“Baka maging water world tayo.”
This was Rizal 4th District Rep. Fidel Nograles’ dire warning after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources reported that only seven million of the country’s 15 million hectares of forest lands still have forest cover.
Nograles has been advocating for aggressive reforestation efforts to combat the effects of the climate crisis.
“We have to aggressively restore our forest cover—there is no going around this issue. And we should start now. Hindi maaaring maghintay pa tayo,” the lawmaker said.
The DENR said that in response to the depletion, it plans to increase the country’s cover to at least 10 million hectares under the National Greening Program.
“Last year, we started mapping out the first 1.2 million hectares, which will be opened to different people’s organizations to help us reforest these areas. We hope to target an additional three million hectares for reforestation by 2028,” DENR Sec. Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said.
Nograles underscored the need for the whole country to act to reforest the country.
“Climate change is the defining issue of our generation and generations to come, and it is of utmost importance that we all contribute towards our nation’s re-greening efforts. This is an issue that the government alone cannot solve,” the solon said.
Nograles has been advocating for aggressive reforestation efforts to combat the effects of the climate crisis.
He also lauded the efforts of his district’s youth who are actively involved in reforestation efforts particularly along Wawa Dam in the Upper Marikina River Basin.
“Batid ng mga kabataan ng Montalban ang panganib na dulot ng mga nakakalbong bundok at watershed dahil ramdam namin ang baha kahit sa konting buhos lang ng ulan. Kaya’t nagpapasalamat at ipinagmamalaki natin ang pagkukusa at pagsisikap nila na maging parte ng solusyon para mapalagong muli ang ating mga gubat,” the lawmaker said.
