Managing Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve for UPLB's [University of the Philippines Los Baños] academic advancement, resource generation and service to the nation

The upper portion of Mount Makiling, now known as the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve (MFR) was established as a forest reserve as early asa 1910 for use by the then Forest School as a field laboratory for silvicultural studies. Though the reserve has gone through a history of 'administrative journey', it has to this day remained, by virtue of Republic Act 6967, under the control, jurisdiction, and administration of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) to serve primarily as a training laboratory for scientific and technical knowledge on the preservation, conservation and development of the forest and natural resources therein, including the flora and fauna. The MFR has been under the jurisdiction and control of the university for a century now except for a brief period with other government agencies. But while the university can claim it has managed and conserved the reserve well compared to other mountains in the country, it cannot be stated without reservation that the university has optimized the MFR's use for its programs and services much more so used the reserve to propel the university to greater heights in the academic and social sphere. The MFR is a huge, vital resources waiting to be tapped for the university's next century. The lecture discusses how the integrated ecosystem management and development of the MFR can be harnessed for UPLB's academic advancement, resource generation, and service to the nation. It dwells on the statue of the natural resources (physical, biological or biodiversity) and the knowledge resources developed/generated (sociopolitical, biophysical, cultural) in the MFR and how this huge resource of the university in the mountain can be further harnessed in the development of the UPLB's academic and social agenda. The lecture has endeavored to assess how the university has effectively managed and made use of MFR viz-a-viz the purposes for which the forest was 'reserved'. The application in the reserve of the integrated ecosystem management and development approach was appraised. Lastly, a discourse was made on how the MFR through this management approach can be used to further advance the academic pursuits of UPLB, generate both material and intangible resources for the university's plans and programs and serve as a platform to propel the university in the peak of its service to the community and nation.