Officials and employees of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Regional Office 6 and Iloilo Fourth District Engineering Office took part in the celebration of Arbor Day 2017 with a tree planting on July 15.
In collaboration with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)-Community Environment and Natural Resources Office(CENRO)-Barotac Nuevo, about 91 DPWH officials and employees planted some 600 seedlings of Camagong, Wild Bignay and Cacao in Barangay Cahigon, Calinog, Iloilo.
DPWH Region 6 Planning and Design Division Chief Marilou G. Zamora said that the tree planting activity is one way of showing care to the environment and love to mother earth.
As the group marched uphill going to the venue of the activity, not even the scorching heat of the sun can stop DPWH volunteers in reaching the tree planting site.
The activity was also conducted for the initial compliance on the requirements of DENR for the issuance of tree-cutting permit.
Tree planting is significant in preventing soil erosion and reinstating the beauty of the nature. This simple act could help the environment in so many ways such as filtering pollution from the air, helping recycle water in the ecosystem, creating shades, giving shelter from wind and rain, providing homes for birds and other tiny animals and making food for humans and wildlife.
This activity was also done in compliance to Presidential Decree No. 389 also known as Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines which states that the utilization of timber in alienable and disposable lands, private lands, civil reserve preservations, and all lands containing standing or felled timber including those under the jurisdiction of other government agencies, and the establishment and operation of sawmills and other wood-processing plants, shall be regulated in order to prevent them from being used as shelters for excessive and unauthorized harvests in forest lands, and shall not therefore be allowed except through a license agreement, license, lease or permit.