Bontoc, Mountain Province — The Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) means business in its bid to push efforts to preserve and protect the rapidly deteriorating forests and watersheds in the region.

This developed as Primitivo C. Galinato Jr., Cordillera DENR director, announced that his office will be initially hiring in the next two months 1,082 forest guards who will be deployed in critical watershed areas to prevent their further denudation.

Galinato said the 1,082 forest guards are among the 8,580 forest guards to be hired by the government under the Comprehensive Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (CLEEP) of President Arroyo.

CLEEP is one of the measures intended to mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis.

Galinato said the Cordillera is one of the regions which will receive additional forest guards because of the growing concern about the protection and preservation of the deteriorating watersheds.

The RDC is also preparing for the holding of an inter-regional watershed summit that will be participated in the RDCs of Regions I, II, and III. The summit will formulate forest-protection and -conservation programs.

While admitting that the state of the environment is in an alarming stage, Galinato said it is still not too late to act on the problem so long as all stakeholders participate in regreening the forests and stopping the widespread conversion of forest areas into commercial vegetable farms.

Aside from employing residents to guard the forests in their places, the DENR is also revitalizing its reforestation program through the reforestation of at least 7,733 hectares of critical forests in the region.

The DENR regional chief also ordered a massive crackdown on timber poachers in the different communities.