Manila, Philippines - An official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) warned that at the rate of denudation of Philippine forests, it would take 280 years to reforest the entire country.
Antonio Manila, technical director for forestry of DENR-National Capital Region, said the countrys forest cover has dwindled to about five percent of total land area, from about 17 million hectares in 1934.
This rapid loss of the country’s forest cover is seen as a major culprit of flash floods and landslides that have brought massive damage over the past several years. Experts add that massive deforestation is the primary reason behind the Philippines being ranked as having the most severely endangered mammal and bird fauna in the world. The degradation is also responsible for the increasing floods and droughts in the country, Manila said during the recent launch of the 2011 Globe Cordillera Challenge.
In the Cordillera Mountain Range alone, Manila said that the deforestation rate had risen to alarming levels, resulting in massive erosion and groundwater depletion.
Each year, about 300 hectares of the Cordillera forest reserve is lost to fire, illegal logging and land conversion. Increasing deforestation of the Cordillera mountain range, which serves as watershed for the lowland areas of Ilocos and Cagayan regions, would hasten the drying up of sources of water for domestic and irrigation uses in the different Cordillera communities and the lowland provinces.
He added, “We’re losing too much forest cover at such an alarming rate. If we are unable to speed-up reforestation efforts and slow down the denudation of our forests, we will likely experience worse landslides and flash floods. And, in dryer months, drought will be a bigger threat.”
The United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests (IYF) in order to raise awareness to strengthen the sustainable management, conservation and sustainable development of all types of forests.
Being a UN member-state and one of its original founders, and as a party to the UN Forum on Forests, the Philippines recognized the IYF as the perfect vehicle to raise awareness about the value of forests and the peoples vital role in its conservation and sustainable development and at the same time promote shared actions at the national, regional and local levels.
To support the IYF and to make the Philippines an even greener country, President Aquino issued Proclamation No. 125 last March 15, 2011, declaring 2011 as the National Year of Forests. Corollary to this, the President launched the National Greening Program (NGP), a massive private-public sector collaboration that aims to jumpstart efforts on resource conservation and protection.
This year, Manila said the DENR plans to reforest 100,000 hectares nationwide. In Benguet alone, at the heart of the Cordillera forests, 451 hectares of planting sites are being developed as communal forests.
There are a lot of open, denuded and marginal areas around the Philippines that need to be reforested under the NGP. With the support of the private sector and other stakeholders, we hope to be able to achieve the programs objectives, added Manila.
To fast track reforestation efforts in the Cordillera mountain range, various stakeholders are again mobilizing efforts to plant more trees.
Telecommunications company Globe joined forces with the Cordillera Conservation Trust, a non-stock, non-profit organization dedicated to help preserve the Cordillera mountain ecosystem, for the second run of the Globe Cordillera Challenge, a challenging 40-kilometer bike ride through mountain trails of the Cordillera range that aims to raise funds for the reforestation of the Cordilleras.
The project aims to raise funds to plant 30,000 seedlings this year and help build small plant nurseries in the local communities to further encourage Cordillera mountainfolk to take care of the environment.
A total of 250 bikers will participate in this years challenge and will bike from Burnham Park in Baguio City to La Trinidad on May 21. Each biker needs to raise P1,000 to join the biking activity.