Municipal LGU of Balbalan, Kalinga engaged  in Forest Land Use Planning (FLUP) activities

The Forest Land Use Planning is a governance-oriented and participatory process of allocating forests and forest lands as a natural resources asset by the government under appropriate management, tenure arrangement.  Eventually, these assets are placed according to their best uses in order to harmonize uses of forest lands to attain balanced-production activities by not disregarding the concept of forest protection and biodiversity conservation. The Forest Land Use Plans (FLUP) shall be integrated in the Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs) of the Local Government Units (LGUs).

At the Office of CENRO Pinukpuk a Letter of intent was sent by the office of the Local Chief Executive of MLGU Balbalan expressing their interest in the preparation of FLUP of their Municipality. Upon the receipt of the said letter, personnel of DENR CENRO Pinukpuk joined the session of the Sangguniang Bayan where a resolution was drafted authorizing the Local Chief Executive to enter into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the preparation of the FLUP on behalf of the Municipality.

As a result, an FLUP orientation and workshop was conducted recently at Balbalan by representatives from DENR Regional office, PENRO and CENRO Staff.  Participants to the orientation include the Barangay Local Government Unit officials, other MLGU officials and employees, and other concerned stakeholders within the municipality.

The orientation/workshop employed an interactive type of discussion.  During the open forum, the participants sought to be clarified on some points, concerns, issues and constraints of the target LGU which were answered by the facilitators.

After the fruitful discussion the Local Chief Executive of the Municipality of Balbalan, Mayor Eric L. Gunayon represented the Municipality by signing the Memorandum of Agreement that finally engaged the MLGU and BLGU Officials in the activities to be undertaken under the FLUP.  Also CENRO Imelda B. Casiwan and MPDO Sonia S. Duggoy signed as witnesses to the MOA.

CENRO Casiwan said that she looks forward to a  strengthened partnership as they join efforts to prepare the FLUP of Balbalan, Kalinga.

She added that it is crucial that before forest land use planning can take place in a certain province or municipality, the executive and legislative branches of the LGU, where planning will be conducted, have already executed their dedication to come up with the FLUP for a guided improvement and or development in the forestland cover.  As manifested in their letter of intent that while they recognized the link between the improved management of forest resources and the overall development direction of the province or municipality, this would facilitate their involvement in the planning process and ensure that the plan gets legitimized and implemented.|C. Pinukpuk, RTBanawa