The University of the Philippines Los Baños College of Forestry and Natural Resources (also referred to as CFNR) is one of the 11 degree-granting units of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). It started as the Forest School under the UP College of Agriculture in 1910, making it the oldest forestry school in the Philippines. It is one of the five founding units of UPLB upon its establishment in 1972.
The college has been identified as a "Center of Excellence" in forestry by the Philippine Commission on Higher Education since January 2000. CFNR offers one undergraduate degree program (Bachelor of Science in Forestry) along with four other graduate degree programs and one two-year certificate program. Two of its professors, including its one of its deans, are members of the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change, the 2007 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
History
CFNR traces its roots to the Forest School founded on April 14, 1910, through an Act 1989 by the Insular Government of the Philippines and efforts by Secretary of the Interior, Dean Conant Worcester. It was originally established as a department in the newly established of the College of Agriculture, and all of its early faculty were from the Bureau of Forestry. The Forest School became independent of the College of Agriculture in February 1916 through Act 2578. Since then directors of the bureau had acted as ex officio deans of the school. The Forest School changed its name to School of Forestry in 1924 by effect of Act 3095.
Arthur Frederick Fischer, the School of Forestry's first dean, retired as director of the Bureau of Forestry in February 1936. He was replaced by Florencio Tamesis who became the School of Forestry's second dean, as well as its first Filipino dean.
During the Second World War the campus was used as an internment camp for American civilians then in the Philippines. Largely as a result of the liberation of the campus during the Raid on Los Baños, all the School of Forestry buildings, including student and faculty houses, were destroyed. Large parts of the Makiling Forest Reserve, which is administered by the school were likewise damaged. Only four faculty including Tamesis and silviculture professor Teodoro C. Delizo, along with five students returned upon the resumption of classes. Classes were held under trees until its buildings could be reconstructed through the help of war reparation funds worth ₱59,300 (about US$30,000 in 1946).
The School of Forestry became the College of Forestry on June 14, 1949, by effect of RA 352, with the College of Forestry finally separated from the Bureau of Forestry in 1957, effectively putting it under direct administration of the University of the Philippines.
In 1954 the College of Forestry signed an agreement with Cornell University for providing academic and financial assistance. The College of Forestry received visiting professors from Cornell and grants that were used for construction and forestry research, while faculty and students were awarded scholarships for pursuing master's degrees at US universities.
Domingo M. Lantican became the dean of the College of Forestry in May 1966. Lantican implemented a 5-year campus development program which included construction of new buildings and designating areas for dormitories and staff housing.
The College of Forestry was reorganized to become the College of Forestry and Natural Resources on June 25, 1998. Since 2004 the event has been celebrated in concurrence with the Philippine Arbor Day, a nationwide event marked by extensive tree planting.
Campus
The campus of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources, referred to as the "upper campus", is situated on the northeastern slope of Mount Makiling. The campus contains academic buildings, dormitories, hosted institutions (such as the ASEAN Center for Biodiversity), and the 4,347-hectare Makiling Forest Reserve (MFR), which serves as an outdoor laboratory for forestry students and is believed to contain more tree species than the continental United States.
Aside from being the location of the college, the MFR is also the site of the College of Public Affairs, National Arts Center, Philippine High School for the Arts, the venue of the National Jamboree of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP), the Center for Philippine Raptors and the Bureau of Plant Industry-Makiling Botanic Gardens, one of the oldest parts of the campus. The gardens occupy the site where the tents were used as classrooms during the first four months of the university.