Adriane B.

Tobias 2011-19357 SFFG -B Social Forestry: Key Mitigation and Adaptation to Climate Change Our world is currently in the midst of devastation because of human activities that result a particular negative impact causing broader wreckage and if no prevention are taken, this will leads to a total havoc. Every small act done by every individual is linked to greater forms of destructions where simple things act as the major reason for these phenomena. Massive loss of the forest lands, soil erosion, drought and excessive rainfall, pollution, melting of ice in the North and South poles, extinction of different plant and animal species, shortage of food and water, greenhouse effect and climate change indicate that our world is being ruined.

Soil Erosion

Excessive surface run-off/ La Nina Excessive use of natural resources

Improper waste disposal Human Activities Forest Degradation/ Deforestation

Extinction of species Climate Change Greenhouse effect

Pollution

Smoke

Overcutting of trees

El Nino

Shortage of food and water supply

FIGURE 1

In this figure, it just indicates the relation of a system from human activities to climate change. From human activities which are improper waste disposal and smoke either from cars or cigarettes can cause pollution and, the excessive use of natural resources and overcutting of trees can cause forest destruction. Now, this forest destruction can cause and be the effect of more severe results. These results are called climate change.

Climate change is such a serious condition which can provide negative impacts to our planet. We are all affected by this changing environment, directly or indirectly, particularly the rural upland. They are the most affected in any angle and in any aspect both economic and ecologically. Climate change is majority cause by forest degradation. Due to deforestation, the rural upland community becomes more vulnerable to different natural disasters such as typhoons that become more serious, floods and droughts, storm surges, tsunamis, soil erosion, and landslides.

In figure 2, we can realize the role of a sustainable forest in mitigation of climate change. Forest is the one responsible for storing of water, food and carbon and regulating hydrological cycle. Once it is destroyed, food sources maybe possibly loss, carbon would release to the earths atmosphere and there would be nothing to facilitate the regulation of water flow and this can result floods and severe drought in summer season, soil erosion and excessive surface run off of rainfall; flowing with some boulders and logs, destroying the livelihood and the community themselves, then the mangrove forest which is the shelter of some fishes and has role of buffering typhoons, tsunamis and others. After the mangrove, there would be a destruction of other ecosystem. With all these destructions, the rural upland must adapt to the changing environment.

The rural uplands are the most strongly affected by climate change. Through the effects of climate change such as increase in temperature and water scarcity for example would likely decrease crop yields as well as the income of the rural upland community forcing them to do other types of activities for production of income like logging of trees. The rural uplands depend mainly on the forests as their food sources, thus if forest is destroyed, possible loss or shortage of food would occur. Other negative impacts of climate change are soil erosion and floods which are caused by a denuded forest. Soil erosion may destroy the shelter and livelihood of every rural people or worst, it may take them to death. Denuded forest make also the rural upland community more prone from typhoons, storms and others while climate change worsen natural disasters resulting to a more complicated destruction in an environment and also to the people that resides on it. One good example of worsening disaster is the typhoon Milenyo, a t that time this typhoon was expected only to have a small amount of rainfall but because of the climate change it gave heavy amount of rainfall causing the trees to give up holding in soil and overflowing of water because the trees are not able to handle large amount of it. This typhoon result a dilemma to every province affected by it especially the Barangay Bagong Silang near in Mt. Makiling. Many houses were destroyed and there are a lot of people buried and died by huge rocks or boulders and large logs from the mountain. This situation is just indicating how grave climate change impacts are. Actions against climate change are really needed now to stop its negative impacts especially to the rural poor upland. There are a lot of ways to obviate or mitigate and to adapt to climate change only if we can unite to act and if there are certain strategies to be done. We, as community the reason for these changes, are the one who can stop the aggravation of climate change though we cannot put it into an end. In order to stop its gradual increase of negative impacts, unity of people with an aim of helping the environment is needed. Minimizing of consuming natural resources and determination of necessary and sufficient needs can also help in terms of conservation of resources and forestlands. Proper disposal of wastes is a good practice so we can perform the 3Rs or The Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Policy properly and avoiding footprints which can harm the environment can be done also, thus, everyone should have zero footprints. Moreover, social forestry can also be the answer in climate change. Social Forestry nowadays is the answer for this problem. It is a very vital field concerning for both production and conservation. We can define social forestry as a key to climate change. We can also derived social forestry and put its principles, practices or activities and technologies to relate it in satisfying the needs not only the rural poor community but also to the poor condition of our environment. By adopting to different social forestry technologies, it can mitigate climate change and help rural communities adapt to climate change impacts. It can manage sustainably our forests and the livelihood of the rural uplands. We can say that social forestry technologies can meet all these needs but its still not a panacea. Social Forestry technologies have the ability to mitigate climate change. Social forestry technologies include production technology and conservation technology. Production technologies such as Community Tree Farming, Individual Tree Farming, Multiple Product Forestry, Forest Based Cottage Industry and the Agroforestry cannot only provide economic benefits but also ecological or environmental benefits. Tree farming provides the rural upland a source of income through timber production for sustainable life while helping restoring forest areas by establishing forest plantations. With the use of this practice, it can prevent the forest from destruction as well as from the climate change. Forest plantation restoration can also help to sequester Carbon. Multiple Product Forestry and Forest Based Cottage Industry can generate non timber forest products for the livelihood income of rural upland. This can avert the rural upland in cutting trees, thus, it can preserves forest lands which can help to mitigate climate change. Agroforestry, the most dynamic practice in social forestry, contributes also in mitigation in climate change. It increases the productivity of the rural upland protecting their livelihood crops from devastating soil erosion through the practice of alley cropping, SALT, hedgerow intercropping while it decreases the impacts of climate change. It can manage the forest sustainably. It stabilizes upland

agricultural cultivation for the protection of the remaining forest. It improves farm site ecology by reducing excessive surface runoff, nutrient loss and landslides. It also improves the microclimate and enhances the productive capacity of farm. Another Social Forestry Technology is the conservation technology which its focus is mainly on protecting and conservation of social forestry sites. Strategies under this technology such as Soil and Water Conservation Strategies and Engineering strategies avoid the forest land from soil erosion thus it conserves soil nutrients and tree destructions. Through these technologies, it helps to lessen the negative impacts of climate change. From Fig 1, it is well shown that forest destruction is the main cause of climate change and if restoration, preservation and protection of forest which is very vital in terms of storage of carbon, food and all the resources, are conducted while meeting also the need of the rural uplands, it can mitigate climate change. Social Forestry technologies restore forest lands, sequester carbon and protect rural upland from all damages and destructions by natural disasters while helping the rural poor to adapt from these changes and impacts of climate change. Social Forestry cannot totally annihilate the existence of climate change so it is a requirement for the rural upland to adapt from it. All the technologies can help the rural upland to be resilient from climate change or well adapted responding to the negative impacts for a better strategy of livelihood flexible to the extreme changes in the environment. Agroforestry and other engineering strategies are already an example of adaptation. The rural upland tends to respond to the effect of impacts of climate change by using these technologies. For example, because of the climate change the forest is more prone to soil erosion so they would do such strategy to prevent it to happen. They will derive the engineering strategies or Agroforestry to their basic system of farming for example for the production and protection of their livelihood. With the use of vegetative engineering, it prevents soil erosion and destruction of crops. Adaptation of rural upland helps to decrease their vulnerability to negative impacts of climate change. Social Forestry is a key to mitigate and help the community to adapt to climate change. It is both sustainable in economic and livelihood of rural upland and environmental needs. In figure 3, it shows the role of Social Forestry technologies in mitigation and adaptation to climate change. If it is well conducted then it will sustain both adaptation and mitigation. Thus, social forestry has a potential in saving our environment and providing a sustainable use of forest use for the livelihood and income of rural upland.

If Social Forestry technologies are well introduced to.

Rural Upland Community then,

Protection of forest lands storing carbon.

Generating income from timber and planting of crops using different technologies.

Production or restoration of forest and conservation of soil and water.

Flexibility to heavy rain and extreme drought, preventing destruction of food and income sources.

Preventing forest destruction and preserving the remaining forest lands. sustain

Using of different plant species for better productivity and stability of farming. sustain

Mitigation of Climate Change.

Adaptaion of the rural upland.