Around 14,000 trees of various species are now providing a green landscape to this highly urbanized city since the local government has gone massive in its tree planting activities since 2019 up to the present.

Iloilo City Executive Assistant for Environment Armando Dayrit, who lead the massive tree planting, said the trees were planted in vacant spaces in barangays, open spaces, roads, and floodways.

Currently, they are cultivating around 5,000 trees of various native species at their nursery in Barangay Caingin in La Paz district as there are areas in the city dedicated to indigenous species.

“Aside from deterring climate change, help(ing) the environment and promote tourism, we plant native trees because it is our own and should be proud of them,” Dayrit said in an interview on Wednesday.

Already, they have planted native trees from Barangay Taft North in Mandurriao to Ungka in Jaro district, at the road island from the Atrium at the City Proper up to the Molo district, around the molecular laboratory also in Molo, and in vacant spaces at the Plaza Libertad.

“The floodway is where we intend to plant our mother tree and we will get our stocks there,” he added.

Native or indigenous trees, he said, are those that grow in Southeast Asia. Of those, two species came from Iloilo – the Iloilo and Anilao.

He is also eyeing to propagate the Siar species, which he said was planted by Emilio Aguinaldo when he declared the Republic of the Philippines and it would be named “Independent Tree”.

“I am not very sure but there is no city or place in the Philippines that focused on native trees on their roads and parks, except in Iloilo,” he said.

While the city government is into propagating native trees, he said non-native trees will not be removed because they also help address climate change. (PNA)