More than 9 million indigenous trees will be planted in the Philippines this year as part of the country’s National Regreening Program.

Among the species to be planted, roughly half are for forest protection and timber, and the other half agroforestry species, including fruit trees, fuelwood species, coffee, cacao, bamboo and rattan.

An article in The Philippine Star outlines how the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is rehabilitating 17,000 hectares of degraded forests in the Calabarzon region.

The National Greening Program (NGP) is a massive forest rehabilitation program which seeks to grow 1.5 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares nationwide within 6 years, from 2011 to 2016. As well as reforesting degraded areas, the NGP is also a climate change mitigation strategy and will provide alternative livelihood activities for marginalized upland and lowland households through engaging them in seedling production and maintenance.

Read the full story: DENR to rehab degraded Calabarzon forests