Rainforestation Benefits Ripple Out from ELTI Trainings

Over the past 50 years, Negros Island in the Philippines has lost over 95% of its primary forest cover to logging, agriculture and development. Residents have suffered from this loss of the forest’s services: topsoil has washed away, fewer forest products are available for their needs, and there’s less protection from landslides and floods.

Rene Vendiola, a former slash-­and-­burn farmer, saw this devastating sequence of events play out with alarming frequency.
In 2005, Rene, together with his conservation biologist friend, Apolinario “Pol” Carino, attended a Rainforestation Orientation by Visayas State University (VSU) and Haribon Foundation. Upon returning to their hometown, the friends decided to raise a native forest in their adjacent properties.

We’re very pleased that the area we reforested has fewer landslides. We’re thankful for the support and trainings from Ms. Depra, Mr. Vendiola and Mr. Cariño, and the alternative livelihood opportunities, such as organic farming and processing of non-timber forest products, that have become available to us.

People’s Organization adopter and Forest guard volunteer

In 2009, Rene and Pol participated in a Rainforestation Trainer’s Training by VSU and ELTI. With an established demonstration site and more in­depth knowledge and skills on Rainforestation, the friends took their environmental advocacy full­-scale and officially opened The Liptong Woodlands Training Center to the public in 2010.

In 2011, one of Rene and Pol’s participants was Ms. Rose Depra, Executive Director of the Negros Economic Development Foundation. Ms. Depra sought ideas for a small Rainforestation project in her region. She was so impressed by her training at the Liptong Woodlands that she has returned to the site on four additional occasions, bringing along 100 forest guard volunteers, staff from local municipalities, and representatives from a nearby college.

Motivated by Rene and Pol’s example and having gained funding through a USAID project, Ms. Depra and her colleagues have since established three more Rainforestation farms in three villages, expanding to more than 100 hectares in 2013.