BANGUED, Abra (PIA) - - The National Greening Program (NGP) of the Abra Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) worth P11.62 million has benefitted families and people’s organizations (POs) in 15 barangays identified as armed conflict areas.
The program undertaken last year is part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources – CAR’s commitment to the government’s program in ending local communist armed conflict (ELCAC) in affected barangays.
Based on the DENR report in a national summing up meeting of the National and Regional Task Forces ELCAC, the NGP projects covering a total of 547 hectares were carried out by the Lagangilang Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) with project cost of P9.819M and Bangued CENRO worth P1.810 M.
CENRO Lagangilang with coverage area of 452 hectares, engaged the services of 27 families and 18 POs in the municipalities of Lacub and Malibcong. Lacub barangays covered were Bacag, Buneg, Guinguinabang, Lan-ag, and Pacoc while barangays in Malibcong were Buanao, Bayabas, Dulao, Gacab, Duldulao, and Mataragan.
CENRO Bangued’s NGP coverage of 95 hectares engaged 10 families and one PO beneficiary in barangays Alangtin and Tubtuba in Tubo and Naguilian and Ud-udiao in Sallapadan.
Aside from tree planting, the NGP involves other activities such as seedling production, site preparation, planting and maintenance and protection.
Constante Pilien, an NGP beneficiary of Ud-udiao, Sallapadan, expressed his gratitude to the DENR for this family approach program. He said this has helped the family a lot especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
The NGP project while helping in the recovery of degraded forest, also impacts on the lives of family beneficiaries by augmenting their family income especially this pandemic. It likewise promotes food security, environmental stability, and biodiversity conservation, and enhances climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Meanwhile, PENRO Abra has identified 447 hectares for 2022 with a budget allocation of P3.005M for the two CENROs- CENRO Bangued with 110 hectares while CENRO Lagangilang with 337 hectares. (JDP/SCA-PIA-CAR/photos grabbed from DENR videos)
