By Catherine J. Teves, PNA
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) projects the Philippines to have more green forest areas than deforested ones if the government meets its 2016 National Greening Program (NGP) goal of planting some 1.5 billion tree seedlings in about 1.5 million hectares of open, denuded and degraded forest land nationwide.
"Achieving such goal will reverse our forest situation," DENR Undersecretary Demetrio Ignacio said in a speech during Sunday's main 2012 Earth Day (ED) celebration the agency and Earth Day Network Philippines Inc. spearheaded at Makati City's Ayala Triangle.
The annual ED celebrations aim helping to further boost the global environmental protection campaign.
Philippine areas designated as forests account for about half of the country's estimated total land area of some 30 million hectares.
Ignacio is urging all sectors to increasingly plant trees, saying latest available data show only half of the country's total designated forest area is green.
Studies also show deforestation reduced the country's forest cover from over 50 percent of land at the 20th century's start to only about 24 percent at present.
The government aims increasing such forest cover to about 30 percent by 2016, Ignacio noted.
To help curb deforestation and environmental degradation, the government launched NGP in May 2011.
NGP also seeks to help address food security and poverty by allowing agro-forestry activities in the uplands.
The program likewise aims addressing climate change which experts attribute to rise in global temperature.
Experts have said trees are able to absorb carbon dioxide which they identified as among greenhouse gases that concentrate in the atmosphere and trap heat there, jacking up global temperature.
DENR is pleased about the public response to NGP so far.
"Last year, about 700,000 people planted 93 million trees in over 128,000 hectares of land nationwide," Ignacio reported.
He said DENR expects the total number of trees planted since last year to hit 100 million this June.
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