Alabat, QUEZON ― The DENR-CENRO Calauag commenced the establishment of the Enhanced National Greening Program (ENGP) plantations in Alabat, Quezon involving the upland community in the forest rehabilitation of Alabat Watershed Forest Reserve (AWFR).

Based on Section 33 of Presidential Decree No. 705, known as the “Revised Forestry Code of the Philippines,” forest reserves are included in the lands that need to be reforested. Thus, the CENRO Calauag opted to subject the AWFR as a suitable site for the project.

Composed in the aforesaid ENGP site projects are the 26-hectare Other Fruit Trees Plantation in Brgy. Bacong, and a 50-hectare Indigenous Plantation that extends in Brgys. Bacong and Caglate, as per Survey, Mapping and Planning (SMP) that had been conducted in 2021.

With the implementation of the Family Approach Strategy, under FMB Technical Bulletin No. 30 of the Forest Management Bureau, it addresses the involvement of Filipino families in the implementation of ENGP in the development and rehabilitation of the subject lands. It is the latest approach of the DENR to rehabilitate the denuded and degraded portions of our forests, while providing livelihood to the upland communities that reside within and adjacent the forestlands.

The MANOSIKAP Upland Farmers Association, Inc., the concerned PO of the project that concurred to rehabilitate the portions of forests in AWFR, already started the site preparation activities including brushing, hole digging, planting, among others.

The PO also accomplished to produce sufficient numbers of seedlings for the initial kick off of the plantation establishment in the 2 subject plantations. This includes a total of 32,000 seedlings of Coffee (Coffea arabica), Cacao (Theobroma cacao), and Narra (Pterocarpus indicus).