Smallholders Forest Carbon Development in the Philippines

Forest carbon development by ‘agroforestation’ is one of the ways by which optimal economic and environmental services can be achieved. This can be accomplished by promoting a purely forest-tree system and/or agroforestry tree system, or the integration of ‘working trees’ in agricultural cultivated landscapes.

The challenge of forest carbon development on denuded ‘forest frontiers’ is the re- egetation of the area purely with indigenous, native/endemic tree species applying the ‘rainforestation strategy, especially in biodiversity hotspots and critical watershed areas. The agroforestry system strategy is most likely the option to be adopted in the ‘forest-agricultural mosaic’ and ‘agricultural lowlands’.