EARTH DAY 2024: One Meralco Foundation, partners boost One For Trees initiative with more trees planted

One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the social development arm of the Manuel V. Pangilinan-led Manila Electric Company (Meralco), celebrated Earth Day by planting 600 new trees at the Laguna-Quezon Land Grant (LQLG) in Siniloan, Laguna. The recent initiative, in collaboration with non-profit organization Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc. (FEED), will increase the number of trees in LQLG to 202,604, boosting support to sustainable reforestation in the 5,729-hectare forest area.

Over 50 volunteers composed of employees from Meralco Internal Audit team and partners participated in the activity which falls under OMF’s environmental program, One For Trees.

Meralco Senior Vice President and Chief Audit Executive Melanie T. Oteyza led her team in planting saplings of a variety of indigenous trees including kalumpit, malalansones, and marang.

“This is a simple yet effective and meaningful way for us to celebrate Earth Day. We call on others and strive to become eco warriors. Let us continue to love Mother Earth. It is our only home and we must protect it,” Oteyza said.

Situated between the southern part of the Sierra Madre Mountain range and Laguna de Bay, LQLG remains to be one of the more biodiverse forests in the area which is maintained and protected by the University of the Philippines Los Baños.

OMF partnered with FEED to expand their work in the LQLG to potentially conserve the existing biodiversity of the area. According to FEED Vice President for Operations Diane Penales, aside from tree planting, they are also focused on educating the local communities on preserving the area.

“The environment can heal itself if humans can curtail its further devastation. The reforestation efforts that we have conducted in LQLG will expedite the process,” Penales explained in a mix of English and Filipino.

Reforestation will also provide the members of the local communities with alternative livelihood opportunities. Some have resorted to the slash and burn agriculture which poses more harm to the forest. This curbs the negative effects brought about by slash-and-burn agriculture which poses more harm to the forest.

“Through tree planting, slowly we have converted and encouraged them to be more caring towards the environment. The locals can now earn from clearing and preparing reforestation sites and producing seedlings to be planted,” she added.

Meralco Chief Corporate Social Responsibility Officer and OMF President Jeffrey O. Tarayao said that environmental activities should be given deeper meaning and be viewed as individual investments for the future.

“Sustainability programs help us improve our relationship with the environment. Tree planting activities, like the one we just implemented in LQLG, engage an entire community with collective action to preserve the forest. In Meralco, the significance of Earth Day is beyond an annual celebration. It is Earth Day, everyday,” Tarayao concluded.

The One For Trees program, which started in 2019, has planted and nurtured 2,330,729 trees to date. It also has active partnerships and plantation sites in San Miguel, Bulacan (Green Earth Heritage Foundation), Norzagaray, Bulacan (Maynilad), various LGUs in the Province of Bohol (PROCESS BOHOL – Participatory Research, Organization of Communities and Education towards Struggle for Self-Reliance of Bohol), Kalibo (Kalibo Save the Mangroves Association) and Ibajay (LGU Ibajay), Aklan, Butuan, Agusan del Norte (BCWD – Butuan City Water District), Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte (LGU Del Carmen) and Pangantucan, Bukidnon (XSF – Xavier Science Foundation).