Bataan greening program to plant bamboo, mangroves

BALANGA CITY, Philippines – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will soon be planting bamboo and mangroves in 820 hectares of land in Bataan under its national greening program. 

Raymond Rivera, chief of the Bataan provincial environment and natural resources office, said the seedlings are ready to be planted on 720 hectares for bamboo and 100 hectares for mangroves starting this rainy season. 

Farmers’ groups from the towns of Morong, Bagac, Limay, Pilar and Abucay; and fishermen’s organizations from Orani, Samal, Abucay, Balanga City, Pilar and Orion were tapped as caretakers of the bamboo and mangrove plantations in their respective areas. 

Rivera late last week said the planting of bamboo and mangroves is part of climate change mitigation under the Paris agreement. 

He said that studies showed that bamboos have the highest carbon zinc capacity or the highest capacity to sequester carbon deposits. Bamboo can be turned into furniture and decorative items that will give additional income to farmers and cooperatives, he said. 

Mangroves, on the other hand, serve as physical barrier against storm surge aside from providing more income for fishermen for being habitat of fish, shells and crabs. 

The PENRO chief said the importance of mangroves was more appreciated when Super Typhoon Yolanda hit the country. Areas with thick mangroves were spared or suffered less damage from the onslaught of big waves triggered by the killer storm, he said.