ILOILO City – Planning to conduct tree planting activities?
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has this recommendation: Plant native or endemic tree species and fruit-bearing trees.
Grow trees that can produce lumber and fruits to provide people income, according to Vicente Millezas, head of DENR Region 6’s Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO).
He, however, clarified that this would sometimes depend on the chosen location for tree planting.
“Manami ang productive trees, although manami man ang protective ones kay naga-protect gid ina sa aton environment,” Millezas told Panay News.
According to the Rain Forest Restoration Initiative, native trees help recover and expand forest habitats for threatened native species of plants and animals. They protect watersheds and freshwater resources, and secure the livelihood of locals.
Common native trees include narra, molave, dapdap, ilang-ilang, salinbobog, and balayong, among others.
Foreign or exotic trees are selected for their ability to grow faster and germinate easily but they have a detrimental effect on the ecosystem.
They tend to alter the soil around them, preventing other plants from growing and thriving. They do not protect the wildlife, especially of endangered animals that prefer to inhabit and nest on native trees.
“We need to protect our forests, especially this summer season. Makabulig gid sa paghagan-hagan sang mainit nga panahon. Without forests, we clearly won’t survive,” Millezas said.
Trees highly contribute to a clean environment as they improve air quality through the process of photosynthesis – producing oxygen and taking in carbon dioxide.
It also filters air intercepting unhealthy particles by removing dusts and absorbing pollutants like carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide and letting the rain wash them after.
In 2020, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, the Iloilo provincial government launched its environmental program “Tanum Iloilo” that aims to grow 1.5 million native and fruit-bearing trees.
The program was conceptualized for the conservation, protection, and preservation of the environment to combat the adverse effects of climate change./PN
