World Bank commends the National Greening Program
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The National Greening Program (NGP) led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in partnership with different agencies has been recognized for its achievements in environmental and socio-economic aspects, serving as a pioneering model for nature-based solutions and its contributions to climate mitigation and poverty reduction (Pagel, 2024).
Established under Executive Order (EO) No. 26 in 2011 and later expanded by E.O. 193 in 2015, the NGP is the country’s largest restoration program implemented through the convergence initiative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Agriculture (DA), and Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR), where DENR stands as the leading agency. The program aims to alleviate poverty, enhance food security, promote environmental stability, conserve biodiversity, and strengthen climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts by planting 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares of lands within public domain lands for a period of six (6) years. However, by the end of 2015, the coverage was expanded to rehabilitate all the remaining unproductive, denuded, and degraded forestlands from 2016 to 2028.
According to the study conducted by Jeffrey Pagel and Lorenzo Sileci (2024), the NGP stands as a powerful example for achieving two primary goals: climate mitigation and poverty reduction through tree-planting activities. By sequestering carbon at a low cost while creating job opportunities, especially for rural communities, the program exemplifies how environmental programs can effectively combine ecological and socio-economic goals. This leads to long-term sustainable development and achieving multiple policy objectives simultaneously.
One key result from the study was the improvement in forest cover due to the NGP’s implementation. From 2011 to 2016, 80,522 tree-planting projects were implemented. The study found that the municipalities having NGP sites had a consistent increase in forest cover, which averaged four percent (4%) each year. Further evidence showed that the effects of the NGP were persistent, therefore maintaining the ecosystem services provided by the program. Subsequently, the program delivered significant environmental gains in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which manifests that the NGP sequestered 71.4 to 303 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2). Using the low sequestration rate as a reference, this reduction is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of around 17 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven in one year, or the CO2 emissions from 18 coal-fired power plants in one year.
In addition to their study, another notable outcome of the program was the significant reduction in poverty. The communities that participated in the program experienced a decrease in poverty of 6 percentage points and an 8 percentage point reduction in the share of unlit settlements. Similar to the forest cover trend, these effects persisted years after the NGP’s implementation, “with no reversal in trend.”
They further analyzed and provided evidence of the program’s spillover effects in “control villages”—areas not treated under the NGP but adjacent to treated areas. They found that control villages had a 4.5 percentage point reduction in the share of areas without access to electricity—a measure usually correlated to economic development in an area.
Pagel and Sileci also analyzed broader structural changes in employment, finding that “agricultural employment declined by 3.8 percent in treated areas, while employment in unskilled manual labor and the service sector increased by 5.6 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively.”
Their findings suggest that the program’s economic benefits extended beyond the immediate areas of intervention. Moreover, the program helped boost higher-productivity sectors by facilitating the transition out of agricultural employment, and there were no indications that shifts in labor supply or migration drove these changes.
As of October 2024, the NGP has planted 7.8 million seedlings in 13,522 hectares of land across NGP sites. The program is expecting to see more positive outcomes as a result of the continuous cooperation of the state and its people.
REFERENCES:
Pagel, J., and Sileci, L. (2024). More than just carbon: The socioeconomic co-benefits of large-scale tree planting. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Working Paper 410. London: London School of Economics and Political Science.
Pagel, J. (2024). Rooting out poverty: The socioeconomic co-benefits of large-scale tree planting. World Bank Blogs. (2024). https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations/rooting-out-poverty–the-socioeconomic-co-benefits-of-large-scal
Rosal, D. (2024). World Bank praises Philippine reforestation program. https://mb.com.ph/2024/11/12/world-bank-praises-ph-reforestation-program?fbclid=IwY2xjawGg43pleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHcA7auL9cQndg87NYUjacLyYkaaN4mbX8CGnoZYXxH90jD8aF_85JIvFpg_aem_pwBfCJAJ5LSMt7ulQFpt-g