SECRETARY CIMATU’S MAIN PRIORITY IS TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF OUR ENVIRONMENT, PARTICULARLY OUR AIR, WATER AND ADDRESS SOLID WASTE PROBLEMS. THUS, THE DENR WILL BE IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS.

FOR ENHANCED NATIONAL GREENING PROGRAM (E-NGP), OUR PRIORITY ACTIVITIES ARE THE FOLLOWING: (1) REHABILITATION OF 1.2 M HECTARES OF DENUDED FOREST LANDS BY 2022; AND 2)  MAINTENANCE AND PROTECTION OF EXISTING FORESTS.

The National Greening Program or the NGP as the DENR banner program is a convergence initiative of DA-DAR-DENR where the DENR stands as the lead agency. As a government priority pursuant to EO Nos. 23 and 26, both series of 2011, the NGP aims to: 1) contribute in reducing poverty among upland and lowland poor households, indigenous peoples, and in coastal and urban areas; 2) implement sustainable management of natural resources through resource conservation, protection, and productivity enhancement; 3) provide food, goods and services such as timber, fiber, non-timber forest products, aesthetic values, air enhancement values, water regulation values, and mitigate climate change by expanding forest cover that serve as carbon sink; 4) promote public awareness as well as instill social and environmental consciousness on the value of forests and watersheds; 5) enhance the formation of positive values among the youth and other partners through shared responsibilities in sustainable management of tree plantations and forest resources, and 6) consolidate and harmonize all greening efforts of the government, civil society, and the private sector.

Executive Order No. 26, series of 2011 was issued to plant 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares of lands of the public domain for a period of six (6) years from CY 2011 to CY 2028.

Executive Order No. 193 was signed on November 12, 2015, the Expanded NGP will rehabilitate all the remaining unproductive, denuded and degraded forestlands estimated at 7.1 million hectares from 2016 to 2028.