Bantay Kalikasan meets with For. Ella
January 31, 2012
Ms. Gina L. Lopez, Managing Director of ABS-CBN Foundation, Inc.’s Bantay Kalikasan (BK) met last 13 January 2012 with FPRDI Scientist Arsenio B. Ella to discuss the possibility of working with the Institute in setting up almaciga resin enterprises in Brooke’s Point, Palawan. A well-known environmentalist, Lopez envisions a project that will improve the livelihood of indigenous people in the area.
Almaciga resin, or Manila copal in world trade, is an important dollar earner for the country. It is harvested from the bark of the almaciga (Agathis philippinensis Warb.) tree and used in manufacturing paints, varnishes, printing ink, shoe polish, patent leather, floor wax and linoleum. The tree is found in the country’s remaining forested mountains, but is especially abundant in Palawan.
To orient Lopez on the status of almaciga in the Philippines, For. Ella presented his paper “Almaciga: Valuable but Diminishing Tree Species in the Philippines.” After the presentation, Lopez expressed BK’s commitment to help save the remaining almaciga stands in the country, especially those found in Palawan.
Meanwhile, Ms. Mercedes Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group of Companies who came with Lopez promised to design handicrafts from non-timber forest products (NTFP), to create extra sources of income for the province’s tribal communities.
For many years now, FPRDI has been educating the country’s forest-based communities on the scientific way of tapping resin from the almaciga tree. “The ignorance of resin harvesters is the culprit behind the poor health and eventual death of many trees,” says Ella. (Rizalina K. Araral 30 January 2012) #
