Nestor Gregorio

A critical overview of forestry seedling production policies and practices in relation to smallholder forestry in developing countries

This paper reviews forestry seedling production systems in South-east and East Asia and identifies problems with respect to seedling quality, seedling distribution and financial sustainability, and measures which have been adopted or advocated to improve performance in this sector. The paper draws in particular on experience in a series of research projects on smallholder forestry in the Philippines. Some observations are also drawn from the following papers in this combined special issue of Small-scale Forestry. It is found that a mix of public and private sector models are adopted for forestry seedling production, between and even within countries. Often nurseries are set up to provide seedlings for a government-directed expansion in tree planting, and have difficulty surviving once the initial planting purpose is completed. Private nurseries often lack resources, and depend on contracts to supply seedlings for financial viability. Demand tends to be highest for fast-growing species (often exotics), fruit trees, and ornamentals in the case of urban nurseries. Government policies typically favour quantity over quality of the seedlings produced. Considerable scope exists for adopting best or at least improved management practice in seedling nurseries.

Enhancing Tree Seedling Supply to Smallholders in Leyte Province, Philippines: An Evaluation of the Production System of Government Nursery Sector and Support to Smallholder Tree Farmers

A decentralized seedling production is regarded as the most effective means of providing smallholders with planting materials. However, the sustainability of smallholder nursery operation is constrained by several factors, including the limited availability of germplasm, lack of technical skills and low seedling demand low viability of seedling market. The government nursery sector could complement the weaknesses of the smallholder nursery group but government nurseries are not operating effectively to enhance the availability of high quality seedlings of a wide species base for smallholder forestry. Seedling production in government nurseries is quantity-orientated with low emphasis on the production of high quality planting materials. Germplasm used in seedling production is mostly collected from unselected sources and seedlings produced are mostly of low physical quality. The species selection in government nurseries is heavily based on the availability of germplasm which resulted in the production of a few species which are commonly raised on private nurseries. The duplication of species of most seedlings raised in government nurseries with those produced in private nurseries and the far distance of government nurseries from the villages has resulted in low uptake of seedlings by smallholder tree farmers. For the government nursery sector to become more effective in providing support in the present paradigm of decentralized seeding production, a change from its production system and a broadening of the role it plays is needed. The social mobilization on seedling production as a scheme of implementing the Green Philippines Program has led the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to acknowledge the seedling production activity of private individual and communal nursery groups. This can be an opportunity for organizing the private and government nursery sectors to promote the operational effectiveness of the overall forest nursery industry.

Regulating the Quality of Seedlings for Forest Restoration: Lessons from the National Greening Program in the Philippines

The use of low quality planting material is one of the major reasons for the limited success of past reforestation programs in the Philippines and elsewhere in the tropics. In the Philippines, a national policy has been in place since 2010, which regulates the quality of seedlings. As part of the policy, government reforestation programs are required to use only high quality seedlings from accredited seedling suppliers. A survey of nurseries producing seedlings for the National Greening Program in Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao regions was carried out to determine the effectiveness and challenges in implementing the forest nursery accreditation policy. The survey identified factors that limit the effectiveness of seedling quality regulation including lack of auditing of seedling quality in accredited nurseries, insufficient monitoring of the seedling supply chain among the network of nurseries supplying seedlings for reforestation programs, inadequate seedling production schedules, and inappropriate criteria for seedling quality assessment. The limited sources of high quality germplasm, nursery operators’ limited information on the attributes of high quality planting materials and lack of knowledge about high quality seedling production technologies contributed to the widespread production of low quality seedlings. The lack of seedling quality checks makes the government’s bidding scheme of seedling purchases prone to favouring the proliferation of low quality seedlings that are usually sold at lower prices. Nursery accreditation represents a major initiative in promoting the success of Philippine reforestation but our study found that considerable improvement of the policy and of its implementation is necessary. From our study, key lessons can be learned for the implementation of forest landscape restoration initiatives in other tropical developing countries.

Small-scale forestry development in Leyte, Philippines: The central role of nurseries

This paper presents results of survey research into the role of the forestry nursery sector in the development of smallholder forestry in Leyte, Philippines. Seedling production in the province is basically carried out by three categories of nurseries: individual, communal and the government. Seedlings in the government nurseries are primarily raised for free distribution to landholders but the extension scheme fails to reach the majority of the smallholder farmers. Seedling demand of landholders is mostly catered for by the more numerous and accessible individual and communal nurseries. However, problems of capital outlay, sources and supply of germplasm, technical knowledge in nursery management for both timber and fruit trees and low sales are among the major impediments in the sustainability of small-scale nurseries. Most of the communal nurseries fail to sustain the operation after the withdrawal of supporting agencies. Knowledge on site-species matching is needed not only by small-scale nursery operators but also by the managers of government nurseries. It is concluded that the seedling industry in the province is not well established and there is a need to organise better the overall nursery system so as to improve the availability of seedlings and promote appropriate site and species combinations.

Developing establishment guidelines for Shorea palosapis in smallholder plantings in the Philippines

SUMMARY A series of trials examining fertilizer-shading interactions on the island of Leyte (Philippines, 11°N) revealed that the endemic dipterocarp mayapis (Shorea palosapis) benefits from shade trees, either directly above or to the east, during the early stages of plantation establishment. Although it can attain 2 cm/year diameter increment in plantations, mayapis exhibits poor growth and survival under wide spacing, when waterlogged and in exposed bare soil. Indications that early growth can be hampered by high soil temperatures warrant further research and development of practical planting techniques for smallholders.

Nursery Training for Smallholders: An Evaluation of Two Extension Programs in the Philippines

High-quality seedlings are a prerequisite for successful forestry and agroforestry expansion in developing countries. Unfortunately, in the central Philippines, as supplies of timber from native forest have diminished in recent years, the expansion in planting of timber trees has been retarded by sub-optimal production of seedlings from small-scale nurseries. To address this problem, an extension program supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) has attempted to improve the quality of seedlings produced in home nurseries, by assisting smallholders to raise and out-plant seedlings. A complementary program undertaken as part of the Community Agricultural Technology Program (CATP) has attempted to provide community workers and managers of small-scale nurseries with the benefit of recent ACIAR nursery research. Extended assistance in the ACIAR program addressed smallholders’ low self-efficacy in nursery technology and was successful in assisting them to grow high quality seedlings. A limited program of assistance was relatively unsuccessful. Evaluation of the CATP program showed that prior to the training, CATP participants were unfamiliar with some aspects of basic nursery technology. Consequently, they may have been unable to provide competent advice to smallholders. This implies that—as with the ACIAR training—extended training and follow-up assistance may be the key to improving the quality of seedlings for forestry and agroforestry expansion in the central Philippines.

Smallholder reforestation and livelihoods in the humid tropics: a systematic mapping study

Systematic mapping studies provide a snapshot of the literature based on systematic literature searches. In this systematic mapping study, the original research that links reforestation and livelihoods in the tropics was mapped and analysed to identify the trends, biases and gaps in the literature. In total, 339 papers from 92 journals were identified. Agroforestry Systems was the journal in which articles were most frequently published, and Cameroon and Indonesia the most frequently studied countries. The greatest number of authors came from the USA, and authors were most commonly affiliated with ICRAF. A limited collaboration between research groups in the tropical regions was identified. Anthropology and Social Sciences were the most frequent areas of research, especially in Africa. Latin America had more technical studies and more publications discussing payment for environmental services than the other regions. Based on the temporal analysis of the main terms in abstracts of the publications included, it was found that agriculture-related terms and terms related to the human component in the landscape were consistently prevalent in the literature relating reforestation and livelihoods throughout time. Agroforestry systems were especially important in small-scale reforestation and livelihoods. Trends, biases and gaps were discussed. Broader cooperation between tropical regions and between clusters of authors would be beneficial for research and practice.

Development and Implementation of a Forest Nursery Accreditation Policy at a Local Level in Leyte, Philippines

Through a series of workshops with the stakeholders including nursery operators, tree farmers, staff of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, local government units and the academe, a forestry seedling nursery accreditation policy was developed. The resulting policy was subsequently implemented by the municipal government of Palompon, Leyte. The accreditation policy encouraged nursery operators to follow smallholder-based best management practices for tree nurseries. Implementation of the nursery accreditation policy improved farmers’ knowledge and skills in the production of high quality seedlings, encouraged adoption of BMP for forest nurseries, provided additional source of income for the farmers, enabled members of the groups operating the communal nursery to forge closer relationship with each other, encouraged utilization of farmers’ free time in productive activities, developed farmers’ confidence in producing high quality planting materials, and gained for the farmers favourable attention from various organizations and groups. The Bennett’s hierarchy of project outcomes showed that the implementation of accreditation scheme achieved high levels of outcomes, indicating that it led to substantial improvements in the lives of the farmers.

Foreword for the Combined Special Issue on Seedling Production Systems

Seed collection and seedling production are the initial links in the plantation-based supply chain for timber and non-timber forest products and services. Also, provision of germplasm or forest reproductive materials is often a critical step in forestry promotion. Experience indicates that while there are many guides available on good nursery practice, production of high quality seedlings of the range of species desired by potential growers can present great challenges, particularly in developing countries and regions where government, community and private nursery operators are severely resource constrained. In these countries, tree farming is potentially attractive to smallholders, and can have major environmental and social benefits to communities. A research project funded by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research is investigating methods of improving seedling production in Leyte and Mindanao in the Philippines. One component of this project has been to examine seedling production for non-industrial forestry in other countries in the South-east and East Asian regions. The number of papers attracted on this topic exceeded expectations, leading to production of two combined special issues consisting of 14 papers. Some of these papers have arisen from normal submissions to Small-scale Forestry, and some are invited papers. The collection reports research into forestry seedling production systems in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Nigeria. These papers are published in the belief that the many issues they raise, and the findings they present, will provide some insights and lessons for nursery sector development, including best management practice and policy formulation, in relation to government, community and privately owned seedling nurseries. A special thanks is due to the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for financial support for the research leading to a number of these papers.