DENR cites 2005 accomplishments

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) cited four major accomplishments in Central Luzon last year.

First, intensified monitoring and mopping up operations in identified illegal logging "hotspots" yielded 226,199 board feet of assorted forest contraband worth at least P6 million and the filing of 70 cases against suspected illegal loggers. Some of these confiscated forest products were donated or used in major infrastructure development projects in the region.

According to Regidor De Leon, DENR executive director for Central Luzon, a total of 2.6 million board feet of forest contraband has been confiscated by the DENR since it embarked on a massive campaign in 1995 to save the remaining forest in the region.

Second, , the DENR distributed a total of 7,821 land titles, called patents, covering about 5,000 hectares of agricultural lands, benefiting 39,000 landless farmers in Central Luzon. This was undertaken in support of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP). This was in addition to the 8,299 land patents already issued to landless farmers under the regular fund targets of the DENR.

A total of 40,614 land titles covering 25,639 hectares of public lands have been distributed since 1999, benefiting more than 200,000 landless farmers. "We need to empower marginalized farmers and bring them back into the mainstream of economic productivity by giving them security over the land they till," De Leon explained.

Ricardo Calderon, DENR deputy director for forestry, pointed out that apart from land distribution, the DENR has also placed under community stewardship a total of 251,800 hectares of forestlands, benefiting about 200,000 individuals including indigenous people.

"The government can only succeed in its forest protection campaign by empowering and enlisting the support of local communities through the aggressive implementation of the Community-Based Forest Management Program (CBFMP)," he added.

Third, the DENR has reforested 62,000 hectares of the regions’ denuded forestlands through various schemes since 1994, or an annual reforestation average of 6,000 hectares.

A total of 1,600 hectares of watershed area of the 200-kilometer Pampanga River has been reforested under Pres. Arroyo’s Pampanga River Basin Rehabilitation Program. The Pampanga river basin covers the province of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Pampanga and Bulacan.

And fourth, the DENR also delineated 2,374 kilometers of forest lines by putting up a total of 2,000 seven-foot concrete markers in every important boundary corner of public forests at a one-kilometer interval. De Leon explained that the forest boundary delineation program aims to mark on the ground 3,850 kilometers of forest line in the seven provinces of Central Luzon until 2008 in order to settle issues on squatting and illegal titling inside public forests.

According to him, the promotion of upland agroforestry, ecotourism and the intensification on the rehabilitation of mangrove, coastal and highly eroded areas are among the top priorities of DENR for this current year.