PAFERN Organizes Multistakeholder Consultation on the Professionalization of Agroforestry Practice in the Philippines

A Multistakeholder Consultation/Dialogue was organized by PAFERN on November 6, 2008 as a Special Session during the 2nd Visayas Agroforestry Congress. The consultation/dialogue aimed to ventilate issues on the Senate Bill No. 872 otherwise known as the Philippine Agroforestry Act, which calls for the professionalization of agroforestry practice in the Philippines. Representatives from the different sectors, particularly the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Philippine Forestry Education Network (PFEN), National Agroforesters' Association of the Philippines (NAAP), Philippine Association of Agriculturists (PAA), and the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC) raised their views, opinions and feedback on the move to professionalize agroforestry practice in the country.

In view of the issues and concerns raised, PAFERN and NAAP agreed to: a) defer lobbying for the professionalization of agroforstry practice in the Philippines. While there is a need to pursue this move, this may not be the perfect time, considering the current enrollment trend in the area of agriculture, forestry and natural resources management programs. Instead, PAFERN will focus working towards the accreditation of the BS Agroforestry program to ensure quality of the program; b) continue lobbying for the institutionalization of agroforestry as a development strategy; c) continue generating resources in order to conduct research and development activities that would aid in advancing the science and practice of agroforestry; and, d) collaborate with different agencies at various levels to help disseminate the relevance of agroforestry.

The Multistakeholder Consultation was supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) through the Southeast Asian Network for Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE).