ENVIRONMENT Secretary Ramon JP Paje said the country’s forest cover has grown by at least a million hectares—from 6.8 million hectares to 7.8 million hectares—in the past four years.
Paje attributed the growth to the implementation of President Aquino’s National Greening Program (NGP) which aims to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares by 2016.
From 2010 until December 2014, Paje said the government and its partners from the private sector has successfully reforested over a million hectares. The areas covered by the NGP are expected to increase further as the massive tree-planting activities start in June this year.
Speaking during the Earth Day Celebration at the Amphiteater of the Ninoy Aquino Park and Wildlife Center on Tuesday, Paje said the government aims to institutionalize reforestation, even after Mr. Aquino’s term ends in June 2016.
He said since the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) was created in 1987, “various environmental laws were enacted in a flurry” to deal with various environmental problems besetting the country.
The government, he added, has entered into international treaties toward the protection of the environment, preserve and conserve biodiversity and fight climate change.
“In all our endeavors, sustainable development has always been our guiding principle. Sustainability entails the protection of the environment and natural resources and to provide social and economic welfare to the present and future generation. It is an integrative process built upon three pillars—environmental, social and economic aspects,” he said.
He said that while the government has done so much, such accomplishments “will never be enough.”
“The series of natural disasters that plagued our country during the recent years serve as a grim reminders of the effects of utter disregard of the laws of nature. Climate change is now a part of our lives. It is no longer an impending threat. It is happening, and now, this is the new normal,” he said.
Paje said that the country is now “turning the tide” and building long-term results, and identified reforestation as among the DENR’s most noteworthy achievements.
Through the NGP, he said the government aims to strengthen the country’s natural defense against calamities and climate-change impacts.
So far, he said the NGP has generated more than 2 million jobs benefiting 318,000 individuals. The NGP, he added, is 82 percent more than the reforestation efforts of the country in the past 25 years.
Paje said that the NGP is complimented by enforcement of environmental laws to protect the country’s forests against further degradation.
The ban on the harvesting of trees in natural forests, as mandated by Executive Order 23, reduced the number of illegal logging hotspots from 197 to just 31 in 2011. Today he said there are only 23 identified illegal logging hot spots which the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force aims to wipe out by the end of the year.
According to Paje, the DENR has also canceled all logging concessions or 19 Integrated Forest Management Agreements (Ifmas) inherited by the Aquino administration. Three of these Ifmas cover a total area of 239,360 hectares with annual logging area of 10,107 hectares and annual allowable cut of 312,579 cubic meters.
In a span of three years, he said the Aquino administration’s move has saved a total of 937,737 cubic meters of trees from 2011 to 2013.
The government, he said, has also intensified the campaign against illegal logging that resulted in the confiscation of close to 30 million board feet of illegally cut forest products. A total of 1,411 illegal logging cases have been filed with 197 persons having been convicted by the court of law.
To sustain the gains in terms of reforestation, Paje said the DENR is continuously producing planting materials through its partners. More clonal and regular tree nurseries, he added, will be put up “until planting materials can be distributed for free.”
Last year Paje announced that 20 tree nurseries will be put up by the DENR, including the five regular tree nurseries which will boost production of planting materials to achieve this year’s target of planting 300,000 hectares of degraded forests with assorted tree species. The DENR is planting native and fruit-bearing trees and high-value crops like rubber, cacao, coffee, coconut and bamboo.
With the current pace of the program’s implementation across the country, he expressed confidence that the government will exceed its own NGP target by the end of 2016.
1 comment
I’d like to see a more detailed accomplishment report form Sec. Paje, instead of hearing general statements from him, considering the glaring inconsistencies mentioned in the recent COA report….