables, corn, herbs, Roselle and other
annual crops, these areas constitute the most
challenge for agriculture development Now,
in-creasing areas are developed for intensive
horti-culture crops under irrigation and rain shelter
Organic fertilizers, manure additions and
irriga-tion are vital inputs for the success of crop
pro-duction in these areas
Mined-out Land
By far, the most damaging activity to land
deg-radation is mining Approximately 200,000 ha of
land have been mined in the Peninsula for tin ore
in the 1960s and 1970s The main methods of mining
tin are open-cast, gravel pump and dredging The
tin tailings from these activities are highly
impov-erished by the washing process to extract the tin ore
In all cases, the sand and clay fraction of the soil
were separated and dumped separately as sand and
slime (mixture of silt and clay) The depth of the
disturbed sediment varies from 10 meters for
dredg-ing to 0.5km for open-cast mindredg-ing These
mined-out land have been rehabilitated successfully for many
uses such as agriculture, aquaculture, duck farming
and urban uses including housing estates, golf courses
and recreation theme parks
Shifting Cultivation
Shifting cultivation especially in Sarawak is a
potential source of land degradation
Approxi-mately 2.7 million hectares or 22% of its land
area has been subjected to shifting cultivation
activities In the early years, shifting cultivation,
mainly involving hill rice, was not considered a
threat to land degradation due to the long fallow
period of more than 10 years Now, due to rural
to urban migration especially among the ruralpeople, there is a clear decline in the land undershifting cultivation
Progress in Soil and Water Conservation Activities
To ensure proper implementation of tion measures, Malaysia has strengthened meth-ods of collection and preparation of agriculturalland information through:
conserva-1 Soil Mapping – Digital spatial soil data isthe basic information in land use planning
Presently, 80% of the land has been mapped
2 Land Use Mapping – Agricultural land usemaps are updated every two years using sat-ellite image analysis and Geographic Infor-mation System (GIS) tools This data isimportant in evaluating the impact of landuse and for future planning of land resources
3 Erosion Risk Map – This map shows anestimation of total soil loss due to erosion
on areas without agronomic and tion practices at various terrain classes usingUniversal Soil Loss Equation Method andGIS tools This map is useful to planners inpredicting the average rate of the potentialsoil erosion and in recommending soilconservation measures to reduce soil losswithin permissible limits
conserva-4 Agroclimatic Map – It shows the variouszones with the same duration of moist/wetmonths and zones with similar duration ofmoist/wet in different months The dataprovides guidelines for planning variousagricultural activities
Land Degradation and Mitigation Measures
A national program to combat land tion is built into forestry, water and agricultureresources conservation measures and legislation,resulting in minimal land degradation in thecountry Sectors involved in land developmentcontinue to implement stringent mitigation mea-sures to minimize land degradation These mea-sures are present in the form of policies, legisla-tion, guidelines, awareness campaigns coveringsustainable forest management, water resourcemanagement, environment impact assessment andsoil conservation practices To increase farmingproductivity, the Ministry of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry, through its departments, is vigor-ously promoting good agricultural practice certi-
Trang 28degrada-fication schemes in crop production, veterinaryand aquaculture The Department of Agriculture
is now using good agricultural practice as thefoundation of its extension program
Three major policies that ensure the sustainableuse of land resources for development are theNational Forestry Policy, National Agriculture Policy,and the National Urbanization Policy These threepolicies together with the other mitigation mea-sures have contributed significantly to the mitiga-tion of land degradation For the National Agricul-ture Policy (NAP), emphasis is given to increasingproductivity through the efficient use of land re-sources The opening of new land is discouragedand concerted efforts are made to increase theefficient use of under-utilized land, idle land andeven marginal land such as acid sulfate and BRISsoils and mined-out areas For optimal land use,mixed farming involving the planting of crops,aquaculture and livestock production is encouraged
Integration of livestock in rubber and oil palmplantations is also actively promoted By discour-aging the opening of new land, the NAP contributes
to the preservation of forestland and protection ofthe environment Guidelines are available for de-veloping sloping land These state that land with 25ºand up slope is classified as steepland and is notrecommended for agricultural development For landwith less than 25º slope, conservation measures arerecommended including the construction of ter-races, silt traps, contour ditches and proper drain-age system, and planting of cover crops The imple-mentation of these measures has effectively con-trolled soil erosion, thereby minimizing land deg-radation, which is most prevalent on such terrain
Land with peat and acid sulfate soils have beenreclaimed effectively on a sustainable basis bycontrolled drainage involving a gradual lowering ofthe ground water table; appropriate agronomicmeasures such as liming to overcome the hyperacidconditions; and suitable fertilizer applications tocorrect macro and micro nutrient imbalances in theland With these measures, land with such soils hasbeen transformed into productive agricultural land
Nevertheless, large- scale forest clearing for ture of such land, especially peat swamps is difficultand expensive In their natural state, these areasserve a special function in flood control, being able
agricul-to absorb large quantities of water Furthermore,peat is a non-renewable resource that diminisheswith use In BRIS soils, restoration is accomplished
by agricultural and agronomic practices Use oflarge quantities of organic matter, discriminatory
fertilizer use, irrigation and intensive farming tems are among some of the measures used torehabilitate such land
sys-In forestry, the National Forest Policy (NFP),introduced in 1978 and revised in 1992, and theNational Forestry Act (1984) provide guidelinesfor the management, conservation, utilization,development and protection of forests The cor-nerstone of the NFP is the establishment ofPermanent Reserved Forest (PRF) to ensure sus-tainable forest management About 4.84 millionhectares of forestland are designated as PRF to
be managed sustainably for the benefit of bothpresent and future generations This comprises36.8% of the total land area of Peninsular Ma-laysia These forestlands are secured in their ten-ure as they are gazetted in accordance with theNational Forestry Act The PRF is classified intofunctional classes to promote sustainable forestmanagement and take into account the multiplerole of the forest These are timber productionforest under sustained yield; soil protection forest;flood control forest; water catchments; forestrysanctuary for wildlife; virgin jungle reserves;amenity forest; education forest and researchforest Out of the 4.84 million ha of PRF, 1.90million ha or 39.2% of the total PRF are classified
as protection forest and the remaining 2.94 million
ha as production forest Presently, the decision ofthe Department of Forestry prohibiting the open-ing of land above 1000 masl for any form ofdevelopment, will protect these areas from anyman-made degradation process and thus help topreserve the unique fragile ecosystem of the land.Legislation or laws to combat land degradationinclude the Land Conservation Act (1960), Na-tional Land Code (1965), Environment QualityAct (1974), Town and Country Planning Act (1976)and National Forestry Act (1984) In the Environ-ment Quality Act, 19 land-based developmentactivities including agriculture, forestry, housingand infrastructures are required to provide anenvironment impact assessment (EIA) report.Currently, the Land Conservation Act is beingreviewed to provide more effective control in soilerosion and river silting, which are common onagricultural land The Department of Lands andMines has recently initiated a national policy onsustainable land use With the implementation ofthe policies, technical guidelines and laws, Malay-sia has enjoyed clear success in controlling landdegradation and ensuring sustainable landdevelopment.
Trang 29THE UNION OF MYANMAR
has a total land area of 676,577 sq
km The topography is generally low
in the coastal and deltaic regions, but rises to
about 6,000 m in the rugged north of the country
The country is characterized by a tropical
mon-soon climate with three well-defined seasons:
summer, rainy and cool Annual rainfall in the
coastal and deltaic region is as high as 5,000 mm
whereas in the core area (around Nyaung U area)
of the Dry Zone of Central Myanmar, it is only
about 600 mm The Dry Zone, which is the hottest
place in the country, encompasses three divisions:
Lower Sagaing, Mandalay and Magway The
potential evapotransporation (PET) is great
throughout the year with a slight decrease in the
winter months The PET is about 2-3 mm per day
in cool months and 6-7 mm per
day in hot months The annual
PET is about twice the annual
rainfall During the summer
months, i.e March and April,
the maximum temperature in
Central Myanmar is above 39°C
while in Northern Myanmar, it
is about 26°C, and on Shan
Plateau in the east, 29°C Minimum temperature
in Central Myanmar in cool months, i.e
Decem-ber and January, is about 15°C The Dry Zone
of Myanmar is demarcated by the 1,016 mm
Isohyet line, and all areas within this zone have
a semi-arid climate The most striking
character-istic of the Dry Zone is the double maxima or
bimodal rainfall pattern The dry spell lasts for
about 30 days Although the rainy season lasts
from May to October, the number of rainy days
is meager, about 50 rainy days in a year
Agriculture is the predominant type of land
use in the region Since shifting cultivation is
per-manent in nature, 68.5% of the total area of the
Dry Zone falls under agricultural land use About
2% of water bodies indicate the scarcity of above
ground water resource
Myanmar is one of the developing countries
in Asia severely affected by land degradation and
desert-like formation mainly resulting from
inap-propriate land-use practices Realizing the lead
MYANMAR
role of the UNCCD to resolve environmental anddesertification problems at a global scale, Myanmaracceded to the UNCCD January 1997
Myanmar is basically an agricultural country,and hence the agricultural sector has been desig-nated as the main pillar of the country’s economy
The population is estimated at 55.4 million with
an annual growth rate of 2.02% in 2006 Morethan 70% of the population lives in rural areas,and 65% of the total labor force represents theagricultural sector The agriculture sector has threemain objectives These are to: create (1) surplus
in paddy, and (2) sufficiency in edible oils, and(3) increase production and export of pulses andindustrial crops
Myanmar is rich in natural resources, larly forest resources and biodiversity About 50%
particu-of the country’s total area is stillcovered with forests, out ofwhich about 37% are closed for-ests, and the remaining 14%
being degraded forests Underthe 1995 Myanmar Forest Law,some forested areas have beenconstituted as permanent forestestate (PFE), with its total areareaching as much as 23.23% of the country’s landsurface, exclusive of the protected areas system atthe end of 2005 Diverse forest ecosystems inMyanmar are home to nearly 7,000 plant species,
96 bamboo species, 36 rattan species, 481 orchidspecies and no less than 360 mammal species, 360reptile species and 1,000 bird species - an out-standing biodiversity not only on a regional, butalso on a global scale
Land Degradation and Mitigation Measures
Due to rapid development in the agricultureand forestry sectors within the last decade, theland- use pattern has distinctly changed between
1996 and 2002 During that period, the tural land area nearly doubled following develop-ment activities such as construction of dams andriver-water pumping stations, and the reclamation
agricul-of inundated land, hills and mountains Forestcover, on the other hand, gradually decreased from57.2% of the total land area in 1955 to 50.8%
Long-term Plans to Arrest Desertification
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
Trang 30in 1989 However, during the last decade, theForest Department (FD) and the newly consti-tuted Dry Zone Greening Department (DZGD)effectively maintained and improved the exist-ing natural forests and also established varioustypes of forest plantation Hence, forest coverincreased by 1.48% in 2000 The DZGDundertakes establishment of forest plantations;
protection of remaining natural forests; duction and promotion of wood fuel substitutes;
intro-and management intro-and development of waterresources The overall deforestation rate between
1955 and 1997 was about 3,160 sq km peryear, which is equivalent to 0.5% of the totalcountry’s area
Extension of agricultural land, construction ofdams and reservoirs, and increase in livestockbreeding area have all contributed to the socio-economic development of local people A total of
187 dams were constructed from 1988 to 2006throughout the country However, much of theforest areas have been clear-felled for other land-use purposes, thus greatly diminishing biodiversityand environmental stability
Similarly, in the Dry Zone of Central Myanmar,crop farming is not a sustainable livelihood due
to agroclimatic conditions characterized by ratic rainfall, high temperature and frequentdrought These make the local people resort to theover-exploitation of natural resources for their dailylives as well as for cottage industries With the
er-shortage of fuelwood, othersuse less desirable alternativefuels such as agro-residues,forest-waste and coal bri-quettes
During the period tween 1997-1998 and 2005-
be-2006, the DZGD plantedtrees on a total of 117,414
ha comprising village forests,watershed plantations andmountain greening in theSagaing, Mandalay andMagway divisions The De-partment maintained andprotected about 486,415 ha
of the existing natural ests during the same period
for-A total of 0.4 million of efficient stoves and 67.8million of fuel briquettes wasdistributed by the DZGD inthe three divisions during the same fiscal year Atotal of 1,420 small ponds and 86 artesian wellswas constructed to supply water, 1249 small damsfor water harvesting, and 0.2 million tons ofagricultural waste were used as alternative fuel.The 1995 Myanmar Forest Policy identifiedsix imperatives in accordance with the forestprinciples adopted at the United Nations Confer-ence on Environment and Development (UNCED).These imperatives suggest a holistic and balancedapproach in the formulation of forest policy andprogram within the overall context of the environ-ment and development These are:
fuel-1 Protection of soil, water, wildlife, biodiversityand environment;
2 Sustainability of forest resources;
3 Basic needs of the people;
4 Efficiency to harness the full economicpotential of forest resource;
5 Participation of the people; and
6 Public awareness about the vital role offorests in the socioeconomic development
of the nation
The policy also includes important measuresdirectly or indirectly related to the involvement ofthe public sector in implementing the environmentalconservation policy of the Government in accor-dance with international agreements CommunityForestry Instructions (CFIs) issued in 1995 sincethen have been practiced with emphasis on localcommunity participation in forest management
Mandalay fort
Trang 31The Dry Zone of Central Myanmar is the
most problematic region in terms of land
degra-dation because of continued deforestation and its
severe climatic conditions All possible measures
have thus been taken to prevent and check
en-vironmental deterioration and land degradation
since the 1950s In 1954, the Agriculture and
Rural Development Corporation (ARDC)
initi-ated a Dry Zone rehabilitation project in
collabo-ration with the FD to carry out tree planting
activities in denuded lands In 1994, the FD
implemented a special “Greening Project” for the
Nine Districts of the Arid Zone of Central
Myanmar During the project period, 7,280 ha
of denuded land in village supply plantations were
planted in the vicinity of the villages for greening
purposes and fuelwood supply In 1997, a new
department named “Dry Zone Greening
Depart-ment” was instituted to accelerate the
implemen-tation of greening and rehabiliimplemen-tation activities The
four main tasks of the DZGD are to: establish
forest plantations on degraded and denuded land
for local supply, and for greening the environs;
protect and conserve the remaining natural
for-ests; promote the use of fuelwood substitutes; and
develop water resources
Currently, there are 140 important dams
con-structed in the Dry Zone with watershed areas of
about 4.5 million hectares, of which 50% are
degraded and 25% are in a critical condition As
land degradation in watershed areas is partly linked
to the poverty of local people, the FD is now
taking measures to upgrade the socioeconomic
status of the local people through their full
par-ticipation in the practice of community forestry,
agroforestry, proper grazing, use of woodfuel
substitutes, and improving water availability and
income generation
In Myanmar, fuelwood is a vital energy source
for cooking, lighting and some cottage industries
Fuelwood consumption takes about 84% of the
country’s total energy consumption The
Ayeyawady mangrove forest has particularly
suf-fered from serious deforestation and
environmen-tal degradation due to overexploitation of
man-grove products for woodfuel and charcoal As the
population continued to increase, the rate of forest
degradation also increased due to the cutting of
trees for fuelwood, posts and poles, encroachment
for agricultural expansion, and increased fish and
prawn ponds
The FD of the Ministry of Forestry has been
taking the following measures: effective
conserva-tion and preservaconserva-tion of the forests; systematicenforcement for the protection of wildlife and wildplants; extension of reserved forests and protectedpublic forests areas; and natural and artificialregenerations throughout the country Moreover,
to ensure protection of wildlife and wild plants andconservation of natural areas, the State has estab-lished 13 nature and wildlife sanctuaries with anarea of 2.0 million acres and seven national parkswith a total area of 1.6 million acres The FDlaunched the Nation-wide Tree Planting Programme
in 1977-78 with the objective of raising publicawareness of greening non-forested areas The FDhas distributed various kinds of seedlings, whichhave increased each year especially in the DryZone The public planted about 17 million seed-lings in 2005 under the supervision of the Re-gional Forest Conservation Committees
Policies that Arrest Land Degradation
The FD formulated the 30-year National ForestMaster Plan (NFMP 2001-2031) for the overalldevelopment of the forestry sector in Myanmar in
1998 and finalized the plan in June 2001 TheDZGD also issued the Dry Zone Integrated Plan
in December 2000 for the same period to providegeneral guidelines on the implementation of reha-bilitation activities in the Dry Zone Both masterplans have been put into action During the lastdecade, the FD implemented various kinds ofspecial projects related to biodiversity and envi-ronmental conservation in cooperation with sev-eral national and international organizations
The main causes of the country’s land dation are demographic pressure, expansion ofagricultural land, over-grazing, shifting cultivation,illicit logging and excessive use of fuelwood, andinstallation of industrial plants and mining Due
degra-to nationwide land degradation, the capacity ofnatural forests to contribute to environmentalquality has decreased The number of both endan-gered plant and animal species has increased and
is seriously affecting biodiversity Soils have come infertile; water resources have become lessavailable; and the increasing temperature will heat
be-up the Dry Zone Energy sbe-upply is also ished by the forest destruction in water catchmentareas, which form the basis for existing and futureproduction of electric hydropower Without for-ests, there will be no water in the catchment areas;
dimin-without water; there will be no hydropower
Without hydropower, the population will have tointensify the already existing over-exploitation of
Trang 32natural resources for energy supply, thus forming
Myanmar and the UNCCD
Although desertification is not well known inMyanmar as there is no desert in the country,there are already patches of desert-like formation
in the Central Dry Zone Land degradation anddegradation of the forests are the major issues inthe region In fact, they are the first steps in theprocess of desertification Remedial measures areessential to stop the process of desertification
Similarly preventive measures are necessary forareas that are not yet degraded or slightly degraded
The National Action Programme should therefore
be fully integrated with the national sustainabledevelopment program, long-term perspective plansand strategies An integrated approach addressingthe physical, biological and socioeconomic aspects
of the process of desertification and drought should
be adopted In fact, desertification is the commonproblem for all the sectors in achieving sustainabledevelopment Both remedial and preventive mea-sures have been carried out in prioritized areasonly on a small scale due to financial and insti-tutional constraints The Ministry of Forestry, as
a key player in combating desertification, isimplementing all possible measures based on itslimited financial and institutional resources andwith the active participation of other line minis-tries such as the Ministry of Agriculture andIrrigation, the Ministry of Livestock and Fisher-ies, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Miningand national and international organizations andNGOs
The National Commission for EnvironmentalAffairs (NCEA) was established in 1990 with aspecific mandate to advise the government onenvironmental policies; to act as a focal point and
as a coordinating body for environmental affairs;and to promote environmentally-sound and sus-tainable development in Myanmar In 1994, theMinistry of Forestry launched a 3-year “GreeningProject for the Nine Critical Districts” in the DryZone This was later extended to 13 districts withthe formation in 1997 of a new department, theDry Zone Greening Department Thus, even beforeMyanmar’s accession to the UNCCD, measuresrelating to combating desertification had alreadybeen taken both at the local and national levels.However, accession to the UNCCD serves as theorganizational and coordination guarantee tocombat desertification in an integrated and cohe-sive manner
In April 1995, the Economic and SocialCommission for Asia Pacific (ESCAP) in coop-eration with the NCEA and the Forest Depart-ment of Myanmar organized the regional follow
up meeting of the UNCCD in Yangon, Myanmar.The National Awareness Seminar on the Conven-tion to Combat Desertification was held in Yangon,Myanmar, in October 1996
“The National Workshop on Preparation ofthe United Nations Convention to Combat De-sertification National Action Programme” washeld from 20-21 December 2001 in Yangon asthe first step to draft the national actionprogramme for Myanmar The Workshop iden-tified priority areas for the NAP objectivesand recommended the project proposals withkey intervention areas and themes The prior-ity areas comprise seven regions of the countryand fall into two broad classifications, namely:severely affected areas and moderately affectedareas The central part of Myanmar is beingseverely affected by the process of desertifica-tion The second NAP Workshop was held from9-10 June 2004 in Yangon to review the draftNAP Representatives from the different min-istries, institutions and NGOs attended theworkshop and provided invaluable suggestionsand shared their knowledge and experiences.The preparation of the NAP of Myanmar came
to a successful completion in December 2004.The Cabinet then approved the “NationalAction Programme of Myanmar to Combat De-sertification in the context of UNCCD” inSeptember 2005.
Trang 33UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
THE PHILIPPINES IS WELL
EN-dowed with rich natural resources and
is known to host biologically diverse
habitats composed of universally unique biological
plants and animal life Its agricultural lands are very
fertile and productive, enabling our farmers to plant
different crops throughout the year However,
because of natural, human and policy-induced
factors that include poor drainage, volcanic
erup-tions, extensive use of chemical fertilizers,
increas-ing demand for human settlement, and poor
en-forcement of land use policies and monitoring of
land use conversion, the incidence of land
degra-dation and drought has become a prominent and
recurring environmental problem Estimates reveal
that about 45% of the arable
lands in the Philippines has been
moderately to severely eroded,
triggering the movement of
sub-sistence farmers to fragile
eco-systems Likewise, approximately
5.2 million hectares are seriously
eroded resulting in a 30-50%
re-duction in soil productivity and
water retention capacity making the lands
vulner-able to recurrent drought and the El Niño
phenom-enon Soil mining caused by the long term use of
urea has also resulted in serious soil nutrient
im-balance, thus increasing the cost of fertilization and
decreasing farmers’ income
Recognizing the worsening problem of land
degradation and drought that is closely linked to
poverty, the Philippine government ratified the
United Nations Convention to Combat
Desertifi-cation (UNCCD) on 10 February 2000 With the
ratification, the Bureau of Soils and Water
Man-agement, which is the Philippines’ Focal Agency for
the UNCCD, initiated a series of consultation
workshops and meetings to formulate the
Philip-pine National Action Plan to Combat
Desertifica-tion, Land DegradaDesertifica-tion, Drought and Poverty In
2004, the NAP was finalized and signed, and is
envisioned to serve as a convergence program among
four government departments: Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR), Agriculture (DA),
PHILIPPINES
Mainstreaming Agriculture
and Rural Development Programs
Agrarian Reform (DAR) and Science & Technology(DoST)
The NAP’s overall development framework iscentered on sustainable agriculture, forestry and ruraldevelopment It also focuses on water provision andtechnology based on and guided by community ini-tiatives, participatory learning and planning Thisclearly reflects the long-term goal of maintainingnatural resource productivity while increasing farmproductivity and alleviating poverty incidence
Working on this framework, the NAP emphasizesthe critical value of water in sustaining land pro-ductivity and provides a conscious effort to ensureboth quality and quantity of water resources andhow they impact on the final quality of safe food
products It focuses on highlydegraded lands and critical wa-tersheds located in vulnerableareas
The goal of the NAP is tomainstream agriculture and ru-ral development programs thatwill prevent the incidence andspread of desertification and landdegradation Its objectives are to:
1 Establish ecosystem-based technology optionsfor the development and protection of fragilelandscapes and vulnerable communities;
2 Institutionalize community initiatives for localarea development; and
3 Harmonize and systematize enabling policiesand implementation strategies with a view ofdeveloping legislations for productivity im-provement of degraded lands
The NAP has two thematic programs: (1) tainable agriculture and marginal uplands develop-ment; and (2) integrated ecosystems development
sus-The first program covers the formulation of gation measures against desertification processes insome irrigation systems, arrest of soil nutrientdepletion and water pollution, precision agriculture,management of Karst water, establishment of smallwater retention structures, establishment of Farm-ers’ Participatory Learning Centers and Conserva-tion Farming Villages and enhancement of home
Trang 34miti-UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS
gardens The second program focuses on promotionand development of community-based wildernessagriculture and local governance-community partner-ships in managing degraded and critical multiplewatersheds The NAP has five components: land andwater technology development; local governance andcommunity initiatives; database development andharmonization; information, education and commu-nication; and enabling policy development
Strategies Established within the Context of the Convention
To institutionalize the NAP as a convergence plan
of action, the heads of DA, DAR, DoST, and DENRsigned the National Cooperation and Endorsementfor the subsequent implementation of the NAP Thesedepartments pledged their commitment to supportthe NAP’s goals and program components to com-bat land degradation and drought, and reduce theirimpacts on land productivity, natural resources, en-vironmental health and rural poverty The NAP wasintegrated into the Medium Term Public InvestmentProgram (2004-2010) of the DA; other agencies arenow mainstreaming the NAP into their own regularbudgets
Since one of the objectives of the UNCCD is
to establish close implementation synergy with otherrelevant UN Conventions, the NAP working groupalso looked into the National Biodiversity Strate-gic Action Plan (NBSAP) and the National ActionPlan on Climate Change (NAP-CC) This wasdone to determine gaps, relevant concerns andpossible project collaborations in terms of research,development and extension, and capacity build-ing The BSWM collaborated with the DENR’sProtected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB) andEnvironmental Management Bureau (EMB), theFocal Points of the UNCBD and the UNFCCCrespectively, to propose a project on strengtheninginstitutional coordination capacity of the three FocalPoints in implementing Multilateral Environmen-tal Agreements (MEA) Hence, the proposal
‘Strengthening Coordination for Effective ronmental Management (STrEEM)’ was drafted
Envi-to improve the implementation of the country’sobligations to the three conventions through cost-effective, sustainable and participatory mecha-nisms of coordination among key actors and stake-holders
The BSWM has already collaborated with PAWB
on a forum on ‘Restoring Biodiversity of DegradedHabitats and Drylands: Combating Desertification,Land Degradation, Drought and Poverty’, which
allowed relevant organizations to: share and exchangeinformation on the current and upcoming programsand projects of the government and other institu-tions related to the prevention of desertification,land degradation and drought; and point out gaps
in program implementation and recognize the areas
of collaboration among partner agencies and vironmental NGOs on these concerns
en-Processes to Support Project Implementation
To accelerate the implementation of the NAPand solve the problem of budget limitations inprogram implementation, the BSWM initiatedvarious resource mobilization activities Presen-tations of the NAP with different donor agencieswere held to inform them of the intention toimplement programs on sustainable agricultureand marginal uplands development and integratedecosystems management Workshops with landand water resources management experts werealso held to facilitate the formulation of projectproposals
In 2005, the Full Scale Project (FSP) ing Land Degradation and Poverty in Marginal Areasand Communities of the Philippines’ was draftedthrough the guidance of the United Nations De-velopment Program (UNDP) This aims to im-prove an enabling policy environment, strengthenthe capacity of institutions and human resources,improve land productivity and socioeconomic well-being of farming communities, and improve envi-ronmental conditions in vulnerable agro-ecosystemsand forest ecosystems
‘Combat-The over-all objective of the FSP is to stream agriculture and rural development programs
main-in the national and local development plans toprevent the incidence and spread of desertificationand land degradation in seasonally arid and erosionprone lands, improve agricultural productivity andincrease income of vulnerable communities To attainthis objective, the FSP will follow a holistic andparticipatory cross-sectoral approach for address-ing Sustainable Land Management (SLM) bymainstreaming SLM concerns into national devel-opment programs and involving all the key stake-holders in the project design and implementationprocess It will also build on baseline activitiesundertaken undertaken by national, regional andlocal government agencies, non-government orga-nizations, farmers, local stakeholders and the pri-vate sector Likewise, the FSP’s components will beimplemented in synergy with the UNCBD andUNFCCC taking into consideration biodiversity
Trang 35conservation and carbon sequestration to combat
desertification and land degradation
Relevant Projects Implemented
within the Context of the UNCCD
These projects include the following:
Organic-based Agriculture Development
(‘Agri-Kalikasan’) Program
In 2005, the Government of Japan funded the
‘Organic-based Agriculture Agri-Kalikasan’ program
to reduce heavy reliance on chemical inputs closely
associated with conventional agriculture The project
is a science-based back-to-basics sustainable
agri-cultural and rural development program that
advo-cates organic-based farming guided by scientific
principles It promotes safe and judicious use and
proper mixtures of oil-based chemical fertilizers
and recycled composted home and farm wastes,
small and large animal manures, guano deposits,
green manures, and other natural forms of soil
ameliorants and organic fertilizers The program is
now focusing on the ‘Tipid Abono’ or Balanced
Fertilization Strategy and Modified Rapid Straw
Composting being implemented in seasonally arid
areas to arrest soil nutrient depletion It is expected
to improve soil productivity and the farmers’
in-come, and prevent soil mining
Community-based Watershed Management
in Improving Livelihood Opportunities
in Selected Areas of the Philippines
This project is implemented in collaboration
with the International Center for Research in
Semi-arid Tropics, the Bureau of Agricultural Research,
the Federation of Free Farmers (an NGO) and local
government units The four project sites are: Doña
Remedios Trinidad, Bulacan; Talibon, Bohol; San
Clemente, Tarlac and Ilocos Sur The objective of
the project is to improve livelihood opportunities
through watershed management It aims
specifi-cally to: promote sound soil and water conservation
and management technologies in minimizing land
degradation through community participation;
conduct training to minimize land degradation
through a community-based approach; provide
employment opportunities for local communities
through various natural resource-based livelihood
activities; and empower rural communities with
technical know-how on sustainable watershed
management The project expects a 30% increase
in farmers’ income, significant improvement in
natural resources productivity and an empowered
community in terms of carrying out soil and waterconservation approaches
Multi-functionality of Agriculture
in Selected Sites of the Philippines
Funded by ASEAN-MAFF Japan, the project
is currently underway in three sites: Talugtog, NuevaEcija; Guimaras and Tagaytay, Cavite, and aims toevaluate the various functions of agriculture Agri-culture has environmental functions that includefostering groundwater recharge, soil conservationand flood prevention, and also socio-economic andagri-tourism functions This project looked also intothe enhancement of agriculture through rainwaterharvesting system like the small water-impoundingproject (SWIP) It provides a good estimate of theequivalent monetary value of the multi-functions ofagriculture
Enhancing Agricultural Production
in the Philippines through the Sustainable Use of Shallow Groundwater
This project, which is a collaboration betweenthe BSWM and the Australian Center for Interna-tional Agricultural Research, is being implemented
in Ilocos Norte, where there is insufficient surfacewater and unpredictable rainfall The project em-phasizes the critical value of water in sustaining landproductivity and covers areas experiencing seasonalaridity Among its major goals are to: assess currentand potential roles and benefits of shallow ground-water use for agricultural production in rainfedlowlands; identify strategies to ensure sustainableuse of shallow groundwater; and pilot test and modifyaquifer storage and recovery (ASR) systems to suitsandy aquifers
Integrated Watershed Management for able Soil and Water Resources Management of the Inabanga Watershed on Bohol Island, Philippines
Sustain-This project is located at the largest watershed
of Bohol Island where the agricultural land tutes more than 50% of the watershed It aims toaddress impacts of poor farming practices; and thedecline in farming productivity and water quality ofthe river system Some of its objectives are to: examinethe current land and water resources of the Inabangawatershed; evaluate the extent of soil erosion, sedi-mentation and water quality problems; understandsocio-economic issues that impact on the area’sagricultural sustainability; and evaluate differentoptions and impacts for water resource uses.
Trang 36consti-SINGAPORE RECOGNIZESthat in order to remedy the world’senvironment problems, includingglobal warming, management of hazardous wastes,deforestation, rising sea levels and desertification,the global community has to collectively addressthe root causes of these environmental challenges.
Many nations have recognized that internationalcooperation is necessary to achieve an ecologi-cally and economically viable future It has be-come increasingly clear that nothing less than atransformation of attitudes and behaviors towardsthe environment will bring about the necessarychanges required to ensure the sustainability andsurvival of the global environment
Singapore believes in thesignificance of internationalsupport in ensuring thesustainability of our global fu-ture and is thus appreciative ofthe United Nation’s efforts andactive involvement in global en-vironmental concerns
Singapore has participated inmany multilateral agreements on environmentalissues ranging from protecting the ozone layer, toprotecting biodiversity and endangered species
In 1998, Singapore also ratified the UN tion to Combat Desertification
Conven-Though desertification is not an issue thatdirectly affects Singapore, the local governmenthas ensured that the environment has not suf-fered in their drive to development The govern-ment policy since the 1960s has been to strike
a balance between development and nature, andafter 40 years of industrialization, Singapore hasmanaged to achieve economic growth withoutneglecting the environment However, rapidurbanization has subjected the country’s fragilenatural ecosystems to severe stress As the popu-lation increases, the pressure for more land toaccommodate development needs naturally ac-celerates alongside with the increased demandfor an attractive and comfortable living environ-ment
SINGAPORE
Making the Environment a Priority
The natural areas of Singapore serve multiplefunctions, including recreation, education, scien-tific research, and maintenance of essential eco-logical life-processes However, given that land isscarce in Singapore, balancing the conservation ofnatural heritage with a multitude of other land-uses is a challenging task Still, Singapore iscommitted to keep Nature Areas for as long as
is practically possible
To protect the environment, Singapore unveiledthe Singapore Green Plan (SGP) at the 1992 UNConference on Environment and Development,also known as the Earth or Rio Summit The SGPcharted the strategic directions for Singapore to
protect and sustain the ment
environ-In terms of land ment, the 1992 SGP called onSingapore to overcome landscarcity by employing innova-tive ways of maximizing landuse One strategy was to incor-porate as many compatible uses
manage-in green spaces Parks, for manage-instance, were opened
up for other compatible uses from horticultureplanting to venues for staging outdoor concerts.Efforts were also taken to ensure that parks,gardens, roadside greenery and a network of greenlinks formed an integral part of the greening ofSingapore Another project is the Park Connec-tors Network, which aims to link up the majorparks in continuity through an integrated series
of green connectors, including jogging and cycle tracks In certain areas, these park connec-tors may also function as a green corridor forwildlife
bi-Well-planned and supported scientific studies
in the country also ensure that local biodiversity
is properly catalogued and well managed TheNational Parks Board (NParks), as the ScientificAuthority on Nature Conservation in Singapore,was tasked to monitor and coordinate measures
to maintain the health of the nature areas Some
of the studies that have been conducted include
A Balance between Development and Nature
UNCCD COUNTRY REPORTS