DENR chief hopes to see more R&D projects in ASEAN forestry
MANILA,
July 30 (PNA)-- Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
Secretary Ramon J. P. Paje has said scientific endeavors and ASEAN’s
collective entrepreneurial skills should be the top priority in
improving the region’s forestry-based industry.
Paje also said Southeast Asia’s forestry-based industry
under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
as its forestry experts work harder to gain steady expansion into the
world’s wood market.
The DENR chief’s call was made in a keynote speech read by
DENR Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio, during the opening last Monday of
the six-day “13th Meeting of ASEAN Senior Officials on Forestry” being
held in Makati City until July 31.
Paje said ASEAN should focus on getting several research and
development outputs to become commercially viable products or services
as ASEAN’s forests is faced with the challenge of meeting the increasing
demand for these goods and services by ever growing world population
and vis-à-vis to a fixed or shrinking land base.
“This is where research and development comes into fore and
why you experts came here,” Paje said, as he cited that herbal and
medicinal plants found in the region’s forest can expand ASEAN’s
regional cooperation.
According to Paje, around 20 percent of the world’s known
plants and animals thrive in Southeast Asia and that majority of these
are located in the forests.
“The very dense tropical forests of South East Asia are
where we can find the most important plants that synthesize substances
that are useful for health maintenance,” he said.
The DENR chief further said that the forests provide a
variety of benefits and services, such as timber and non-timber forest
products, livelihood, medicine, water, food, habitat for people and
animals, and carbon sequestration to mitigate climate change.
Since competitiveness of ASEAN’s forest products in the
global market is key, Paje said the region’s R&D outputs should fuel
its collective entrepreneurial interests in “the realization of our
common vision under the Strategic Plan of Action” that will be hammered
out during the event.
One process of achieving this goal, Paje said, is to promote
the upgrading of capacity of all ASEAN member countries. (PNA)
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