Greening drive in Bicol region overshoots target, says exec

LEGAZPI CITY—The government’s national greening program (NGP) in Bicol gained headway by surpassing its target by 12 percent with over 6,000 hectares of forest land planted to close to 4 million tree seedlings.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional director Marcus Fragada said that since the NGP was launched in Bicol in May last year, 3.9 million tree seedlings have been planted in 6,303.9 hectares of open and denuded forest land, way above its 5,584 ha target for 2011.

“Despite the fact that the NGP was carried out by the second quarter of 2011 we were able to exceed our target (by 12 percent), a significant achievement of our commitment to the government’s greening program,” Fragada said on Saturday.

Fragada, quoting a yearend report from the Forest Management Service on the agency’s NGP implementation in Bicol, said Camarines Sur led with 2,102,578 trees seedlings planted in 3,005.98 ha, followed by Albay with 478,999 seedlings planted in 854.5 ha, while Camarines Norte was third with 413,448 seedlings planted in 641.2 ha.

Masbate has 357,305 seedlings planted in 714.5 ha, Catanduanes was fifth with 332,486 seedlings planted in 663.2 ha, and Sorsogon with 227,561 seedlings planted in 407.3 ha.

Double target

Based on the report, 21,690 stakeholders have so far enlisted in the program and took part in planting the seedlings during the year. They represented a cross-section of public and private volunteers from government agencies, schools, civic organization including the Church, local government units and business sectors.

Because of the public support for NGP, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje announced recently that DENR intended to double the national target at 200,000 ha for 2012.

Paje has also reiterated NGP’s goal of posting a minimum survival rate of 80 percent for the seedlings by tapping scientific and sound upland practices and confining identified NGP planting sites only in areas where there were communities that could be tapped to maintain and ensure the growth of planted seedlings into mature trees.

The NGP targets to plant 1.5 billion tree seedlings in 1.5 million hectares nationwide from 2011 to 2016.

Priority areas for planting included mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domain areas, civil and military areas, urban areas under the greening plan of local government units, inactive and abandoned mine sites, and all other suitable lands for reforestation.

“This year, we will double the effort to have practically all Bicolanos do their share in planting ten trees each,” Fragada said.