Trees, Wave of the Future

by ERNESTO T. SOLIDUM

A month ago, a composite team of CENRO Boracay apprehended two tricycles loaded with charcoal and mountain agoho fuelwood in Regador, Ibajay, Aklan. The campaign is a stepped up effort of DENR to stop illegal cutting of trees in forest reserves all over the country.

Forest lands in Aklan total 48,177 hectares or 27 percent of provincial land area. Half of forest destruction is caused by firewood gatherers and charcoal makers. Their favourite target is Mountain Agoho and other hardwood species because it commands a higher price in the market. Current price per sack of charcoal is P180.00 upped by 38 percent before the crackdown. This is also affected by increased cost of LPG now costing P840.00 per 11 kilogram container.

Mr. Rene C. Reyes, Chief Forest Management Services, CENRO Kalibo said that they do not need to implement drastic measures of law enforcement. Instead, they maintain close supervision over two organizations namely: Multi Sectoral Forest Protection Committee (for towns of Libacao, Malinao, and Madalag) and the Aklan River Watershed Forest Resource, an NGO. Program cite is Metro Kalibo Waterworks planting of 52 hectares to agro forest trees, part of 150 hectares reserved in Galicia, Madalag.

"So far, our partnership has been very fruitful in terms of meeting contractual agreement on forest conservation. In addition we have quarterly meetings to thresh out problems and get feedbacks from them," Mr. Reyes declared.

The United Nations Environmental Program is deeply concerned over climate change as a result of rising carbon emissions. There has been a ten fold increase of carbon in the last century that could trigger a rise of five (5) degrees Fahrenheit in our global temperature by the end of this 21st century. The culprit is massive industrialization, car emissions and human activities.

Cars and trucks are major sources of global warming as each litre of gasoline pumps more than 2.5 kgms of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. An average person spews 13.6 – 22.7 kilograms of CO2 each year.

However, a single tree can trap one ton of CO2 per year. With high carbon emissions, it is imperative that our current population of 94 million collectively plants 30 trees per person per year in order to mitigate global warming and environmental degradation. Definitely at stakes are the very high poverty alleviation, employment and stability. Trees are the wave of the future. /MP