By Catherine J. Teves
Year 2012 emerged as the banner year for the Philippines in terms of environmental protection efforts.
The country gained international recognition for being one of the world’s strong environmental performers.
From 50th spot in 2010, the country rose to 42nd place among 132 countries ranked in the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) of Yale University, Columbia University, European Commission and World Economic Forum.
“This only showed our environmental policies and programs were correct,” Department of Environment and Natural Resources(DENR)Sec. Ramon Paje said.
EPI ranks countries on performance indicators tracked across policy categories covering environmental, public health and ecosystem vitality. The indicators provide a gauge on how close the countries are to respective established environmental policy goals.
“We gained perfect scores in five indicators,” Paje said.Three of such indicators are forestry-related.
“Those are protecting forest cover, reforestation and raising sequestration of carbon emissions by increasingly growing forests nationwide,” he said.
The two other indicators are agricultural subsidies for lowland and upland farmers and reducing outdoor air pollution. The government has started implementing several initiatives related to such indicators.
In 2011, Malacanang released Executive Order 23 which aims to increase Philippine forest cover as well as to enhance ecological balance and biodiversity nationwide. The EO 23 bans logging in natural forests across the country.
Government deemed the logging ban necessary as studies showed Philippine forests cover in 2004 already shrank to a mere 24 percent of the country’s 30 million hectares total land area from 70 percent in the early 1900s.
Authorities likewise reported the Philippines registered, during the 2000-2005 period alone, an annual forest cover loss rate of 2.1 percent. They noted the country’s loss rate was Southeast Asia’s second fastest and the seventh most rapid in the world.
Illegal logging, land conversion and “kaingin” or slash-and-burn practices were among the causes of deforestation nationwide. Paje said Malacanang was bent on imposing the logging ban. He assured DENR’s continuing efforts to curb illegal logging.
Such efforts include sacking DENR personnel who will be found either involved in such illicit activity or remiss in stopping this.
In mid-2012, DENR announced the sacking of 31 of its officials for failing to curb illegal logging in their respective areas of jurisdiction. “The government’s anti-illegal logging bid continues to gaining ground,” Paje noted.
He said that before the issuance of EO 23, there were 197 municipalities in 51 provinces identified as illegal logging hot spots. “The number of such hot spots dropped to 28 municipalities in 11 provinces,” he reported in late November 2012.
DENR also noted that nationwide timber extraction occurred at a rate of about 300 million board feet (BF) per year before EO 23’s enforcement. Paje said government already confiscated some 19.2 million BF of illegally sourced forest products as of September this year.
DENR donates confiscated wood to Department of Education (DepEd)which were then made into school furniture. A total of 546 cases have been filed against parties implicated in illegal logging convicting 72 parties found involved in the illicit activity.
Paje said DENR is partnering with Department of Justice (DOJ) to help improve case build-up against parties accused of engaging in illegal logging. “We want to bring before justice financiers of such activity,” he said.
The military is already spearheading government’s anti-illegal logging campaign in CARAGA region where DENR said illicit tree-cutting remains serious. “Illegal logging groups there are armed so we need the military,” Paje noted.
To help boost reforestation nationwide, Malacanang issued last year Executive Order 26 which instituted the 2011-2016 National Greening Program (NGP). NGP targets reforesting 1.5 million hectares of open, denuded and degraded land nationwide using some 1.5 billion seedlings of indigenous and exotic tree species.
By implementing NGP, government hopes to reverse the denudation trend that characterized forest land nationwide for decades. Government launched NGP in mid-2011 with an initial greening target of 100,000 hectares for that year.
Since the launch, DENR reported about 142.6 million seedlings have been planted in over 232,000 hectares of land nationwide. “The program also generated over 364,000 jobs,” DENR said.
The 2012 fourth quarter NGP accomplishment report also shows government and its private partners were already able to plant some 62.16 million seedlings in 130,942 hectares of land as of Nov. 12 this year.
Such accomplishment represents about 65 percent of the 200,000 hectares government targets greening under NGP this 2012. Government projects NGP to increasingly result in more vegetated than denuded forest land beginning 2013.
Experts continue advocating regeneration and sustainable management of forests, noting these perform several functions ranging from water resources and soil protection to natural habitat and biodiversity conservation.
Forests are also sources of food and raw materials particularly for uplanders who generally continue being impoverished. Experts likewise cited forests as being capable of absorbing carbon emissions.
They identified such emissions as among greenhouse gases that accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat there, raising global temperature that drives climate change.
DENR projects NGP to help raise nationwide carbon sequestration by some eight percent. From 36 million tons per year, Forest Management Bureau (FMB) Dir. Ricardo Calderon said estimated volume of carbon dioxide (CO2) that forests can naturally sequester or remove from the atmosphere is targeted increasing to nearly 39 million tons annually.
DENR noted photosynthesis enables trees to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and store carbon in roots, stems and leaves of these. Forests serve as carbon storage areas when left intact, DENR also said. [PNA]
Earlier, government and its German partner decided piloting in Southern Leyte a scheme aimed at helping marginalized communities earn from sustainable forestry and agro-forestry in the uplands and from fishery activities in coastal areas.
National Convergence Initiative partners DENR as well as the agriculture and agrarian departments partnered with Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Germany’s Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH to pilot the conditional cash transfer scheme for environmental services (eCCT), recognizing its potential for supporting government’s NGP and for promoting sustainable resource management and income generation among marginalized Philippine communities.
eCCT is an offshoot of the regular CCT program DSWD is implementing to help reduce poverty nationwide. Through the regular CCT, which is also known as Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, government extends financial assistance to marginalized families provided these comply with requirements.
DENR and DSWD also signed in May this year the memorandum of agreement for the cooperation program both also decided to jointly undertake for better promoting human, ecological and economic security in marginalized areas nationwide.
The program covers implementation of sustainable disaster prevention or risk reduction livelihood projects in areas covered by NGP. Under the agreement, sustainable and job-generating livelihood project models’ development will be pursued through DSWD’s cash- or food-for-training program.
Authorities concerned earlier commenced the program’s six-month piloting in Region 2 as a step towards its nationwide replication. During a briefing this month, Paje reported government is gaining headway in its bid to clean the air.
He said 2012 third quarter data augur well for intensifying such bid. Such data show level of pollutive total suspended particulates (TSP) in Metro Manila’s air further declined to 106 micrograms per normal cubic meter (ug/Ncm) during the period, he noted.
“We’re nearing the standard 90 ug/Ncm,” he said. Data also show Metro Manila’s third quarter TSP level this year is lower than what it was in 2011 (116 ug/Ncm) and 2010 (125 ug/Ncm).
“Metro Manila’s air is getting cleaner,” Paje said. Earlier, Paje cited several measures for helping reduce air pollution. Such measures include biking and carpooling to lessen number of vehicles on the road.
Studies identified the transport sector as accounting for some 80 percent of Metro Manila’s air pollution. Paje also recommended regular maintenance of vehicles and energy conservation.
“We need to bring awareness to Filipinos, most especially Metro Manila residents, and encourage them to take steps to reduce levels of harmful pollutants in the air we all breathe and further improve air quality,” he added. [PNA]
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