Each seed that is planted is a promise of the future. A future for the ecosystem. A future for the people who take care of it.
But it takes more than planting a tree seedling to nurture our future. There is a need to grow and manage forests for a greener tomorrow, which cannot be accomplished by just one person or one company.
This was what the Energy Development Corp. realized in the six years that it has been implementing its own Binhigreening legacy program.
For almost 40 years, EDC has integrated reforestation in its operation because it is vital to sustaining the reservoir that powers its geothermal facilities.
From 1989 to 2008, EDC was able to reforest more than 7,600 hectares in all its geothermal sites in Leyte, Negros Island, Bicol and North Cotabato. In the process, it has transformed kaingeros into forest stewards as they were trained to earn by maintaining these reforestation areas under EDC’s social forestry program.
In its Southern Negros Geothermal Project located in Negros Island that strives to always be green, most of the trees that the company planted were in the Municipalities of Valencia, Dauin, and Zamboangita in the Mt. Talinis area where it was able to reforest 935 hectares within that period.
Then EDC took greening to a whole new level with the launching of its BINHI greening legacy in 2008, which aims to reforest 1,000 hectares per year for the next 10 years.
Beyond doing its share to help address climate change, BINHI wants to ensure that the diversity of our Philippine forests and our vanishing native tree species are restored.
Led by the company’s dedicated Watershed Management and Corporate Social Responsibility teams, BINHI revolutionized corporate greening by using science to achieve its sustainable broad-scale reforestation and biodiversity conservation goals.
BINHI’s Tree for Life aims to bridge forest gaps, biodiversity research and rehabilitation of forestlands covering key biodiversity areas in the country. This is done either through assisted natural regeneration or through rainforestation to continue providing ecological services while being safeguarded.
Meanwhile, providing sources of income for upland communities while hastening forest re-qrowth of denuded lands is the goal of BINHI Tree for Food.
From 2009-2014, EDC has reforested 6,609 hectares around the country using 4,580,439 premium native trees, fruit-bearing trees, and high-value commercial trees (under the BINHI Tree for Life and Tree for Food modules).
It has likewise planted 2,900 premium, native and endangered trees with more than a hundred partner institutions.
Eighty-eight or 92 percent of its target 96 priority premium endangered and indigenous tree species of the country have been rescued through the company’s Tree for the Future module.
Of EDC’s total BINHI area, it has 133 hectares of BINHI Tree for Life and 23 hectares of BINHI Tree for Food still in the municipalities of Valencia, Zamboangita and Dauin. With almost 1,100 hectares of total reforestation in the Mt. Talinis area from 1998-2014 for combined non-BINHI and BINHI projects, EDC was able to plant almost one million trees.
“Having planted so many trees over the years, the company has recognized that there is still so much more to be done if it really wants to achieve a greener future not only for Negros Island, but for the entire country,” EDC’s Watershed Management Head in Negros Island, Abba Grace Sanchez, said.
Sanchez confirmed that even if they still have four more years to go for BINHI, there is already a need to expand the program and have more partners who are committed to the environment to improve forest cover and maximize its environmental benefits.
EDC’s 15 farmers’ associations in Negros Oriental have been helping the company protect and maintain its BINHI areas for their livelihood. They get compensated so they can provide for their family’s needs.
This practice of social forestry is a huge part of the geothermal leader’s Community Partnerships program that is anchored on Health, Education, Livelihood and Environment or what their employees fondly refer to as HELEn.
Among the company’s institutional partners are Bencab Art Foundation,Inc.; the local government Don Salvador Benedicto in Negros Occidental; Philippine Science High School; and the provincial government of Southern Leyte, and the University of the Philippines-Diliman that both set up an arboretum of threatened species with EDC last year.
EDC employees from its geothermal business units also make it a habit to join each BINHI tree planting in their partner schools and public parks.
“Imagine what having more partners in our expanded BINHI program can do to our ecosystem and the economic benefits that it can bring to people and groups that will be devoted to it,” added Sanchez.
Apart from reforestation, the advanced program will become a movement that will focus on forest restoration to re-establish original forest ecosystems and provide the greatest benefit by increasing biodiversity in deforested areas.
Long- term gains such as health, safety and security but also immediate profits from ecosystem-based enterprises such as ecotourism, seedling production, and environmental jobs for their constituents can be achieved.
Still, expanding an already huge BINHI greening legacy program is a challenging endeavor that needs careful planning and deliberate execution.
To do this, EDC will pilot this advanced program in Negros Island after consulting key stakeholders and if they have enough committed partners from both Negros Oriental and Occidental.
Government agencies, local governments, NGOs, the academe, the religious sector, private companies, youth groups, the media, and even individuals are welcome to partner with EDC and do their share.
