ROXAS City – The “1 Million Kahoy” project kicked off during the recent Arbor Day celebration in this province.
Gov. Esteban Evan Contreras led the opening part of the project through an early morning mangrove and upland tree planting activity in Barangay Lonoy, Sapian.
The governor then led provincial officials, department heads, representatives of national government agencies, policemen, and religious groups in the same activity in Barangay Timpas, Panitan.
He encouraged all Capizeños, especially the youth, to take part in the reforestation and greening initiative.
“Let us make Capiz greener and more resilient to calamities,” Contreras stressed, adding that the reforestation effort will address erosions, landslides and flooding problems in this province.
The massive and collective tree planting, now on its third year, is spearheaded by the Capiz Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (CaPENRO) as part of its Go Green Capiz campaign towards an ecologically sustainable and resilient province.
CaPENRO head Atty. Emilyn Depon said the one million trees planting project will run until the observance of the Provincial Environment Consciousness Month in November.
“Capiz has only about 9.5 percent forest cover which translates to about 25,000 hectares out of its 263,000 hectares land area based on a National Mapping and Resource Information Authority assessment and evaluation of the province’s environment in 2015,” Depon said.
In 2018, this province’s “One Million Trees in One Day” project planted 1,148,387 trees in about 1,103.52 hectares with 52.44 percent survival rate or 602,283 survived out of the total number of trees planted.
In 2019, the tree planting project initially accounted for 667,160 trees as some participants were not able to submit documentations of their respective organized tree planting activities. (With a report from PIA/PN)
