The Department of Environment and Natural Resources, abbreviated as DENR, is the executive department of the Philippine government responsible for the conservation, management, development, and proper use of the country’s environment in natural resources, specifically forest and grazing lands, mineral resources, including those in reservation and watershed areas, and lands of the public domain, as well as the licensing and regulation of all natural resources as may be provided for by law in order to ensure equitable sharing of the benefits derived therefrom for the welfare of the present and future generations of Filipinos.

History

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources was first established on January 1, 1916, as the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources (DANR) through the enactment of Act No. 2666 by the Philippine Commission, otherwise known as "An Act to Re-organize the Executive Department of the Government of the Philippine Islands," on November 18, 1916. In 1932, the DANR was reorganized into the Department of Agriculture and Commerce (DAC). In 1947, a reorganization act changed the DAC back to the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The Natural Resources arm of the DANR was finally spun off on May 17, 1974, as the Ministry of Natural Resources. On January 30, 1987, the ministry was reorganized into the Department of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, by Executive Order No. 131 and was finally reorganized into the Department of Environment and Natural Resources by Executive Order No. 192 on June 10, 1987. DENR worked on large-scale reforestation of Davao City under the national greening program (NGP), its flagship project that lasted for a period of six years, from 2011 to 2016.

List of the Secretaries of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Organizational Structure

The Department is currently headed by a Secretary with the following Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries:

Bureaus

Attached agencies