Officers failing to hit E-NGP goal to be axed

Credit to Author: Eireene Jairee Gomez| Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2019 18:07:33 +0000

FIELD officers of the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) who fail to meet the required 85-percent survival rate of planted tree seedlings contracted to peoples’ organizations (POs) under the Enhanced National Greening Program (E-NGP) would be sacked, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu has warned.

“I would like to let somebody take the command responsibility for these areas… I will relieve you [of your duty] if you cannot fulfill that. Yes, it’s a tall order. Even if you have to go there at least every two weeks,” Cimatu recently told the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officers (Penro) and Community Environment and Natural Resources Officers (Cenro) assigned as the department’s plantation managers.

Penro and Cenro personnel were among the 181 DENR workers who completed a training course conducted by the agency’s Environment and Natural Resources Academy.

Cimatu made the warning as he expressed disappointment over the low survival rate of the seedlings planted in some PO-contracted areas. The rate ranges from 35 to 50 percent.

This prompted the DENR to suspend the scheme of contracting POs for the E-NGP this year. Instead, the agency focused on rehabilitation and protection efforts in the PO-contracted plantation sites established before 2019.

Nearly 2 million hectares have been planted with 1.7 billion tree seedlings from 2011 to July 2019, with most of the sites contracted to POs, according to the DENR. It generated 4.73 million jobs, benefiting more than 670,000 upland dwellers.

From 2016 to 2018 alone, POs accounted for 573,735 ha under the NGP, consisting of 24,672 plantation sites.

NGP contracts with POs cover a three-year period, during which the NGP partners are compensated for seedling production, site preparation, tree planting, maintenance and protection.

The DENR proposed a P5.152-billion budget for the implementation of E-NGP for 2020. Of the amount, P4 billion would be allotted for capital outlay and the rest for maintenance and other operating expenses.

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