Earth Day 2013: start of seed propagation & local site selection

Greens PH (Partido Kalikasan) commemorates EARTH DAY 2013 today with the launch of our NATIONWIDE REFO DAYS CAMPAIGN.

This campaign is initially targeting, this year, 100 local chapters of the Party nationwide to identify, set-up and maintain for perpetuity their own respective permanent local reforestation sites nationwide.

In the next 3 years, we hope to contribute 1M trees in 400 local reforestation sites nationwide.

This Earth Day 2013, we begin the process with the start of SEED COLLECTION and PROPAGATION.

The Party’s approach to reforestation is a combination of agro-forestry and rainforestation. Thus, all local chapters are hereby asked to mobilize their members at the household and community-levels to start up seed banks and nurseries of not just the appropriate endemic hardwood species but also viable fruit tree species.

Local chapters starting today will be asked to coordinate with appropriate local government offices like the municipal or city environment offices of the local government units, local DENR offices, NGOs working on biodiversity and forest conservation work and other groups, even private entities to identify the appropriate local reforestation sites that this campaign in perpetuity will be implemented.

The campaign is a MONTHLY REFO DAY in each local chapter’s selected reforestation sites starting JUNE 2013, during the World Environment Month and every month in perpetuity.

Planting and maintaining your trees is part of the regular membership requirement of all Party members.

The nurseries and seed banks will also be manage sustainably as social green enterprises by local Party chapters in order to sustain our work and even market seedlings and saplings of endemic tree species for other communities and groups engage in reforestation.

The campaign is inspired by successes in rainforestation approaches all over the country, including that of the many initiatives in rainforestation in Leyte and Eco Village development in Zambales initiated by some Party leaders over the past decade.

This is part of the Party’s CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION CAMPAIGN for both mitigation and adaptation purposes. Depending on what is priority in each locality where Party local ecosystem chapters are operating, this reforestation sites will be for terrestrial, mangrove and even urban greenbelts.

This is also a major component of the Party’s local Bioregional Green Agenda Program Approach called “ECO-VILLAGE GREEN DEVELOPMENT” where the requirement is 70% forest cover.

This is also our proactive contribution to the ongoing NATIONAL GREENING PROGRAM targeting 25M trees plated by 2016. Having said this, we remain consistent with our position that besides a serious national reforestation program, the following policies and programs for STRONGER MANAGEMENT OF LOGGING in the Philippines must be instituted:

(1) Impose a 25-year nationwide ban on all forms of commercial logging. In this ban, non-commercial use by IP communities and CBFM holders shall be allowed subject to close monitoring by local multi-sectoral bodies to be created to implement the ban

(2) Adopt with full financial, technical, institutional and legal support the community-based forest management (CBFM) as our national framework for forest ecosystem management.

(3) Build sufficient capacity & effective law enforcement against illegal logging.

The Philippines has less than 3% primary forest cover and less than 23% secondary forest cover. And even this figures are being contested. Studies shows that each island ecosystem must have 54% forest cover for it to sustain critical ecosystems that provide life-giving environmental services to communities, especially the poor.

In the 1900s we had 70% forest cover nationwide. By 1999, by some estimates, it was 18.3% While it has improve in recent years, the effects of deforestation, as aggravated by the ill-effects of climate change has cost countless lives and property over recent disasters. There is no denying that more efforts must be done.

For more information, please contact:

Roy Cabonegro
Secretary-General
Mobile 0916 2304515
Email: roy@greensph.org

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Partido Kalikasan (Philippine Green Party)
Website:http://www.greensph.org
Email: info@greensph.org
Telephone number +63 2 4358454 (TTH only) | Mobile Phone 0916 2304515
2nd floor, 80 Kalayaan Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/greenparty.ph

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