All set for the historic and significant event “TreeVolution: Greening MindanaNOW” on September 26, 2014 as DENR in collaboration with Mindanao Development Authority (MINDA) spearheads the holding of the Mindanao wide simultaneous tree planting activity in multiple locations.
Along with other national line agencies, local government units, partner industries, civic organizations, academe are expected to participate in an attempt to hit the record in the Guinness World Records as the most number of seedlings planted in an hour. The tree planting
activity corresponds with the objective of the National Greening Program, which is to reforest 1.5 million hectares of public land by planting trees within the period 2011 to 2016. The TreeVolution: Greening MindaNOW calls for a concerted effort of Mindanaoans to participate in the most significant event that will expect media mileage both in the local and international scenes.
Any interested participant may coordinate with the DENR Regional Office or to the nearest CENRO and PENRO Offices for further details or may log on to the official facebook page TreeVolution:Greening MindanaNOW for registration.
The Mindanao region will attempt to break the Guinness World Record on September 26, 2014 for most trees planted simultaneously in multiple locations. This project is an initiative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in collaboration with the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA).
Dubbed as “TreeVolution: Greening MindaNOW,” this attempt aims to plant in 1 hour 4.6 million trees covering 9,200 hectares from Region 9 to the Caraga Region including the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). This world record breaking attempt will be mobilizing an estimated 230,000 planters coming from all sectors of the society.
The Record-holder of the said category is India wherein a total of 1,945,535 trees were planted by 340,200 participants in 408 locations last August 15, 2011.
DENR Regional Director Joselin Marcus E. Fragada said that the attempt also aims to highlight and increase people’s awareness on the National Greening Program (NGP) of the government and MinDA’s “MindaNOW, Nurturing our Waters” Project.
“With this attempt, we aim to achieve the NGP target of Mindanao for 2014 and campaign for nurturing waters through tree-growing. But our main intention is to further strengthen people’s awareness with regards to what NGP and MindaNOW is all about and how these projects can help in the protection and preservation of the environment and in mitigating the effects of climate change. This is more of a campaign and we want to entice Mindanaoans to join this endeavor through the act of volunteerism,” Fragada said.
National Greening Program is one of the priority programs of the government that aims to plant 1.5 billion trees within 1.5 million hectares from 2011 to 2016. NGP is spelled out under Executive Order No. 26 signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III on February 24, 2011 geared to attain food security, poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation, climate change mitigation and adaptation and sustainable development.
Fragada also said that to ensure the success of the world record breaking attempt, several strategies need to be implemented which will include social mobilization, well-planned coordination and massive information campaigns to drumbeat the activity.
“In terms of mobilization and promotion, we have MinDA to help us for they are capable of gathering and mobilizing people all over Mindanao to join big events such as this. For DENR, we will be responsible for identifying the planting sites as well as provide almost all of the planting materials,” he said.
The 5 basic commodities that will be planted during the planting activity are Rubber, Coffee, Cacao, timber and indigenous species. Rubber, Coffee and Cacao are the three premium species adaptable in Mindanao. Added are Mahogany, falcata, bamboo and other hard wood tree seedlings provided by CDO Seedlers.
On the other hand, MinDA Director Janet Lopoz revealed that both Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) are among the National Government Agencies who recently pledged to support the project.
“As more of our participating groups partners are coming in, assuring us of their support and participation, we will be expecting an increase in the number of planters on this activity,” Lopoz said.
The Participants that will be mobilized for this activity are: Mindanao-wide Cooperatives; River Basin Organizations; Local Chief Executive Confederation; Business Chambers; Junior Chamber of Commerce; Academe; Peace and Development Communities; Religious Sectors; Media; Private Sectors; Youth Sectors; Women Sectors; People’s Organizations; National Government Agencies; Local Government Units; Mining and Industrial Companies and; Wood Processing Plants among others. (DENR-XI PR)
At this massive tree planting campaign, dubbed Treevolution: Greening MindaNOW, thousands of volunteers planted trees in several parts of Mindanao, planting a total of 3,373,762 trees.
The Record was Broken with a big help from CDO Seedlers for supplying 30% of the Seedlings and seeds used in the TreeVolution Project.
