NEWS

By The Dispatch Staff

Philippines: Philippines has passed a landmark new law which requires all high school and college students to plant at least 10 trees if they want to graduate school or college. This Filipino law which could enable 175 million new trees to be planted each year and 525 billion trees in one generation is just the kind the world needs as it is only beginning to recognise and combat climate change.

Gary Alejano, a representative of the The Philippines’ Magdalo Party, was the principal author of this legislation.

He said that every year, the Philippines has over 12 million students graduating from elementary school, nearly five million students graduating from high school, and almost 500,000 graduating from college.

Thus each year, at least 175 million trees would be planted if the new Filipino law is implemented properly.

“Even with a survival rate of only 10 percent, this would mean an additional 525 million trees would be available for the youth to enjoy, when they assume the mantle of leadership in the future,” said Alejano, as per a report by The Independent.

How will the new law requiring students to plant trees be implemented?
The higher education department of the Philippines government will be in charge of implementing the bill to ensure tree plantation by students in order to graduate.

As per CNN’s Philippines news service, the trees will be planted in certain protected areas, existing forests, in mangroves, military ranges, selected urban areas, and abandoned mining sites.

The Philippines government also said that the chosen plant species should be appropriate for each location, topography and the climate of the area. Moreover, indigenous plant species will be preferred.

Why does the Philippines need such a law to encourage tree plantation?
Even though the entire world is suffering from climate crisis a major part of which is human propagated, the Philippines is one of the countries which is severely deforested. The total forest cover in the country dropped from a healthy 70% to as low as 20% in just the 20th century.

A lack of forest cover plays havoc with the climate and increases the risk of floods and landslides to a large extent. Illegal logging is also a major problem faced in the Philippines.
Apart from the obvious benefits of increasing forest cover which would raise the carbon-absorption, the government hopes that the new Filipino law requiring students to plant trees will also bring more awareness about the environment for future generation and pave the way for better ecological initiatives.

Source: The Dispatch