Mindanao bids to set new tree planting record

Manila: Mindanao will be attempting on Friday to break a record set in India two years ago for planting the most number of trees simultaneously over a period of one hour.

Lordilie Saligumba-Enjambre of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said volunteers taking part in the activity, called “Treevolution”, would simultaneously attempt to plant the most number of seedlings of various trees in various parts of Mindanao within a time limit of one hour.

She said participants aim to plant 4.6 million trees in 9,200 hectares in the six regions of the southern main island over a one-hour period.

According to guinessworldrecords.com, the current official record on planting the most number of trees in multiple locations over a one-hour period is held by India.

The records almanac said that from 8:30am to 9:30am August 15, 2011, 340,200 participants from 408 locations across India planted the record 1,945,535 trees.

Saligumba-Enjambre said other than besting the record set in India, a more important issue for the country’s participation in the tree planting effort is concern for the environment.

“The crucial objective is for us to use this “Treevolution” challenge as a strategy to enhance the forest cover of Mindanao,” Saligumba-Enjambre was quoted as saying in the Cagayan de Oro edition of the daily Sunstar.

Due to unabated cutting of trees, only six per cent of Mindanao’s forest cover remain. This loss had been blamed for disastrous calamities such as that caused by typhoon Washi (Philippine name: “Sendong”) that killed more than a thousand people in Cagayan de Oro City and in Iligan in 2011.

In 2010, the government started its National Greening Programme, a six-year plan to plant 1.5 billion trees covering 1.5 million hectares 2011 to 2016

Saligumba-Enjambre said that through the Treevolution tree planting bid, the government hopes to improve the forest cover of Mindanao from six per cent to least, 30 per cent.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje, for his part said simultaneous tree-planting activity will take place in the regions of Zamboanga, Northern Mindanao, Davao, the SOCCSKSARGEN, Caraga and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Local government units, volunteers as well as environment activists will take part in the activity.

“Each municipality or city local government unit will contribute five hectares each for planting sites,” said Paje.

“It would be a great achievement to break the Guinness record, but the primary focus is to reforest a large portion of the region to restore the integrity of the environment and enhance our efforts against the negative impacts of climate change,” he said.