CL among regions with highest forest cover in the country

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, August 29, 2012-Central Luzon’s forest remains among the regions with the highest cover in the country, latest statistics released by the Forest Management Bureau (FMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) show.

 

DENR Central Luzon chief Maximo Dichoso bared that Region 3 ranks third in the entire archipelago accounting to 62% of the total forestland remain with intact vegetation and topping other regions with large tract of forestland.

 

“ Out of 942,387 hectares of forestland we have in the region, 589,495 hectares remains to be forested,” Dichoso said.

 

The Regional head attributed the intact forest cover of Central Luzon to the DENR solid plans and programs on forest regeneration and biodiversity conservation including the concrete accomplishments in forest protection and law enforcement.

 

Adding to this, he said, is the strong regulatory efforts of the government on environment with the implementation of Executive Order (EO) No. 23 or moratorium on logging on natural and residual forests and EO 26 or the National Greening Program (NGP).

 

NGP likewise boosted the reforestation efforts in the region with the planting of various forest and fruit trees covering some 5,548 hectares of denuded watershed.

 

“Strong allies and creative partnership with local government units (LGUs) and the law enforcement sectors are also vital to arrest further forest destruction and is crucial in forest restoration,” Dichoso explained.

 

Of the seven provinces in the region, Aurora with 238,776 hectares or 124% forest cover including those forest in alienable and disposable (A and D) lands and Bulacan with 73,987 hectares or 96% forested are the top contributors to the remaining forest.

 

Dichoso added that the latest satellite imagery and remote sensing interpretation showed that the forest cover of the country has increased to 7.2 million hectares from 6.5 million hectares in 1988 and the eight percent of it could be found in Central Luzon.

 

The top region with the highest forest cover is Region 4-B (MIMAROPA) with 68% forested area composed of Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Romblon and Palawan followed by Region 2 (Cagayan Valley) with 67% forest vegetation composed of Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Viscaya and Quirino. (Carlo Lorenzo J. Datu-PIA 3 with reports from DENR 3)