BANGUED, Abra – The Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer here is inculcating the importance of taking reforestation more seriously, recalling the massive flooding in July last year due to Super Typhoon Egay.
At least 20,000 three-feet high gmelina, mahogany and narra seedlings, which are perfect for watersheds, are ready for distribution for tree-planting activities.
The seedlings were produced by community environment and natural resources officers (ENROs) in Bangued and Lagangilang and the provincial office as well as several people’s organizations.
“We have to jointly work together to rehabilitate the headwaters here in Abra,” Provincial ENRO Marcelo Bumidang said on the sidelines of the ceremonial “PanTree” seedlings distribution here Monday.
Bumidang said fruit-bearing tree species are also available.
“They can come to our office and get seedlings anytime. This is a responsibility that we can all participate in,” he said.
Low-lying municipalities that included this capital town, La Paz, Pidigan and San Quintin went under water during Egay’s onslaught, affecting 83,221 families and destroying 13,093 houses, including 6,593 in Bangued alone.
Abra River, the sixth largest river in the Philippines based on the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Master Plan for Integrated River Basin Management, stretches 198 kilometers and traverses 47 municipalities -- three each in Benguet and Mountain Province, all the 27 towns of Abra and 14 of the 34 towns of Ilocos Sur.
It has an annual discharge of 12.021 million cubic meters.
Based on records of the last 13 years, Abra has planted 49,000 hectares of the 326,331 hectares of land classified as timber or forest lands.
This year, Abra targets to plant on 287 hectares of land as its contribution to climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation.
Forest fires have also been identified as among the biggest challenge in reforestation, not just in Abra but the whole Cordillera, Bumidang said.
At least 1,000 hectares of forest areas have been destroyed so far, the heat made worse by the El Niño phenomenon. (PNA)
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