Government set for 2013 a budget of nearly PhP8 billion for the environment department’s forest management-related operations nationwide.
Such operations and budget for each under the recently-signed 2013 General Appropriations Act involve management of forest lands and forest resources (PhP992.85 million), forest protection (PhP957.38 million), community-based forestry program (PhP112.66 million), soil conservation and watershed management (PhP484.66 million) as well as forest boundary delineation and land use allocation (PhP375.35 million).
The GAA also provides PhP5 billion as budget for this year’s forest development operations which government is undertaking through its National Greening Program. Launched in 2011, NGP targets reforesting some 1.5 million hectares of open, denuded and degraded land nationwide.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources is spearheading implementation of NGP which government established through Executive Order 26 series of 2011. An estimated 1.5 billion seedlings of indigenous and exotic tree species are targeted for planting under NGP.
Government is fast-tracking reforestation nationwide as studies show the Philippines already lost much of its forest cover. Philippine forest cover in 2004 shrank to a mere 24 percent of the country’s 30 million hectares total land area from 70 percent in the early 1900s, studies show.
Authorities likewise reported the Philippines registered, during the 2000-2005 period alone, an annual forest cover loss rate of 2.1 percent. They noted such rate was Southeast Asia’s second fastest and the seventh most rapid in the world then.
Illegal logging, land conversion and ‘kaingin’ or slash-and-burn practices are among causes of deforestation nationwide, they continued. Through NGP, government aims to help promote poverty reduction, food security, livelihood development, biodiversity conservation as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation in the country.
The 2013 GAA provides that PhP3.76 billion of the NGP budget for capital outlay as well as maintenance and other operating expenses shall be released upon DENR’s submission of geographic information system-based maps or any available image maps of at least 1:10,000 meters scale showing the 2012 identified areas for the target planting sites and actual number of seedlings planted.
Such maps must be submitted to Dept. of Budget and Management, the GAA noted.
The remaining amount of PhP1.2 billion for site preparation of NGP shall be released upon submission by DENR to DBM of the GIS-based maps or any available image maps of at least 1:10,000 scale indicating the 2013 identified sites for the planting activities and 2012 actual planted areas, the GAA continued.
DENR earlier reported about 142.6 million seedlings have been planted in over 232,000 hectares of land nationwide since NGP’s launch.
“The program also generated over 364,000 jobs,” DENR added. [PNA]
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