President spearheads initiative to plant 1.5 billion trees by 2016

A March 4, 2011 press release by the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson

Aquino government goes Green

Yellow may have been used for his campaign but President Benigno S. Aquino is now going Green by spearheading an initiative to plant 1.5 billion trees by the end of his term in 2016.


Through Executive Order No. 26, President Aquino ordered the implementation of a National Greening Program (NGP) as a government priority that will plant trees in up to 1.5 million hectares in the following lands: forestlands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas under the greening plan of local government units, inactive and abandoned mine sites, and other suitable lands to be identified by the Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, and Environment and Natural Resources Convergence Initiative.

To ensure its success, the NGP will use various strategies that include requiring all students and government employees to individually plant a minimum of ten (10) seedlings per year. Part of the plan also seeks to integrate the various tree planting initiatives such as the Upland Development Program, Luntiang Pilipinas and similar activities of the government and the private sector. Incentives will also be provided for National Greening Program beneficiadry communities as these will be considered priority areas in the z

The Departments of Agriculture, Agrarian Reform, and Environment and Natural Resources Convergence Initiative is tasked to lead the NGP implementation.

Also part of the NGP Steering Committee are the Departments of Education, Social Welfare and Development, Budget and Management, the Commission on Higher Education, private sector and other concerned agencies and institutions.