Philippines National Greening Program (NGP)

The National Greening Program (NGP) was launched in 2011 by Philippine Executive Order No. 26. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) contracts local government units, people's organisations, indigenous peoples' communities, and other entities to plant and maintain trees on public forestlands — a form of public-works ecosystem-service payment.

During 2011–2016, the programme targeted 1.5 billion trees on 1.5 million hectares of degraded public forest across all Philippine regions, at a total expenditure exceeding US$700 million. An Enhanced NGP (2016–2028) continued the programme with a revised species mix prioritising native trees.

A 2024 rigorous difference-in-differences evaluation by World Bank researchers found that municipalities receiving the programme experienced a 6 percentage-point reduction in poverty incidence and an 8 percentage-point decline in the proportion of unlit settlements, effects sustained for at least seven years after rollout. The evaluation estimated total carbon sequestration of 71.4 to 303 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent at an effective cost of US$2–10 per tonne. Cumulative participation generated approximately 5.6 million person-jobs by 2022.

Limitations: a 2025 investigative report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) raised concerns that some plantings used non-native or monoculture species and that official survival rates may be overstated; these concerns remain unresolved. The wide CO₂ sequestration range (71.4–303 MtCO₂) reflects scenario modelling uncertainty rather than direct measurement.

Read the full analysis: https://denr.gov.ph/priority-program/enhanced-national-greening-program/