The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is cutting down by almost half its reforestation target, from 229,000 hectares to just 125,000 hectares, this year.
The DENR’s approved budget for 2018 is P27.1 billion, which is P2 billion lower compared to the P29-billion budget in 2017.
The bulk of the DENR’s budget in the last six years goes to the massive reforestation program called the National Greening Program (NGP), which seeks to expand the country’s forest cover by 1.5 million hectares.
From 2010 to 2016, over P25 billion was spent by the government, in effect, generating green jobs in upland areas while increasing the country’s forest cover by 1.5 million hectares.
The program ended in 2016, but it was extended as early as 2015 through Executive Order (EO) 193 or the Expanded-National Greening Project (E-NGP). It aims to increase the country’s forest cover by another 7 million hectares until 2028. The budget cut this year is also expected to lead to the downsizing of the reforestation target.
Director Nonito M. Tamayo of the DENR’s Forest Management Bureau (FMB) said downsizing this year’s target may also affect the country’s commitment under the Paris Agreement, which is to the reduce our carbon emission by 70 percent between 2020 and 2030.
“In 2018, our target is lower because of the budget cut of P2-billion. Our target from 229,000 is 125,000 hectares all over the country.… The P2-billion budget cut of the DENR was charged against the E-NGP,” he said.
Tamayo added only the target for new plantations will be reduced because the maintenance of the more than 500,000 hectares in the last three years from 2015 up to 2017 will continue.
“Whether we like it or not, we must continue to protect the established plantations, that’s why the budget cut only affects our new plantation targets,” he said.
The NGP and E-NGP are the flagship reforestation programs of the government for climate-change mitigation and adaptation, food security and job security program rolled into one.
It was learned that as of September 2017, the E-NGP had a 116- percent accomplishment rate in terms of the number of persons employed—55,805 from the target of 47,981.
On the number of quality planting materials or seedlings, the program produced a total of 1.1 million, which is 14 percent higher than its target of 980,000.
As of October, the government’s flagship reforestation program covered an area of 178,148 hectares, or 93 percent of the overall target.
Meanwhile, Tamayo said the Duterte administration, particularly the Climate Change Commission (CCC), and the DENR will be conducting a review of the country’s commitment under the Paris Agreement.
“We might reduce our target under the Paris Agreement because 70 percent is very ambitious. But it is not all DENR. The other government agencies will look into our commitment,” Tamayo said.
Under the Paris Agreement, 40 percent of the 70-percent carbon emission-reduction target is anchored on the projected expansion of the country’s carbon sink through a massive reforestation under the E-NGP.
Other carbon emission-reduction goals will come from transportation and energy sectors.
Tamayo said that, with the budget cut, the Duterte administration will have to find ways to come up with a more realistic target.