KutangbatoVlogger

Seedling nursery expansion built from DENR-ARMM’s budget savings

By Ferdinandh Cabrera

December 8, 2014

Sec. Kahal Kedtag during his almost fare speech with DENR-Employees during the turn over of his brainchild nursery.

Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao--- Built inside a the watershed area  beside the pumping station of Cotabato Water district, an expanded seedling nursery for greening program of DENR-ARMM was officially handed today at the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO-ARMM).

DENR-ARMM Secretary Kahal Kedtag who is due to relinquish his post as cabinet official if the Bangsamoro Basic Law starts its scheduled ratification next year has handed the management of the nursery to PENRO office, accepted by his subordinate environmentalist Doming Dagadas.

The nursery was Kedtag’s brainchild project together with UN- World Food Program, has convinced local inhabitants of the watershed area who were once involve in Kaingin logging system and carabao logging (small scale traditional logging) usually in making wood charcoals for living.

Seeing the disadvantage in the destruction of the forest surrounding the Dimapatoy watershed, they transformed the wrong practice of charcoal making to work on nursery in propagating forest trees from food- for-work scheme by UN- World Food.

“We are glad we had made to convince the locals here to shift from charcoal making from cutting trees to now seedling propagators and our counterpart in reforestation”, Kedtag said.

Ribbon cutting in front of the nursery site as gesture of the turn over

“This makes us proud that savings of DENR has made the realization of this nursery which is really needed by the region in climate change mitigation especially from time to time we are visited by natural calamities”, Lawyer Rasul Mitmog said from ARMM’s executive secretary office who was the guest of honor in the program.

Without sufficient funding acquired from the national budget, the savings of DENR-ARMM worth 820 thousand this year has made the realization of putting a bigger central nursery, which, would be planters could get free from Sitio Lomboy Nursery.

The nursery from few hectares of public land is producing endemic species aimed to mitigate flooding and landslides especially now the forest covers are badly denuded.

Among the seeds developed are Antipolo, Narra, Mahogany and bamboo’s.

At least 2,300 hectares from the watershed area is the target to be planted coming from this site which a community of six villages organized as cooperative named Lupa Sinaka is DENR’s partner in seedling propagation and planting.

END.