RAINY SEASON, IT’S the best time to plant. Beyond rice, which an old childhood song popularized as never fun to plant, our tropical country has abundant vegetation yet still has a big need to sow and grow. Not just in the fields but more so in the forests where trees offer very diverse and significant values.
WHY REFOREST?
The Philippines has experienced a dramatic decline in forest cover, dropping from 70% in the 1900s to around 24 percent today. Contributors to this state which we call deforestation, aside from natural disasters, are human activities like urbanization and development, commodity-driven deforestation (conversion to agriculture, mining, and other productive industries), illegal logging, and mining. Serious consequences are climate change, biodiversity loss, and soil erosion which manifest in the environmental and economic crises of the times.
There is big hope in trees and forests. Trees, apart from the amazing beauty humans behold, offer significant value both environmental and economic. They provide clean air and water, combat climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide the excess and entrapment of which cause climate change, and support biodiversity by providing habitat for various species.
‘Challenges remain in balancing economic development and environmental protection. But we also see organizations and individuals pushing passionately for reforestation …’
Also, they keep our economy rolling with their bark, trunk, fruits, saps and seeds serving as raw materials for food production, construction, pharmaceutical and folkloric medicines, and many other industries.
To restore and renew our forests to health, reforestation is obviously the standard method, the key activity of the government’s National Greening Program. In environmental science, reforestation is more than planting trees; it considers forest as a whole ecosystem – trees, wildlife, community, the relationship of living organisms with the environment of atmosphere, air, water, soil, rocks.
SELECTING TREES
There was a time mahogany became the popular tree to plant. I remember being awed by the man-made forest in Bilar town in Bohol some 20 years ago with slim mahogany trees towering along a two-km stretch road toward the Tarsier Sanctuary near Loboc. Then later I learned mahogany is not a native tree and is not good for the healthy growth of other trees in the forest. (It remains though the species of choice in reforestation projects, being less costly and easier to plant and grow.)
Organizations who want to do tree-planting, some within a corporate social responsibility program, must seriously consider the ecological aspects of a forest ecosystem. As a starter, they should count on experts – ecologists, botanists, foresters, forest researchers.
And likewise, the indigenous people in the community who are the natural stewards of the forest biodiversity. All would be the best guide on the right and wrong trees to plant. Native trees are compatible with the soil and are non-invasive to the existing biodiversity in the area. Some excellent choices are narra, kamagong, yakal, tangile, lauan, and katmon. Exotic trees (from other countries) are largely invasive.
Another consideration in selecting trees is the climate resilience of the species: choose those which can be most tolerant of changing weather patterns.
CHALLENGES
Challenges remain in balancing economic development and environmental protection. But we also see organizations and individuals pushing passionately for reforestation – from environmental foundations and NGOs, corporations, academe, church to plain nature lovers.
Bottomline, how can we not love those greens stretching beautifully to the sky and making us breathe clean air on earth?