BY: JENNIFER C. TILOS
DUMAGUETE CITY, Sept 17 (PIA)--The Energy Development Corporation’s (EDC) ‘BINHI Greening Legacy’ with 99 program partners has rescued 96 vanishing indigenous trees.
According to Corporate Social Responsibility Manager Rei Medrano of EDC community partnership strengthens its BINHI program which started to host the country’s most endangered and premium among 3,000 native Philippine trees.
BINHI is EDC's model reforestation and biodiversity preservation program.
“EDC Chairman Emeritus Oscar Lopez and EDC took a big leap in 2008 by taking corporate greening to a whole new level with the launching of its BINHI Greening Legacy program. EDC has taken greening to heart by planting the right trees and planting it right using science,” said Medrano.
BINHI’s Tree for the Future module centers on urban reforestation where vanishing native trees are grown right at the urban centers like public parks, industrial estates, subdivisions and even schools where sustained care is provided through partnership agreements.
Medrano said this module aims to rescue and secure threatened premium Philippine native trees for future generations.
By growing mother trees, the module expects to ensure the survival and eventual proliferation of high-value but fast-dwindling native trees such as yakal, tindalo, kamagong, mangkono and ipil.
In partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), BINHI started to adopt the National Greening Program as one of its strategic programs in 2011.
Twenty-five of its partner program of BINHI Tree for the Future joint projects implemented in Negros Island includes schools in Valencia, Negros Oriental and Bago City, Murcia, and La Castellana in Negros Occidental.
Gender Watch Against Violence and Exploitation (GWAVE), SPI Global and Ong-Che Tee Bacong National High School are also among EDC's local partners in Negros Oriental.
In Negros Occidental, the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, University of St. La Salle, Rafael Salas Park and Ceneco park partnered with EDC in its BINHI Tree for the Future project.
“After receiving numerous offers for partnership, EDC's BINHI team composed of foresters from its Corporate Social Responsibility and Watershed Management teams realized that there was not enough supply of seedlings to keep up with the growing clamor for BINHI parks. Most of the species have limited stocks while some are not prolific seed producers,” EDC official said.
Medrano said mother trees are needed in our gene bank and this is where the scientific approach becomes useful by constructing the country's first automated nursery.
This led EDC to a long-term partnership with the DENR-Ecosystem Research and Development Bureau (ERDB). This partnership then led to the propagation of the endangered tree species faster via the vegetative material reproduction (VMR) project.
This was piloted in EDC's nursery at the Northern Negros Geothermal Project in Barangay Mailum, Bago City, Negros Occidental in 2012.
EDC built the VMR facility by installing the Israeli technology called Dream Controller System, the first of its kind in the Philippines.
An automated mist/fogger irrigation system was added and the ground was set for the perfect seed production of endangered tree species.
Its sensors can be programmed to automatically turn on the mist irrigation at the appropriate time and percent moisture content, giving off just the right amount of mist to mimic the conditions of a natural forest habitat.
According to Medrano, the first mist irrigation system innovation was installed in this same nursery in 2007. This is critical to the survival of the premium, indigenous species.
The Dream Controller Facility enables EDC to fully automate the mist irrigation in the entire nursery including this big hedge garden, Medrano added.
Studies show that this technology increases survival rate. Higher survival rates mean there will be more seedlings that can be planted as mother trees by our BINHI partners, EDC noted.
To date, there are 71 premium endangered indigenous tree species in the VMR nursery. Continuous research and development is still being done to increase its number of species, to expand the hedge garden, and to continuously propagate its vegetative materials, Medrano explained.
“Our dream is to have more species in our hedge garden to rescue all these premium, endangered, rare, indigenous species and bring them back to abundance," he said.
Medrano shared that EDC wants the Filipinos to know its advocacy on planting not just any tree, but our very own premium endangered trees and it focuses on schools and public parks so children will get to know the country's indigenous trees rather than seeing them only as street names.
EDC is optimistic that the VMR and the scientific approach to greening will help the corporation fulfill this dream, Medrano said.
EDC is the country’s leading producer of geothermal energy and a multi-awarded Filipino company in the areas of geothermal development, environmental excellence, corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility. (mbcn/JCT/PIA7-Negros Oriental)