GREENIN’ Philippines: beyond tree planting…creating real forests is what should be done in our current situation today for Global climate change is a widespread and growing concern that has led to extensive international discussions and negotiations. Many of the activities we do every day such as turning the lights on, cooking food, or heating or cooling our homes rely on energy sources like coal and oil that emit carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere.

We are taking millions of years worth of carbon, stored beneath the earth as fossil fuels, and releasing it into the atmosphere. By now the planet has 392 parts per million CO2 – and this number is rising by about 2 parts per million every year.

The world's leading climate scientists have now revised the highest safe level of CO2 to 350 parts per million. Unless we are able to rapidly return to below 350 ppm this century, we risk reaching tipping points and irreversible impacts that are detrimental to all lives existing on Earth.

One option for slowing the rise of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, and thus possible climate change, is to increase the amount of carbon removed by and stored in forests. Aside from this, forests reduce flooding, improve water quality, improve air quality, preserve and increase the diversity of plants and animals and increase the beauty of the environment.

But over the years, the Philippines’ forest resources degenerated because of massive logging activities, fuelwood gathering and charcoal making, shifting cultivation and permanent agriculture. With continued deforestation, some species are now endangered or even extinct. In fact, the Philippines is one of the biodiversity ‘hot spots’ or areas of concern in the world.

The reasons for failure in reforestation efforts are legion, ranging from technical to social issues. Poor species-site matching, inadequate monitoring, corruption and social conflict are some of the major reasons. Addressing these problems in parallel with any environmental rehabilitation and protection undertakings can significantly increase our forest cover.

The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) formed the Generation, REdemption, and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines (GREENIN’ Philippines) to provide effective ways to arrest degradation of forestlands with the end view of making the country greener and healthier.

About GREENIN:

The GREENIN’ Philippines is anchored on the lessons and insights gained from years of undertaking sound and viable environmental interventions. It is designed to enhance and/or maintain environmental integrity by restoring biodiversity. It seeks to develop, protect, enhance and co-manage denuded forestlands, brushlands and degraded residual natural forests. The program is expected to have more partners that will share its vision of rehabilitating the environment through the use of native trees. Moreover, in the next three to five years, there will be forest patches created throughout the Philippines brought about the initiatives undertaken by its stakeholders and partners. These forests, which shall be the future homes of wildlife, shall be carefully protected and managed to ensure a healthy population of the wildlife residing therein. It is also the hope of the Program that the Filipinos will be more assertive and responsive in addressing the important environmental issues that already have greatly affected us all.

The reforestation component of GREENIN’ Philippines deviates from the traditional tree planting activities in the country which have reportedly not reaped much success. GREENIN’ Philippines will orchestrate to make real forests in critical areas like watersheds and denuded forestlands by developing value-based capabilities of the Program’s stakeholders and partners to co-manage program implementation. Post-planting activities are performed to ensure that planted seedlings grow to become forests.

Native tree nurseries are maintained as support mechanism of the program. GREENIN’ Philippines strongly advocates the planting of native tree species as these species promote biodiversity restoration faster than exotic ones. These make GREENIN’ Philippines a different strategy from the rest.

The GREENIN’ Philippines has the Province of Cebu for its pilot area. Taking from the Cebu model, the Program shall be gradually implemented in the different regions of the country. This is to ensure that the Program will be properly managed and implemented while building up relevant lessons and best practices from those who have implemented the program ahead.