The regreening has just begun
That, for all intents and purposes, is what all stakeholders should keep in mind in these days and years following last Saturday’s launch of the National Greening Program.
It is, at this point, too late in the day to even entertain thoughts of ningas kugon—that cultural penchant for grand beginnings that taper off into obscurity—when it comes to tending the trees that were planted on Arbor Day and will be planted over the next few years.
The nation blew it when it supposedly launched a Green Revolution in the 1960s, only to see the wanton harvesting of the forests in the subsequent decades that paved the way for terrible disasters like the deluge in the wake of typhoon Ondoy in September 2009.
Cebu blew it bad, with its current situation as a province with barely any forest cover.
It was heartening to see crowds troop to barangay Jaclupan in Talisay City to plant indigenous seedlings like narra and Cebu cinnamon in last Saturday’s “Run to Plant.”
Yet there was plenty of anecdotal evidence to show that many have yet to experience an ecological conversion, so to speak.
Many of those who planted seedlings didn’t bother picking up the black plastic seedling containers after planting. Others just placed the seedlings in shallow holes on the ground without covering the roots.
Some students, meanwhile, were more eager to have pictures of themselves taken as they planted and didn’t bother to check if their seedlings would have a fighting chance the next time rain falls and loosens the soil.
Many young and old “planters” just marched through the forest in the rush to go home without checking to see if they might step on newly planted seedlings.
Another problem was lack of foresight on the part of organizers. A teacher was heard complaining why at least 700 students from her school ended up with no seedlings to plant.
And where will the seedlings be in the future? That is an all-important question.
We cannot have any of the seedlings planted in this era of the National Greening Program go the way of many trees in Cebu’s Central Protected Landscape: felled by so-called developers who have the money and the connections in the Environment Department to own and exploit forests for their greedy purposes; people who have the guns to terrorize those who guard the trees.
All stakeholders need to be faithful to the commitments they have made to monitor the growth of the trees.
That’s a badly needed form of altruism: To stake one’s life defending young trees under which shade one may never get to take shelter, but which will ensure that subsequent generations of virtual strangers will be safe from floods and landslides, will still enjoy our endemic fauna, will be able to breathe air without poison.
