Engaging Partners and Volunteers in Reforestation Efforts in Laguna
Engaging Partners and Volunteers in Reforestation Efforts: One Meralco Foundation's One For Trees in Laguna
The University of the Philippines (UP) Laguna-Quezon Land Grant (LQLG) in Siniloan, Laguna is one of the many reforestation sites of the environmental sustainability program One For Trees by One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the corporate social responsibility arm of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco).
Forming the southern part of the Sierra Madre, the forest is a sustainable buffer that challenges the tropical cyclones that regularly pummel the Philippines during rainy season. The reforestation site is now home to 11,149 new trees planted in 2024, adding to a total of 185,649 trees that OFT planted in the area.
However, tree planting is only the first step of a process. Engaging partners to become stewards of reforestation, as well as volunteer education, are other ingredients in the success of these efforts.
The LQLG, some 75 kilometers east of Pasig City, is an accessible area allowing Foundation partners to engage with OFT through employee giving and volunteerism. In 2024, there were 170 volunteers who trekked up the land grant to plant native trees.
For MPower Energy Engineer Jayster Abainza, being part of the tree-planting activity means raising awareness on the importance of getting involved in environmental conservation practices. “Though it’s a small step, it’s a step in the right direction toward a greener future. Together, let’s keep defending the environment and building a sustainable future for all.”
OMF's partner in LQLG, Fostering Education and Environment for Development, Inc. (FEED), received support in pushing their community-based forestry approach with the aim to rehabilitate the LQLG through awareness and action on environmental protection and ensure alternative livelihood sources for local communities.
“The sustainable forestry program takes its core from the people as guardians and stewards of the forest. With the many volunteers joining OFT here in the land grant, we were able to extend awareness for climate action and how through something as simple as planting trees, we meet a complex issue with a nature-based solution,” explains Anne Marie Bakker, Director for Partnerships of FEED.
The One For Trees program, which started in 2019, has planted and nurtured 2,727,433 trees to date. It also has active partnerships and plantation sites in Laguna, San Miguel, Bulacan, Norzagaray, Bulacan, various LGUs in the Province of Bohol, Kalibo and Ibajay, Aklan, Butuan, Agusan del Norte, Del Carmen, Surigao del Norte, and Pangantucan, Bukidnon.