RAFI supports government’s National Greening Program

March 15, 2011 - PRLog -- The GREENIN Philippines Program of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) supports the government’s National Greening Program under Executive Order (EO) No. 26 recently issued by President Benigno Aquino III.

Through the National Greening Program, the country shall plant some 1.5 billion trees covering about 1.5 million hectares for a period of six years from 2011 to 2016 in the lands of the public domain.

Under EO 26, private sectors and civil society are encouraged to participate in the National Greening Program.

“RAFI heeds this call by committing its GREENIN Philippines Program to complement the greening efforts of the national government,” said Rowena Bandola-Alensonorin, executive director of the Integrated Development unit of RAFI.

The GREENIN Philippines Program, which stands for Generation REdemption and Expansion of Natural resources INitiatives in the Philippines Program, seeks to develop, protect, enhance and co-manage denuded forestlands, brush lands and degraded residual natural forests by planting native tree species.

It is implemented through collaboration with partners who share the vision of rehabilitating the environment using native trees. In the next five years, forest patches shall have been created all over the Philippines through partnership undertakings.

“At RAFI we go beyond tree-planting, we develop real forests. To do this, we broaden partnerships with the public and private sectors,” Alensonorin said.

At present, 16 companies and organizations have partnered with RAFI to pursue the program’s goal and objectives.

RAFI has been promoting and advocating the use of native tree species in its forest development effort as these species make the forest ecosystem better. The RAFI Native Tree Nursery and satellite nurseries are established and maintained as support mechanism of the program.

The GREENIN Philippines Program has the Province of Cebu for its pilot area. The program shall be gradually implemented in the different regions of the country. This is to ensure that the program will be properly managed and implemented while building up relevant lessons and best practices from those who have implemented the program ahead.

“For Cebu, the program targets to plant five million native trees within five years in 2,900 hectares in the public domain,” Alensonorin added.

RAFI lends its technical expertise in planting and monitoring trees to ensure their survival.

For more information about the GREENIN Philippines Program of RAFI, please contact 418-7234 loc. 515 and look for Neil Papas.