TALISAY CITY, Cebu — Government and private institutions joined hand last Saturday, as the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) office in Region 7 launched the government’s National Greening Program (NGP) with the planting of over 12,000 trees in Brgy. Jacupan, this city.

Governors Gwendolyn Garcia and Roel Degamo of Cebu and Negros Oriental provinces respectively, along with DENR 7 regional executive director Maximo Dichoso and local Cebu City officials headed the launching with the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement by regional line agencies in support of the NGP.

The program targets the planting of some 1.5 million hectares of degraded forest lands essentially focused at developing a sustainable forest resource base to accelerate the national greening campaign and rejuvenate rural economies in parts of the nation’s most chronically poor areas in the uplands, ultimately providing livelihood opportunities for some six million families in upland areas across the country within six years, from 2011 to 2016.