BKAG appeals for public support in efforts to fight forest destruction

COTABATO CITY – In the face of long dry spell affecting Mindanao, the Balik Kalikasan Advocacy Group (BKAG), an environmental protection advocacy organization, has appealed to the public to help fight grass and forest fires and continue tree planting.
In a statement, BKAG believed that forest fires, if left unattended, could damages properties and even claim lives as a result of drought happening since January.
It cited a case of grass fire at the back of Maguindanao police provincial office in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao which damaged about 2-hectares of grass. It was put off by inhabitants, firemen and civilians.

Colonel Arnel dela Vega, 603rd Army brigade commander, said any destruction to forests put the environment in serious danger thus everybody’s participation is being solicited form the general public.
Climate change has been destroying agricultural products, turning green forest into brown which indicates a dying forests, he said.A clear sign of changing environment was that people easily get dehydrated as in the case of families displaced by armed conflict and stayed in evacuation centers in Maguindanao.
Dela Vega saidthe trees planted in the past decade by BKAGhelped cushion the climate change. The group had planted Talipao and Antipolo trees along the highways in Maguindanao which are now used by IDPs.
Records show that about 50 percent of the more than one million trees it planted in the past 10 years have survived and grew that contributed in the entire ecosystem of Maguindanao.
More than 10 years of partnership, the BKAG continues to advocate environmental protection programs spearheaded by the officers and men of the 6th Infantry Division, Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (DENR-ARMM, civil society, business, academe, private sectors and the media.
Late last year, BKAG actively participated in the TreeVolution Mindanao, an island-wide one-hour simultaneous tree planting program which broke the Guinness Book of World Records. It planted more than 2 million trees in an hour.

In preparation for the coming rainy season, BKAG has prepared Antipolo and Talipao trees in its nursery in Minrico compound, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
These seedlings will be available for free to any group which wish to participate in tree planting activities or greening program. (Ferdinandh Cabrera)