Reforestation funds now also an ‘endangered species’ — lawmaker

These days, the term "endangered species" no longer seems limited to animals, be it the Philippine eagle or the tarsier: it can now also be applied to plants, particularly the dwindling funds for the country’s reforestation.

"Reforestation funds are becoming an endangered species in the budget as well," Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra complained, in reference to the Malacañang-backed P6.25-million reforestation budget for 2006, from P27.6 million this year.

The young lawmaker, chairman of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development, said this measly allocation would translate to a mere 78 centavos per hectare for reforestation next year, when the government spent P3.45 per hectare this year.

The sharp drop in the reforestation budget will make Philippine forests already in danger of denudation, suffer even more. The cost of tree-planting for a hectare of land is P25,000, which will make the 2006 budget "good for only 250 hectares."

"At this rate, it will probably take us 32,000 years, perhaps another Ice Age or two, to re-green those eight million hectares of (denuded) lands. That’s 32 millenniums," the son of the late Speaker Ramon Mitra said.

Mitra also criticized the "misleadingly big" proposed P6.3 billion budget for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, of which "only 1/1,000th" is actually for reforestation, while two-thirds goes to the DENR payroll for its 21,532 employees.

"The only solution I can see is to allow the DENR, through a special provision in the general appropriations act, to retain part of its income from the grant of permits and licenses and earmark this for reforestation," he suggested.