ROXAS City – Capiz will try to plant about a million forest and fruit-bearing trees within a year by holding quarterly tree-planting activities.
To start seedling production and encourage seedling donation, the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO) launched the seed donation program “A Seed For a Forest.”
According to PENRO head Emilyn A. Depon, the initiative aims to replace the trees “we have lost over the years.”
“Let us turn our backs from unhealthy practices and abusive behavior toward our environment,” Depon stressed during the launching at the provincial capitol recently.
Most of the provincial government employees who attended the launch brought with them seedlings as “early bird” donors.
Depon also encouraged her colleagues to be agents of Go Green Capiz, an environmental protection and natural resources conservation program of the administration of Gov. Antonio del Rosario.
“This is part of our continued vigilance,” she said. “We promise you that we will continue to fight to improve the status of our environment.”
The Office of the Provincial Agriculturist (OPA) and the Public Employment Service Office (PESO) were program partners.
The PESO tapped some of the Special Program for the Employment of Students grantees to help technicians at the provincial nursery in treating, bagging, planting, and properly managing seed donations.
PENRO staffers — in coordination with schools, local government units, capitol departments, and the private sector — will collect the donated seeds weekly.
Man-made activities reduced the forested areas over the years. Trees are expecting humans to care for them now, Depon said.
“They expect us to replace their number every time we cut down some of their members,” she noted. (PIA/PN)
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