ILOILO City – Since the inception of the Enhanced National Greening Program (ENGP) in 2011, over 118,982.68 hectares of open, degraded, and denuded forest areas in Western Visayas have been planted with trees, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
This accomplishment is part of the broader initiative to reforest 309,000 hectares in the region by 2028.
However, according to Raul Lorilla, the officer-in-charge of DENR Region 6, “much remains to be done in our reforestation efforts.”
Lorilla emphasized that achieving 100% coverage is not solely dependent on reforestation but also requires concerted efforts in forest protection to allow natural regeneration.
“Reforestation must be coupled with forest protection, which involves not just DENR but also local communities and government units as crucial partners,” he explained.
To bolster community involvement, DENR-6 has established people’s organizations at the barangay level through community-based forest management agreements (CBFMA), granting them authority to protect their local forests.
The reforestation efforts are supported by measures from the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), which mandates companies to plant trees as part of obtaining their Environmental Compliance Certificates (ECC).
In 2022 and 2023 alone, DENR-6 planted trees covering 3,265.5 hectares, with the planted areas having an average survival rate of 87.205 percent.
“Our approach is comprehensive — embracing collaboration and partnership, as highlighted by Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga, to effectively address climate change,” Lorilla said.
Recent data showed that between 2022 and June 2024, DENR-6 produced nearly 3,982,007 seedlings, with 2,648,906 of those already planted.
The remaining 1,333,101 seedlings are scheduled for planting in the third quarter of 2024.
The ENGP aims to restore 7.1 million hectares of degraded forest lands by 2028, thereby increasing the nation’s forest cover, reducing poverty, and mitigating climate change effects./PN
