BAGUIO CITY — At least P70 million was included in the budget of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) this year to maintain the established community forests and expand the implementation of the agency’s upland development program, an initiative to preserve and protect the deteriorating watersheds and forests in the different parts of the region.

Clarence Baguilat, DENR-CAR regional director, disclosed that over 2,000 of denuded mountains in the six provinces of the region will be reforested by the indigenous peoples and indigenous cultural communities occupying the same to ensure that the newly-planted tree seedlings will grow to serve their purpose.

Under the program, the DENR-CAR will tap the services of a family within the ruined watersheds and forests in order to plant trees in a one hectare forestland as well as maintain the same until the trees have grown.

Last year, the agency was able to hire 7,733 individuals to maintain the same number of hectares of forestlands in Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Mountain Province, Kalinga, and Ifugao to boost the government’s effort to preserve and protect the region’s watersheds and forests to help revitalize the country’s agriculture and energy sectors who get their water for irrigation, domestic and industrial uses from the Cordillera mountain ranges.

Baguilat explained that people have now felt the serious negative effects of the denuded mountains due to selfish desires to use the same for livelihood activities like establishment of commercial farms, especially with the onslaught of the El Niño phenomenon, thus, concerns for the preservation and protection of the region’s environment is being made one of the major thrusts of concerned government agencies.

The DENR-CAR’s initiative is one of the results of the strong advocacy of the Regional Development Council (RDC) in the Cordillera to lobby for all-out support in order to awaken concerned government agencies to prioritize the watershed rehabilitation and management program to ensure the continuous flow of abundant water to the lowland communities.

The water that flows to the 13 major river systems which strands to the lowlands trace their headwaters from the Cordillera watersheds and forests, thus, the noticeable reduction in the water supply has greatly affected the production of farmers.