MENRE Forest Management Services (FMS) Director Abdul-Jalil S. Umngan and FMS Reforestation Division Chief Faisal U. Akmad met with Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) Philippines Country Director Fabien Courteille, his Mindanao Area Coordinator Timothy John Olivo, and a GIS Consultant Al Wahab Haron during their courtesy visit to the Office on 21 April 2022.

The objective of visit is to explore possible engagement on forest management which include protection, rehabilitation, regulation, and wood industry value chain.

“Your visit is timely as we are crafting our plan for the coming years. Part of our programs is to revolutionalize our forest management by employing digital devices and interactive data collection to get the trends on forestry sector through analytics,” Dir. Umngan said.

Dir. Umngan also highlighted the need to produce knowledge products so that the policies and mechanisms to be issued is backed by science. This is our humble way of laying down a stronger foundation for the Bangsamoro Autonomous Government.

Mr. Courteille expressed his support for forest management in the Bangsamoro. “ACTED being an INGO who has strong network with the European Union (EU) and French Aid Development (AFD) can work together with the FMS on the identified possible engagements,” Mr. Courteille said.

ACTED is a French International Non-Government Organization (INGO) that covers 40 countries and has been operational in the Philippines since 2012 whose focus is on Peace building, Social protection, Stability, and Sustainable Growth of the Environment.