Dupont Philippines’ annual tree planting at the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve—which for this year was held last July 21—is in keeping with its scientific endeavors throughout the globe and its commitment for a sustainable environment.Top officials of Dupont Philippines led by managing director Ramon Abadilla and public affairs coordinator Celina Paguyo led over 80 employees of the company in planting 500 saplings at the forest reserve right beside the Philippine High School for the Arts. This annual activity is in coordination with PHSA, the UP Los Baños, the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Dupont Philippines is a subsidiary of US-based E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. Inc. It has multi-faceted operations such as repackaging crop protection products, producing Pioneer Hi-Bred corn seeds and operating a performance coatings office and training center to support its local training programs for automotive customers and jobbers. It employs 140 employees.
The tree planting activity started seven years ago when the DENR assigned an area of 2.51 hectares within the Mt. Makiling Forest Reserve under the custody of the company. It had since planted and nurtured 5,510 endemic tree species such as narra, lipote, molave, lauan and others.
Dupont’s vision is to be the world’s dynamic science company creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, healthier life for people everywhere. The company views itself as an advocate of environmental preservation in accordance with its vision, mission and core values.
The annual tree planting commitment is intended to create a stable soil condition in the rolling terrain of the PHSA grounds by completely covering it with trees to prevent any soil erosion in the future, said Abadilla.
Many companies have embarked on tree planting in Mt. Makiling and other forest reserves (including watersheds) of the country but only a few have embraced it as a sustainable annual activity.
Though Makiling is home to thousands of endemic and indigenous species, Dupont still sees the need to preserve and upgrade the forest with new plantings.