The Antique provincial government has called on the people to protect the existing forests and regreen barren land through tree-planting.

The call was made as the province marked Environment Month by planting endemic tree seedlings on Wednesday to improve the vegetation in Antique’s tourist spots.

Vice Governor Edgar Denosta, who joined the tree planting activity in Barangay Osorio 2 in San Remigio, said once these trees grow, they could improve the vegetation in the area to make it more attractive to tourists and ensure food sustainability, especially if these are fruit-bearing species.

“We need to protect the existing forest land and plant more trees on it. It is through tree planting that we could also be assured that we would have something to harvest,” he said in his message during a short program.

The months of June to September are conducive to planting fruit-bearing and lumber trees because of the rain.

San Remigio municipal environment and natural resources officer Ruth Martinez welcomed the different government agencies who took part in the activity, saying that with their help the vacant areas in the 150-hectare National Greening Program (NGP) site were replanted.

“We need to protect our endemic trees and at the same time replant areas that are vacant,” she said in the same program.

The province of Antique participated in the simultaneous nationwide tree planting activity as part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) celebration of Environment Month.

A total of 400 seedlings of endemic species such as narra, kamagong and Palawan cherry were planted by participating national government agencies namely the Bureau of Fire Protection, Philippine National Red Cross, Philippine Coast Guard, National Irrigation Administration, Philippine Red Cross, and members of the media. (PNA)