Sylvia Miclat

"With Executive Orders 23 and 26, the Aquino administration has made good strides in improving its green agenda. Proclamation 125 is an opportunity for President Aquino to highlight its resolve to move ahead in writing a new, brighter chapter in Philippine environmentalism," DENR Secretary Ramon Paje said.

The focus that Philippine forests is getting from the national government is much welcomed and the general intention to get levels of action working on the ground is positively responding to social and environmental concerns.

However, as with most government programs that are rolled from the top for implementation below, there are concerns on how these are genuinely implemented and how the objectives will be accomplished.

ESSC shared its concerns on Executive Order 23 in previous editorials February and January articles, raising a number of questions on the reality of banning logging to avert flooding and landslides.

Executive Order 26 is this administration's attempt to undertake a massive greening program by way of reforestation and regain the forest cover that was lost and attain self-sufficiency in the country's timber needs. "At least during his term, President Aquino wants to grow back the lost forest cover of the country," Paje said who also shared that there are about eight million hectares of denuded areas nationwide.

The NGP goal is to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares from 2011 to 2016, more than twice the government's accomplishment of 730,000 hectares for the past 25 years. Target areas for planting are forestlands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the Greening Plan of local government units, inactive and abandoned mines, and other suitable lands.

The mobilizing workforce behind the NGP are 1.2 million government employees from national government agencies, local government units, and government owned and controlled corporations who will be required to plant 10 seedlings each with DENR as the lead agency, around 14 million students from state colleges and universities, and 20 million residents in upland communities who will be provided additional livelihood opportunities thus reducing poverty.

Launching massive reforestation programs has historical precedents in the country. When logging was no longer profitable and logs were no longer a major foreign exchange earner towards the late 1970s, government became aware of the widespread deforestation left at its wake and started imposing restrictions in 1977. By the early 1980s, granting of timber licenses was made conditional on the concessionaires' reforestation activities.

By the time President Corazon Aquino took over in 1986, it was reported that 90% of the 170 logging companies failed to comply with this requirement. The Aquino administration then was also highly concerned with the rapidly disappearing forest cover, visualized through the 1987 forest cover study done by the Swedish Space Corporation (SPOT) which put the remaining forest cover at 6.9 million hectares or 23.7% of total land area.

A contract reforestation program was launched to replant 100,000 hectares per year and funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank. By 1988, two years into the program, the government reforested 32,000 hectares and awarded reforestation contracts for another 4,500 hectares. The success rate of this program hovered from a range of 18% to 22% based on post-program evaluations.

The point is not to dispute the exactness of the success rate, but that it was low in relation to the loan that the country is paying. The metaphor is that the glass is quarter-full for the reforestation success rate, and the loan is a whole glassful.

DENR officials very well know the reasons for the low success rate (limited community participation, contract NGOs and other professional groups lacking skills to implement, unpreparedness of local governments, lack of planting materials, use of alien tree species, lack of maintenance, fund misuse, and others) and they must ensure that this current initiative does not repeat the mistakes made in the past.

There are ongoing initiatives such as rainforestation and assisted natural regeneration that, if given the national attention these deserve and requiring smaller funds, will contribute much more significantly in bringing back the indigenous trees of the Philippines. Knowing also where to plant, what to plant, how to plant, and what maintenance and care are needed are critical considerations.

In the end, NGP's goal is a no-brainer and we have to bring back our forests, but we must also learn from the lessons of past reforestation programs and not regurgitate past approaches that did not work.