Local women supports green project 
by Rizalie A. Calibo and Eda Lou T. Manigo

Amidst series of calamities threatening all over, it is still inspiring to note that more and more locals are engaging themselves in some gainful acts not for themselves but for the world they live in.

And here’s one worthy of note. 

Women of barangay Helen in Larena, province of Siquijor spend their spare time not on leisurely gossips or worthless pursuits but onplanting trees to help save the denuded Siquijor forests and stave off the deadly effects of climate change. 

Every now and then, over twenty of them huddled around their nursery area to soil their hands and plant more in order to reach their target of 10,000 seedlings which will be soon planted in their specific areas for reforestation over a three-year period. 

Delia Tangapa, president of the Helenian Women’s Association (HEWA) said they are planting endemic trees such as mahogany, gemilina and bamboo and native fruit trees such as mango, jackfruit, etc. to reforest some 3 hectares of land in Helen that are covered by the massive tree planting program of the National Greening Program (NGP) of the DENR. 

For Central Visayas, a total of 2.816 million seedlings will be planted this year to cover 5,632 hectares with a total budget  of P29 million pesos, a recent report said. 

A total of 269 hectares in Siquijor province will be covered by the project.

The target areas for planting under the program are forestlands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban area under the Greening Plan of local government units, inactive and abandoned mines and other suitable lands. 

Tangapa said HEWA entered into an agreement with the local DENR and that a fund of P200,000 will soon be disbursed to them for this project. 

Albeit the initial mobilization fund of P30,000 is not yet in place, she said they have already started collecting wild seedlings around their surroundings. 

 “The funds may take time to arrive, at least we are starting it”, she said.   

 “Besides, it is everyone’s duty to take care of our Mother earth, whether there’s a budget or not”, she opined. 

The collected seedlings of local species will be raised into shoots in a nursery and then replanted in the nearby bald hills and mountains, she said. 

She said women in Helen are committed to help encourage the community to join the activity to plant trees “in order to prevent calamities in Siquijor that are sadly occurring in some parts of the Philippines and the world” and to ensure that the next generation will inherit clean air and livable environment. (Rizalie A. Calibo/PIA-Siqujor/Edalou Tangapa Manigo)