We need to protect Mother Nature ... the Indigenous Peoples here need all the help to keep the trees growing in their ancestral domain, the place they consider so sacred to them ... here's an article I write about a tree planting activity here ...


Davao Sur tribes thank hydropower firm for reforesting Mt. Apo Natural Park

STA. CRUZ, Davao del Sur (PNA)-– The Bagobo-Tagabawa communities in Sibulan, Sta. Cruz here expressed gratitude for the Hedcor, Inc. and Hedcor Sibulan, Inc. reforestation program implemented in the areas at the foot of the Mt. Apo, the country’s highest mountain.

Datu Rudy Agtad, a 50-year-old Bagobo-Tagabawa chieftain, and one of the community members of Barangay Sibulan, who recently trekked the Mt. Apo Natural Park joined the team in planting 2,000 narra seedlings at Sitio Lower Pogpog, Barangay Sibulan.

“We were not wrong when we accepted the (Sibulan hydropower) project in our lands,” relates Agtad. Adding “we are thankful Hedcor commits and takes its responsibility to protect and preserve our environment and the watershed.”

Hedcor has already planted more than 100,000 trees in the 1,000 hectares of the Mt. Apo Natural Park adopted by the company as part of its Watershed Management Plan (WMP).

The planted trees are constantly monitored by the company’s environmental department, representatives from the Province of Davao del Sur and Municipality of Sta. Cruz and Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Barangay Sibulan is host to the first hydropower project registered under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Project, the Hedcor’s 42.5 mega watts (MW) run-of-river hydropower plant.

The tree planting activity was also part of the second simultaneous tree planting nationwide of the Aboitiz group companies. The first was organized after AboitizPower did a pioneering carbon emission inventory that showed there is a need to plant one million trees over time to offset carbon emissions. (PNA)
LOR/Prix Digna D. Banzon/lvp