World Reforestation Record

WORLD REFORESTATION RECORD

By Anton Antonio

August 4, 2015

The Philippine National Greening Program (NGP) is a massive forest rehabilitation and reforestation program established by virtue of Executive Order No. 26 issued on February 24, 2011 by President Benigno S. Aquino III.  The NGP’s target is to plant 1.5 billion trees covering 1.5 million hectares for a period of six years from 2011 to 2016.  What can I say about this grandiose program?... “Eh di, wow!”  This should etch-out another record in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Putting your finger on the actual accomplishment of the NGP is like a wild goose chase.  You could call the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and after several “holds” and “call transfers” and “phone referrals”, you will be lucky to get the figures being prayed for.  A different strategy of calling a friend working with the department will most likely get you the numbers but these will be accompanied by a friendly advice the these records are “unofficial” and, therefore, cannot be used in a formal study or a blog/article.  So you are now constrained to do an internet research but this will only get you more confused because of the different and conflicting information you will get.  I did exactly that and the research effort, I ran into another, but more reliable, information.

In Ecuador the Guinness book of records for planting the most trees in one day was broken.  Last May 16, 2015, Ecuador dispatched a legion of volunteers all over the country in one of the most ambitious and massive tree planting activity in history.  They were able to plant 647,250 trees in a single day.  A total of 44,883 people planted different species of trees in more than 2,000 hectares of land.  This accomplishment was verified and certified by Guinness. 

Reforestation initiatives like the one Ecuador has successfully achieved can help reduce carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere that is responsible for global warming.  What makes the record unique and hard to accomplish is the terrain and geographic character of Ecuador which has high Andean peaks and low Amazon basin.

Much as I originally wanted to highlight the reforestation effort and record of my beloved Philippines, I ended up appreciating Ecuador’s world reforestation record.

Thoughts to promote action…

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REFERENCE:

Yournewswire.com, (2015). “Ecuador Breaks World Reforestation Record”.  Retrieved on August 4, 2015 from http://yournewswire.com/ecuador-breaks-world-reforestation-record/