Our Work In Philippines

Mayor Noli Venezuela, on his visit to the US from the Philippines, visited the Ruppe Center to discuss plans on building an agroforestry training site in the northern Philippines. Mayor Venezeula is asking for help to develop 69 hectares (170 acres) into a training site that will help farmers better understand sustainable agroforestry systems.

The dry season in Southeast Asia's mountains is long and hot. This is especially true where the forests have been cleared - that's almost everywhere in the Philippines where only 2% of the original forests remain.

Nature protects these barren lands with a rank grass, Imperata cylindrica, locally called Talahib. It's thick and tough and can grow on poor and degraded soils to a height of more than 10 feet. When the uplands get hot and dry, it's almost explosive. Then all it takes is one spark. This happened during the "El Niño" in 1998. For weeks, smoke from the fires blackened the skies from Jakarta to Singapore to Manila, killing thousands. Each year the grass fires wipe out hundreds of upland villages. Orchards of mango and other fruit trees are especially susceptible and, from bad experiences, farmers have learned to build firebreaks to save their fruit.

These are "living" firebreaks. They are about 40 feet wide, consisting of about 7 rows of trees that stay green and cool during the dry season. The shaded land beneath them maintains lush undergrowth making a solid, cool and green barrier about 20 feet high. When these breaks are planted in gridworks, they can stop almost any grass fire.

They work because they quickly become solid green walls. One reason for this, and for their popularity in the community, is this undergrowth. Under the protection of these trees people can plant many other food crops: papaya, bananas, pineapple, different root crops. The continuing leaf fall from the trees fertilizes and shades them while holding moisture on the land.

This project, begun in the northwest Philippines is teaching this technology to the people of the upland villages. He's getting help from nearby Magsaysay Technological University, from various government agencies, and from a fast- growing number of local NGO's. The demonstration farm he started serves 23 upland villages scattered over an area of thousands of acres. We're helping people work together to turn the brown mountains green again.