BONTOC, Mountain Province – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (DENR-PENRO) announced a decrease in forest fire incidence in the province this year compared to last year.
During the First Monday Program at the Provincial Plaza on June 2, 2025, Adam Paleyan from the DENR-PENRO revealed that their office recorded three forest fire incidents from January to May 2025. According to him, this recorded number is a big decrease compared to the same time frame last year, 2024, wherein 49 forest fire incidents were recorded, which led the province to accumulate a total damage cost of 3.8 million, affecting and damaging a total land area of 585 hectares of the province’s natural forest.
Paleyan added that last year’s recorded forest fire incidence was the highest so far. According to him, the average number of forest fire incidents in Mountain Province per year is 18-20.
Paleyan informed that this year’s achieved milestone is the result of the cooperation and collaboration among all the government agencies, private sectors, and the community, which led to the conduct of various institutionalized forest protection activities, construction of fire lines in the fire-prone areas in the municipalities of Tadian, Besao, and Sabangan, and IEC campaigns.
Meanwhile, Paleyan also announced that the month of June is recognized as the Environment Month. Relative to this, he informed that DENR-PENRO has produced 30,000 various seedlings that are available for distribution to support tree-planting activities. These seedlings are available at the Community Environment and Natural Resources Offices in Paracelis and Tadian. Those who wish to request seedlings can submit their request letter to the said offices. Also, he encouraged the would-be requisitionists to include the time element of when the seedlings are needed. By MP-PIO
