CEBU, Philippines - As companies continue to terminate workers brought about by the global financial crisis, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has come up with employment opportunities.
Dubbed as the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program or CLEEP, around 111,536 “green collar” jobs are expected to be generated from those living in upland areas.
The “green collar” workers will operate under two major components comprising the DENR-CLEEP, namely, the Upland Development Program (UDP) and the “Bantay Gubat” (BG) project.
According to the DENR, more than 20 million forest and fruit-bearing trees are expected to be planted under UDP’s reforestation and agro-forestry components.
DENR said that priority areas for reforestation are watersheds, stream banks, mangrove areas, and open and denuded forestlands not covered by any DENR-issued tenurial instrument.
Under the UDP component, around 52,425 upland farmers will be hired as workers to plant forest and fruit tree seedlings while under the BG component, some 59,111 qualified upland residents will be hired as forest guards.
Part of the targeted areas under the UDP-component includes Central Visayas’ 1,621 hectares of land, of which 1,421 hectares are upland while the 200 hectares are mangrove area.
Under the UDP component, DENR has set aside some 49,318 hectares of upland areas and around 2,000 hectares of mangrove areas, where reforestation and agro-forestry activities will be undertaken by upland residents. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/LPM (THE FREEMAN)