BAGUIO CITY(PIA)--The Department of Environment and Natural Resources - Cordillera Administrative Region (DENR-CAR)  is continuously engaging the community, people's organizations, and families in the National Greening Program (NGP).

DENR-CAR Assistant Regional Executive Director for Technical Services Maximo Soriano, Jr. said the NGP is becoming family-based wherein families are engaged from the seedling production to preparation of the plantation sites.

"We have a letter of agreement with them. Ang maganda rito, para makatulong sa kanilang basic  economic requirement," he said.

DENR-CAR Regional Executive Director Ralph Pablo said that this year, the DENR will again highlight NGP and will be introducing indigenous species of trees to the protected areas.

 "Our National Greening Project is geared towards improving the health of our watersheds.’Yun ang isang purpose ng NGP. With our budget in 2022, NGP again 'yung focus. Watershed areas, protected areas, 'yun ang dapat tatamnan," he said.

Pablo said the DENR-CAR will focus on  the Intensified Forest Protection Program in Apayao, which still has intact natural forests.

Soriano reported that as of December 2021, DENR-CAR in partnership with the  Philippine Statistics Authority,  accounted   a total of 616,439,965  trees. The closed forests in the region have 158,790,625 standing trees  while  the open forests have 361,418,750 trees.

 Plantations under NGP have  a total of 92,462,353 trees, the Forest Land Management Program in Ifugao has 1,172,500 trees, and the Integrated Natural Resources and Environmental Management Project covering four provinces has a total of 2,595,739 trees.

The NGP was launched in 2011 to reforest 1.5 million hectares of public domain until 2016,  with the participation of private sector, local government units and people’s organizations. and providing livelihood to marginalized households.

 Executive Order No. 193 expanded the NGP to rehabilitate all the remaining unproductive, denuded and degraded forestlands from 2016 to 2028. (JDP/Debbie E Gasingan-PIA CAR)