‘Past reforestation efforts went up in smoke’

The country’s reforestation program in the 1980s and 1990s went up in smoke, said retired Gen. Victor Corpus, who now heads the Natural Resources Development Corp. (NRDC).

Corpus admitted last week before 200 environmental groups and people’s organizations that the government’s reforestation efforts were not successful in restoring the country’s denuded forests.

He also said the government failed to give upland communities a stake in the trees they planted. He made these statements during the country’s first environmental summit and revealed that the government’s reforestation program in the late 1980s and 1990s "literally went up in smoke."

Environment groups and people’s organizations gathered for a two-day summit at the Ateneo de Manila University (AdMU) and tackled the state of the country’s environment.

According to Corpus, those hired to conduct reforestation in the country’s upland communities were the same people who destroyed what they planted to sustain their livelihood.

"They burned the forest and uprooted the seedlings. They (did) this in the evening, they crawled... But they made sure the seedlings still stood though the roots were no longer there," he explained.

"Now we will be giving them a personal stake, the rights over the trees. They would not just be hired as mere laborers," Corpus said.

The NRDC, the financial arm of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), will buy produce from upland communities - seedlings, fruits and other forest products - in order to provide forestry industry workers with additional income.

Corpus said that 70 percent of the revenue derived from selling forest produce will benefit the upland communities while the NRDC, DENR, and local government units (LGUs) will each get 10 percent of the revenues.

He said the NRDC intends to tap 20 million people in these upland communities - including indigenous people - as partners in the reforestation program, which will cover 4.5 million hectares of denuded forest land.

The government has earmarked a total of P160 million for its reforestation program for 2005, P60 million of which will be used for actual planting.

Corpus appealed to the summit participants, people’s organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and other environment advocates to join the government in its effort to restore the country’s forests under its "Puno ng Buhay (Tree of Life)" program.