The forestry sector can be revitalized by building the entrepreneurial skills of people’s organizations that can venture into environmentally friendly, economically viable, and socially responsible tree-based enterprises. This was a vision of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources when it launched the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project (INREMP). Funded by the Asian Development Bank, this project focuses on communities in upland watersheds and how they can become major contributors in their respective rural economies. A novel project with ambitious goals, INREMP has been establishing sustainable land-use models that generate income, provide food, and offer integral ecosystem services such as water, wood, and medicine for forest-based communities.INREMP is founded on a paradigm shift—one that views communities not as passive beneficiaries of project benefits but as active partners in public-private partnerships. It envisions community members organizing themselves into sustainable tree-based businesses—those that possess a sense of responsibility to the forests and not driven solely by profit. |
