AS FILIPINOS hang up their brand-new calendars, they also engage in the
yearly tradition of making New Year resolutions. Amid the usual and banal
promises, an excellent and helpful one is being proposed: Plant a tree.
Environment Secretary Ramon Paje points out - and who is to disagree
with him? - that tree-planting is “not only a rewarding experience but also a
great step toward improving and protecting our environment.”
More importantly, he says, it is
“the perfect way of giving back what we have extracted from Mother Earth.”
Tree-planting as a New Year resolution goes perfectly with an idea that
the administration of President Aquino has been pushing since 2011, when
terrible floods triggered by storms washed away entire settlements in parts of
the Visayas and Mindanao.
The President issued Executive Order No 23 officially declaring “a
moratorium on the cutting and harvesting of timber in the natural and residual
forests” and creating “the anti-illegal logging task force.”
The order effectively barred the Department of Environment and Natural
Resources from issuing and renewing any logging permits in the forests. It also
created the ambitious National Greening Program (NGP).
States EO 23: “[It] is the obligation of the State to protect the
remaining forest cover areas of the country not only to prevent flash floods
and hazardous flooding but also to preserve biodiversity … and allow natural
regeneration of residual forests and development of plantation forests.”
The order has resulted in the banning of logging equipment in forests,
the padlocking of erring firms, the firing of ineffective DENR officials, and
the seizing of millions of pesos worth of “hot logs".
Still, some continue to defy EO 23. In 2012, the President underscored
his resolve in enforcing the log ban.
“It has reached my attention that there are still those who apparently
don’t believe that we are serious in imposing the ban,” he said last June.
“People who have cohorts among members of the government continue
logging activities. We are directly being challenged, and I accept the dare.”
That challenge has been highlighted by the massive loss of life and
property in recent landslides and floods resulting from forest denudation.
The destruction wrought by Typhoon Pablo was greatly amplified by the
effects of indiscriminate cutting of trees in illegal logging hot spots, such
as Compostela Valley.
“This [devastation] is now proving that a total log ban is right,” Paje
was quoted as saying in the wake of Pablo’s rampage in eastern Mindanao.
“Several quarters are criticizing the declaration of a total log ban,
but look at what happened. It is now proving that we really must stop timber
harvesting, especially in our natural forests.”
And it is urgent that reforestation efforts be given ample support.
Dedicated environmentalists have campaigned endlessly to renew the
once-abundant forests that made up our natural wealth.
The Haribon Foundation, long a proponent of aggressive tree-planting,
continues its good work. In Pablo’s wake, cooperatives in Mindanao launched
their own campaign, planting some 6,000 seedlings last Dec 10 alone. Of course,
it falls on the NGP to cover more ground.
Described by the President as “the most expansive program in our
country’s history,” the NGP aims to plant trees on some 1.5 million hectares
starting now up to the year 2016.
The DENR is off to a good start, having already planted millions of
seedlings in over 232,000 hectares nationwide.
Aquino has promised that his six-year administration would meet a
reforestation target that took the DENR 25 years to meet. It now behooves him
to make sure that promise is fulfilled.
And each one of us can help in this worthy task.
Planting a tree is one big step toward saving the country and the next
generations; it is an act that literally and meaningfully benefits those who
will inherit the earth after us.
Each tree planted is both symbol and proof of genuine growth.
“One does not have to be part of the government or an environmental
group to make a positive impact on his surroundings,” Paje reminds the public.
“Filipinos from all walks of life are encouraged to do their part to
sustain the environment by planting trees.”
It is a good idea that should grow strong roots in 2013 and thereafter.
- Inquirer
No comments:
Post a Comment