New Filipino law requires students to plant trees to graduate
The initiative would see at least 175 million new trees planted every year, totalling over 525 billion additional trees.
A new law in the Philippines dictates that students must plant at least 10 trees in order to graduate from elementary school, high school, and college, reports CNN.
The initiative comes from a bill named the "Graduation Legacy for the Environment Act 2016", passed by the Philippine Congress on May 15. The bill states that all students from elementary school, high school and college must plant a minimum of 10 trees to graduate.
The aim of the bill is to help promote "inter-generational responsibility" over environmental protection.
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According to the bill, students can plant the trees anywhere that include forests, mangroves, reserves, urban areas, abandoned mining sites or in indigenous territory.
The trees must be also appropriate for the area's climate, and indigenous tree species are preferred.
The initiative would see at least 175 million new trees planted every year, totalling over 525 billion additional trees, even if the trees' survival rate is 10 per cent, in the course of one generation.
Under the Bill, the country's Education Department is responsible for implementing the new rule, while other departments – the Environment and Agriculture Departments - will establish nurseries, supply seedlings, identify suitable planting sites, and monitor the trees' growth.
These trees are subjected to become the students' living legacy to the environment and future generations.
