Project participates in International Landcare Study Tour

Part of the Philippines tour group at a revegetation site of Barung Landcare at Maleny, Queensland

In October 2006, 20 personnel from the Philippines, including 10 project team members and associates, participated in an International Landcare Study Tour of Australia. They joined nine other international visitors (from USA, Iceland, UK, Fiji, Tonga and the Solomon Islands) in a tour of landcare sites in southeast Queensland, and more than 50 other international visitors (from countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Sri Lanka) for tours and other activities in Victoria associated with the International Landcare Conference in Melbourne. Over five days, the tour visited a total of 16 landcare sites and activities across five different landcare groups, as well as participating in a range of activities over the three days of the Conference. Importantly, by visiting rural, peri-urban and urban landcare sites, the tour group was able to see how Landcare in Australia has been implemented across the whole community.

Of particular interest to our project was the presence in the Philippines tour group of two delegations from our new project sites of Bohol and Agusan del Sur. These delegations were included to help facilitate the development of landcare at the new sites through exposing more people to the broader landcare experience and building more robust linkages and networks across the Philippines sites. By travelling together, the small delegations were able to share experiences and learnings and create new concepts on how they might be able to effectively work together to build landcare in their sites. Project Landcare Coordinators, Roy Joseph Balane from Bohol and Veronica Avila from Agusan del Sur led and managed these delegations with support from Agustin (Jun) Mercado from ICRAF Claveria and Aurora Laotoco from the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines Incorporated. Our project Assistant, Emily (Bebot) Garcia made all of the international travel arrangements for the large 20-member Philippines delegation.

Tour participants visit a macadamia farm being revegetated to timber trees by Noosa Landcare group at Pomona, Queensland

To take advantage of the presence in Melbourne of experienced Landcarers from many countries, an International Landcare Master Class was conducted in conjunction with the conference. Funded largely by the ATSE Crawford Fund, the three-day Master Class brought together 20 delegates from more than 10 countries to share landcare experiences and learn new techniques. The Philippines was ably represented by our Landcare Coordinator from South Cotabato, Eldon Ruiz, and Aurora Laotoco from the Landcare Foundation of the Philippines Incorporated. Both reported the Master Class as a wonderful experience. Sometime in the near future, the project plans to get Eldon and Aurora to re-echo some of their learnings and experiences from the Master Class to the rest of the project team and others involved in Philippines landcare.