By Estanislao Albanao, Jr.
Deprived by the issuance of the Freedom of Information executive order of any possible justification to further withhold the data, National Greening Program (NGP) National Coordinator Ricardo Calderon has finally provided me with the burning incident report for the NGP which I have requested from him four months ago. According to the document, as of June 13, 2016, some 38,768 hectares NGP plantation areas have been burnt. At the very least, that would amount to a loss of P387,680,000.00 representing the NGP per hectare budget of P10,000.00 for the seedlings and establishment of the plantation. The cost of damage rises depending on how old the plantation when burned because of the P3,000.00 maintenance budget per year during the first three years of the plantation. Since newly established plantations are not susceptible to fire, the amount of loss for the total burnt area since the start of the program could easily exceed half a billion pesos.
And the NGP loss coming from fires does not end with this figure because tree plantations are under constant threat from fires.
Even while from its own experience, the DENR is fully conscious that one of the worst obstacles of growing a forest are fires, those who conceptualized the NGP did not provide for fire protection. In fact, the program has no budget for firebreaks, one of the most basic fire prevention methods. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) people supervising the implementation of the NGP try to cover up for this fatal lapse by saying that the provision of firebreaks is already contained in the P3,000.00 per hectare yearly maintenance but generally speaking, NGP plantations do not have firebreaks. Furthermore, the claim that the establishment of firebreaks is covered by the maintenance budget is belied by the fact that in the aftermath of the forest fire in Mt. Apo in late March this year, the DENR released funds to provide firebreaks for 5,138 hectares of plantations per region. The release of the emergency fund was an admission that the regular NGP budget does not provide for such need.
This lack of provision for fire protection for NGP plantations only highlights the continuing haphazard and hit and miss nature of the planning and implementation of the reforestation programs of the government. The DENR does not seem to have qualms going on massive government spending sans a foolproof plan. It is estimated that it has already spent around P20B on the NGP in the term of President Benigno Aquino III. Of what good is planting trees if they will be gobbled up by fire anyway? The history of DENR reforestation efforts is replete with proof that in just a few minutes, the funds and the toil that went to the development of an incipient forest will all be made for naught by fire but it appears the agency is incapable of internalizing the costly lesson.
Based on my observations of local private tree plantations, these are more than 90 percent safer from fires than government reforestation projects are. The reason is very simple: private tree growers do not want their efforts and investment to go down the drain for which reason they address and provide for all the adverse factors like threats of conflagration while on the other hand, the DENR basically thinks that regreening begins and ends in the planting of the seedling and does not plan and budget to ensure that the planted seedlings eventually end up as trees.
What if in anticipation for losses incurred in fires, the DENR just budgeted for fire protection? Had it done that, it is possible that the damage would not have become this huge. And besides, there would be growing trees where seedlings or young trees have been charred.
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