Renewable NRM-based enterprises: scaling up of Camarines Norte and replication in Bukidnon, Mindanao.

• The experience of citronella production and emerging initiatives on patchouli and tagbak herbs are strong enough to affirm the direction that forest conservation and management by communities is best supported when income sources are diversified, particularly in high-value, demand-driven products.
• The degree of success experienced in selected communities in Camarines Norte provides avenues for expansion, scaling-up and replication to other communities.
• The technology is already ripe for further validation and replication outside the confines of the Bicol Region where edaphic, climatic and physiographic factors are different.
• PFEC intends to expand the essential oils business by increasing the citronella oil production and going into other essential oils and natural products (example: natural fibers) and developing an integrated project where the community will be involved.
• It is also the vision of PFEC that this business enterprise model may be replicated in other communities in the Philippines.

National and Local Advocacy and Campaign: Focus on Information and Education, Web-Based Campaigns and Network Mobilization

• The on-site projects implemented in Labo, Camarines Norte served as the sources of numerous learnings from the ground such as the integration of policy advocacies into enterprise, tenurial security, protection and management of resources, which in turn is being elevated to the national advocacy arena.
• The year 2006 was a critical period for community based forestry in the Philippines, when the DENR leadership ordered the unilateral cancellation of all CBFMAs in the country. As a response, PFEC initiated meetings and discussions among community organizations and non-government organizations to act for the lifting of the cancellation order.
• In 2007 the crafting of the new National CBFM Strategic Plan for 2008-2017 was called for. Again, PFEC pro-actively get engaged to this and ensured the adoption of the multi-sectoral participatory in the whole planning process.
• Translating at the local level, the Labo-FLUP case, which was a product of collaboration of the LGUs, DENR, academe, CBFM peoples’ organizations, and PFEC as the assisting NGO, served as a show window that formulation of FLUPs as well as its implementation can be made possible even with such limited fund compared to those that were formulated with foreign assisted funding.