Join IP Children & Elders Replant 1000 Trees

Thankfully while the start up panting commenced in the summer months  as stated in our first report  the long drought period has officially ended.  The Philippine Weather Bureau declared the rainy season has officially begun.  This means the survival of seedlings earlier planted is assured with the continuous pouring of rain water.

Taking advantage of the wet season that normally starts in May and June,  community members continue to outplant locally growing seedlings of similar tree species in the area.  Applying a parcel to parcel approach, they are now moving to the next hectare reforestation sanctuary inching little by little to cover barren areas in their watershed.

One of the challenges encountered in sustaining out planting work is balancing their time working on their farms and reforestation activity.  In the Philippines, the onset of the rainy season signals also the first cropping period for rice and corn which are staple food of the Filipinos.  Missing on the first cropping on time normally in sync with the planting of most farmers would mean a not-so-bountiful harvest and risk of pest infestation.  It is for this reason that the community household members divide their time working on the farm and joining the reforestation work .  Both are important components in protecting their watershed areas to preserve and augment water sources they need most for domestic use  and irrigation water for  rice and corn production.

Thank you for the contribution you have shared on this project.  They are used to provide food supply for those engaged in planting as they need to pack food when going to the reforestation site  being far from their houses.  At most they have to spend a day there to do the activity.

Some of the funds were used also to purchase seedlings and transportation  from neighboring areas with adequate vegetation.   The province of Abra where our reforestation activity is conducted is known to have a very sparse vegetation cover.  The temperature of the province is very hot.  With the realization of how climate change has become a reality for the communities, taking serious work on reforestation is gaining ground.  The local government units are also starting to devise reforestation programs in cooperation with the communities. 

With this, there is a glimmer of hope that reviving forest cover will now be taken seriously as the community realizes that their  sources of life support like water is dependent on their serious efforts to address their fast degrading forest areas.

Your continued support to this project will greatly help the communities accelerate their replanting efforts.  Thank you for giving your share for this project.

Looking at a balding mountain range could be a worrisome reality.  Putting back its lush green forest cover would seem to be a daunting task.   But the indigenous women, children and young adults in Bargy Pacqued in Bayabas have just  two options.  Either they start outplanting trees or leave the mountains barren and their next generation suffer. 

In the past three months, the community slowly outplanted close to a hundred locally growing tree species and shrubs to jumpstart their reforestation efforts.  Adopting a sectoral approach  to replanting trees, women, children and young adults defined the first areas to be planted.  They arranged themselves to groups and followed a simple community plan to do the work.

At the onset, the elderly men seek out from shrubby  outskirsts naturally growing seedlings, and nurtured these in a makeshift nursery ready for planting. They avoided non-forest tree specieis  as they want to restore the naturally growing species of trees particular in the area which they  lost to  wildfires that happen almost yearly.  They tackle the first sanctuary usually a hectare of land area before moving to the next number of hectares

The women are planting also  agro-forest crops for livestock feeds and supplemental food sources at the periphery of the target  forest areas.  The forest is home to wild animals and species that's reliable for food herbal crops and raw materials for weaving, furniture works.  Hence restoring diverse forest crops is of paramount importance to the community.

Aside from planting the community also monitors the success rate of surviving outplanted trees and replace those that wither to keep pace with the target areas to be covered. Here young adults checks seedling survivors and others replant. 

It's still a long way, but thanks for the support you have given, the community was able to start planting the first tree seedlings that will grow into big forest trees someday.  Their only option actually is to start planting now.  We hope in the next report we can share the progress of the work and we hope you  will  still be with us in this endeavor.