MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on Monday urged Filipinos, the government, and the private sector to protect the country's remaining forest cover as he criticized "mismanaged resources."

Marcos said environmental preservation and awareness on issues on this "are critical in nurturing a deeper consciousness among our people as well as in addressing the problems caused by climate change and the centuries of mismanaged resources."

• Marcos seeks responsible mining; says forest cover 'can be monetized'

"The protection and rehabilitation of biodiversity within and around our shores will be immensely influential in shaping our destiny as a nation," Marcos said during the 160th anniversary of the Philippine forestry service.

"We have had many warnings over decades by scientists saying unless we change our habits, unless we change our lack of sensitivity to our environment, there will be global warming, there will be climate change, unfortunately we did not listen," the President added.

"The world that we have today and that we face is a very different world from what we came into. And the importance of the environment, the importance of biodiversity has become clearer and clearer."

The President said the answer to issues surrounding the environment is Philippines' remaining forest land, citing how this data is used by firms and the international community.

Marcos had described the country's forest cover as a "valuable asset," and earlier said it could be monetized.

"We are able to determine that this can be in exchange of carbon emissions in another place," he said, referring to the country's available forest cover.

"This is a kind of new concepts being developed so that we can be very clear and make it easy to those who are taking care of our forest lands to feel not only a benefit for doing the right thing but also an economic benefit," he added.

Because of these, the Chief Executive said Filipinos should be conscious in taking full advantage of resources in order to protect forest land.

"I continue to call on the DENR, other agencies, the private sector, and even the public to work together in connecting, preserving, and managing our limited resources," he said.

Before the event proper, Marcos led the tree planting ceremony in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) compound, which symbolizes his belief that "there is no greater shared responsibility than the care for our environment."

The DENR said aside from molave being useful and having a high-level resistance to termites and other pests, it also has "exceptional strength and durability."

As of 2020, Philippines has more than 7.2 million hectares of forest cover, the DENR said.

Forestry contributes to the country through exports. In 2021, the agency the country was able to produce 827,000 cubic meters of logs and 138,000 cubic meters of lumber.