BY: FAYETTE C. RIÑEN
CEBU, June 30 (PIA) – Over 100 volunteers from the local farmers' organizations, municipal and barangay officials, DENR employees and ordinary folks planted 1,500 saplings in Oslob town during the recent celebration of Arbor Day.
DENR-7 regional technical director for Forestry Eduardo Inting led the volunteers in the celebration of Arbor Day on June 25 to remind the public on the importance of the environment, especially the trees.
Inting said to drive the importace of the environment, Arbor Day celebration solicits public involvement and participation in tree planting and giving its commitment to nurture the young trees as well.
For this year’s celebration, 1,500 saplings were planted and each sapling costs about P75 and every seedling costs P12, Inting said. The seeds were raised from the DENR-7 nursery in Argao town.
According to Inting, the DENR-7 looks for the appropriate site for tree planting as well as the type of trees to be planted. Preferred trees for planting include molave, agoho and mamalis. Which is why the planting site must be carefully chosen, Inting added.
Inting said the DENR-7 targets to plant trees in 23,000 hectares of land from various areas in Central Visayas this year under the NGP.
The NGP is a massive forest rehabilitation drive aims to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares of land nationwide within six years from 2011 to 2016.
The program issued through Executive Order No. 26 on February 24, 2011 by President Benigno S. Aquino III is also one strategy to combat climate change as trees absorb carbon dioxide, identified as a main culprit behind global warming.
Inting said the tree planting activities will continue and that they are working hand-in-hand with members of the various people’s organizations in the region. (mbcn/FCR/PIA7 with reports from Mary Jane G. Conciliado, PIT intern)