The Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) has partnered with ICTSI Foundation to expand the former’s One to Tree (OTT) program in Luzon.
The partnership aims to grow 45,000 timber and fruit trees in a 56-hectare area in the next three years which is seen to complement the national government’s expanded national greening program touted to plant trees on 2 million hectares in vulnerable areas by 2028.
Cacao, rambutan, avocado, coffee, guyabano, pomelo, lanzones and calamansi are some of the native trees to be planted and nurtured at the vacant, rolling and idle agricultural lands in sugarcane farms in Batangas alone.
The partnership’s implementing community partners consist of people’s organizations (POs).
“One development pillar of ICTSI Foundation is Environment Protection and we are happy to partner with RAFI, a known and credible foundation with its 20-year tree-growing advocacy… This project is different in a sense that it addresses various concerns simultaneously: revival of nature, community development, livelihood generation as well as beefing up food supply in the community,” said Filipina Laurena, ICTSI Foundation executive director, in a statement.
The foundations added that over 50 farmer-members of POs have committed to participate in seedling production, site preparation, planting, monitoring and maintenance activities for native tree growing as a memorandum of understanding was also signed with the municipal local government units of Balayan and Tuy in Batangas, to formalize the collaboration.
“Over the last 20 years, our approach in RAFI has always been holistic. Aside from taking care of the environment, we make sure that the people who take care of the trees are also being taken care of… We recognize that this is a community effort; we cannot just stop at taking part in tree planting activities. We also need to nurture it to grow and most of all, we need to take care of the communities who take care of our trees,” said Amaya Aboitiz, RAFI president and chief executive officer, in a statement.
RAFI’s OTT aims to increase the country’s forest cover, enhance biodiversity and support bio-sequestration to help mitigate the impact of climate change in the Philippines.
In the last 20 years, the program has planted 8,327,846 native trees and 1,275,500 mangrove seedlings in 10,410 hectares of land.
In the last year alone, RAFI planted a total of 641,311 native trees through OTT programs and partners in Visayas and Mindanao.
According to the national government, while covering the rest of the country’s forest land area can help mitigate flood and impacts of tropical storms, only half of the Philippines’ forest land area is covered with trees. -J. Macapagal
