PALAYAN CITY, Nueva Ecija — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) office here has received some PHP1.2-million worth of firefighting equipment that would help boost the reforestation and protection of the 44,000-hectare Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed.
DENR-Nueva Ecija chief, Alfredo Collado, said Monday the firefighting tools, donated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), would help sustain their efforts to protect plantations that have already been established under the Forestland Management Project (FMP) inside the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed.
“Grassfire is one of the factors that destroy our forest plantations. If we cannot protect our reforestation areas from this destructive agent, our efforts would be nothing,” Collado said.
He said the delivery of firefighting equipment is very timely for their preparation for the coming summer months and will augment their present capabilities in fire suppression and control.
Since 2015, the DENR has recorded a total of nine fire incidents in the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed, which burned a total of 130 hectares of established plantations of FMP due to extreme weather condition. Total damage was estimated at more than PHP600,000.
Collado said the plantations that had been razed by fire have already been replanted with indigenous forest tree seedlings and are being strictly monitored for fire occurrence.
The DENR has also embarked on a massive information campaign in local communities in the watershed as a strategy to prevent the occurrence of grass and forest fires that may be caused by human activity, he added.
Launched in 2012, the FMP is a 10-year reforestation project that aims to rehabilitate the Pantabangan-Caranglan watershed, one of the biggest protected areas in Central Luzon, and to strengthen forestland management through the implementation of collaborative community-based forest management strategy.
Since 2012, the FMP has established more than 7,000 hectares of plantations within the Pantabangan-Carranglan watershed, which is planted with 6.2 million indigenous forest and fruit tree seedlings.
The Pantabangan reservoir covers 8,000 hectares and supplies irrigation water to more than 80,000 agricultural lands in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Pampanga. (Marilyn Galang/PNA)
