US Embassy, DENR and DSWD partner to restore and protect key forest areas

THE US Embassy, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region IV-A, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office IV-A entered into a new partnership that will enable poor communities to restore and protect forests in the Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape (UMRBPL) and Kaliwa Watershed Forest Reserve (KWFR) in Rizal and Quezon provinces.

Signed on July 7, 2015, the partnership is a convergence of two flagship programs of the Philippine Government—the DSWD’s Pan¬tawid Pamilya Pilipino Program (4Ps), which aims to eradicate extreme poverty in the Philippines, and the National Greening Program (NGP), the government’s reforestation program with DENR as the lead agency. It aims to achieve key conservation and socioeconomic goals: (1) continue and expand maintenance and protection activities in the NGP sites to achieve increased forest cover and productivity, (2) provide incentives to Pantawid Pamilya partners to engage in forest conservation, and (3) enhance communities’ knowledge and skills to better manage natural resources.