ILOILO City – An El Niño dry spell has been forecasted to occur in the first quarter of next year. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is activating its Response and Emergency Action Team or REACT in six provinces of Western Visayas.
“We have organized REACT teams in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, Iloilo, and Negros to be vigilant in protecting areas within and at the periphery of National Greening Program (NGP) plantations,” said DENR regional executive director Jim Sampulna.
Grass or forest fires must not be allowed to gobble up what have so far been achieved by the NGP, he stressed.
Since 2017 until November this year, established plantations under the NGP spans 19,501 hectares across mountain, urban and mangrove areas in Western Visayas. These established plantations are not only rich with biodiversity, but serves well as carbon sink areas that mitigate the impacts of climate change.
“We must sustain our NGP gains as our efforts in bringing back the forest cover in the region means winning the fight against climate change, and giving economic opportunities to our upland and coastal dwellers as well,” said Sampulna.
From a successful NGP implementation (2011-2016), the government extended the program to another 12 years. The Enhanced NGP or ENGP (2016-2028) is being carried out by virtue of Executive Order No. 193 throughout the country.
Sampulna forewarned all provincial and community environment and natural resources offices against fire occurrences.
In its Climate Outlook for December 2018 to May 2019, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) predicted a high possibility of El Niño dry spell.
“Way below normal rainfall” may peak in April for most parts of the country.
The same El Niño forecast was given by four other international prediction centers, namely: the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology; Japan’s Tokyo Climate Center; and South Korea’s APEC Climate Center.
ENGP is one of the priority programs of DENR secretary Roy Cimatu. It is focused on reforesting another 7.1 million hectares of unproductive, denuded and degraded forestlands nationwide.
“The ENGP and the Intensified Forest Protection and Anti-Illegal Logging priorities are twin programs that aim to improve the nation’s forest cover and ensure continued protection of all existing forests in the country,” said Cimatu. (DENR-6/PN)
