59,656 farmers, fishermen in CV got jobs under NGP
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-7 has reported to have generated a total of 59,656 jobs and livelihood to upland and coastal communities under the National Greening Program (NGP) in 2014.
This corresponds to the 12,536 employed farmers, fishers and their families in various identified NGP sites in Central Visayas.
“Providing jobs and livelihood opportunities to our farmers and fishers in the region while improving and rehabilitating our forests and coastal resources are actually the objectives of NGP,” said DENR-7 executive director Dr. Isabelo Montejo.
Of the total, Negros Oriental got the largest number of employment reaching to around 23,370 jobs; followed by Cebu with 22,383 jobs; Bohol with 11,816; and Siquijor with 1,996 jobs.
After four years of NGP implementation, DENR-7 has already contracted with 207 people’s organizations (PO) in all four provinces.
According to Montejo, DENR recognizes the huge help provided by the POs in ensuring the effective and successful implementation of the program.
“Aside from the people’s organizations which are our primary partner in this project, we also acknowledge the very strong support provided to us by our local government units, academe, and other stakeholders,” Montejo added.
To recall, DENR-7 has reported a 102percent accomplishment in NGP in 2014 which produced at least 15,967,171 seedlings and reforested 20,296.97 hectares in Central Visayas.
The survival rate of seedlings planted in 2011 and 2012 plantations is 81.49% based on the completed validation conducted by the Office of the Assistant Re- gional Director for Technical Services.
The region’s higher survival rate could be attributed, Montejo explained, to the strong support of the POs and LGUs, proximity of the available seedlings to the planting site so that these seedlings would not stress out while in transit, and aggressive regular monitoring and maintenance programs.
In a revised NGP validation results for 2011 and 2012 plantations released by the Technical Services, which aimed to verify on the ground the actual surviving seedlings and the areas covered, Cebu yielded the highest number of surviving seedlings at 84.48% or equivalent to 1,918,631 in 2012 and 80.25% in 2011 or 1,216,542.
Bohol has surviving seedlings at 82.19% and 79.83% or equivalent to 4,542,748 and 1,066,867 in 2011 and 2012, respectively; Negros Oriental marked a similar rate of 79% or 2,246,617 in 2012 and 855,956 in 2011; and Siquijor obtained the highest of 91% or 109,091 seedlings survived in 2011, but it went down to 80% or 162,986 in 2012.
Similarly, the same report indicated that it validated 5,768.58 hectares or 100.55% from the reported 5,736.76 hectares planted in 2011; and in 2012, it validated 11,144.45 hectares with reported plantations of 11,015.26 hectares or 101.17%.
NGP also seeks to improve water quality in rivers and irrigation for farm lands, reduce the risk of flooding, soak up carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and lay the foundation for an expanded woodproducts economy.
President Aquino issued Executive Order 26 on February 24, 2011 establishing the NGP not only to reforest 1.5 million hectares of land but also to promote a sustained environmental awareness campaign in the face of the deleterious effects of climate change.