TO mark the Lenten season this month, government agencies and private sector groups were invited to attend a “Station of the Tree” to be held at the 26-hectare city government owned property in sitio Catives II, barangay Guba, Cebu City.
Councilor Nida Cabrera said the city government-led activity falls on April 22, Good Friday which also happens to be Philippine Earth Day. The councilor said the activity will help Cebu City residents renew their relationship with God through tending his creation.
Various indigenous trees will be planted in the site and will be named after the barangays and other places in Cebu City. The tree-planting activity is also sponsored by Smart Communications, the Sto. Niño Social Center, Philippine Earth Justice and Nature Foundation. It will be participated in by barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) Federation officials in the city.
The Cebu City Council approved a resolution authorizing the conversion of their property into a communal forest area. Cabrera's resolution cited the declining forest cover of Cebu City that was caused by the increase in expansion of upland settlement as well as the conversion of lands to non-forest uses and wood requirements. She said through reforestation, Cebu City can enhance environment stability and sustainability and provide food security as well as poverty alleviation and economic development to the urban poor.
The lot is a protected area under the National Integrated Protected Area System (NIPAS ACT) of 1992.
http://cebudailynews.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/%E2%80%98station-of-the-tree%E2%80%99-to-open-on-good-friday/
