BONTOC, Mountain Province(PIA)-- Government offices  are encouraged to  conduct more tree planting activities  in line with the National Greening Program and  Environment Month.

OIC Provincial Officer Edna Lyn L. Silverio during the   flag raising ceremony at the Provincial Plaza on June  5,  challenged  line agencies to go beyond the target number of seedlings being planted.

“We continue to encourage everyone for more tree planting activities yearly. Let us not only limit ourselves with instructions or targets on how many seedlings we have planted, let us go beyond what we can so that we can at least plant more trees for the present and future generations,” Silverio said.

She also urged  the  government workers  to find time to visit planting sites in order to assure survival of planted seedlings.

“Whatever sites we have planted with seedlings, let us also visit them for maintenance activities. So it’s not only planting seedlings, we also have to maintain these so that we will be assured of at least more than 50 percent survival rate,” she said.

In line with the observance of the 2023 World Environment Day with the theme ‘Solution to Plastic Pollution’, Silverio shared data on pollution caused by single-use plastics. She informed  that improper solid waste management within the community is a persistent cause of pollution.

“Under the United Nations Environment Report, there are 400 million tons of plastics that are produced every year; 200M tons are single used plastics. Of the 400M tons, less than 10% is being recycled and if we can observe within our environment, one of the prevailing and persistent problem is improper solid waste management within the community.”

Silverio also mentioned four ways that the community can beat plastic pollution through Reuse, Recycle, Re-orient and Diversify.(JDP/VJLT-PIA CAR, Mt. Province)