President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday urged Filipinos to protect the country’s forestland in addressing the problems caused by climate change.
Mr. Marcos stressed during the celebration of the 160th anniversary of the Philippine Forestry Service that taking care of the environment redounds to the benefit of the present and future generations.
The President led a tree-planting ceremony at the Department of Environment and Natural Resources office where he planted a molave sapling at the compound.
House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Defense Chief Gilbert Teodoro, and Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga were also present during the event.
The President lamented the centuries of “mismanaged” resources and people’s neglect of the environment.
“We have had many warnings over decades by scientists and saying that unless we change our habits, unless we change our lack of sensitivity to our environment, there will be global warming, there will be climate change,” said Marcos.
“Unfortunately, we did not listen. And now, we are resigned to the one-and-a-half degrees Celsius increase in our global temperature. And perhaps that might even reach two degrees Celsius if we do not do something about it,” he added.
The President said that the country should be conscious of the importance of the environment as the Philippines is vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
“The world that we have today and that we face is a very different world from what we came into. And the importance of the environment, the importance of biodiversity has become clearer and clearer,” said Mr. Marcos.
The Chief Executive suggested that the answer to this problem is the country’s forestland. He said that the monetization of forest will allow people to preserve the environment.
“This is a kind of new concept being developed so that we can be very clear and make it easy to those who are taking care of our forest lands to feel not only a benefit for doing the right thing but also an economic benefit,” said Marcos.
“I continue to call on the DENR, other agencies, the private sector, and even the public to work together in connecting, preserving, and managing our limited resources,” he added.
