Environmental stewardship

"It takes 500 years for nature to replace what man takes five years to destroy," said Manila Electric Co.’s logistics staff assistant Nat de la Pena, one of the 30-person team that runs the forestry and parks development project in barangay Puray, Montalban, Rizal. The 927-hectare, once covered with cogon and talahib, has been reforested its 435 hectares planted with acacia and eucalyptus seedlings.

Bounded by Angat Watershed Forest Reserve on the north and by the Marikina watershed on the eastern and southern borders, the Meralco project site was practically a grassland–the result of repetitive illegal logging ( a livelihood in the area), slash-and-burn cultivation, and grass fires. Soil erosion was a perennial problem, carrying off silt to Montalban rivers and, eventually, to Manila Bay.

Meralco took over the land and started tree planting, intending to use the trees for electric posts.

Change

In 1991, Meralco and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources signed a memorandum of agreement, placing the land under the forestry regeneration and parks development project, also known as the Meralco industrial tree plantation project. It gives Meralco the responsibility to reforest, re-vegetate, and transform the open denuded brushland into productive areas. It also allows Meralco to cut 10% of the growing stock.

Now, the project has been reforested with 723,478 surviving trees, which help prevent soil erosion, improve the soil condition in the area, and contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide in the area. It also improves the water yield capacity of the watershed, helping the nearby municipalities meet their domestic and industrial requirements.

Likewise, it provides employment to the locality, particularly to the Dumagats, an ethnic group found in the provinces of Nueva Ecija, Isabela, Camarines Sur, and Bulacan. Manpower used in the area is 100% sourced locally, employing the Dumagats in nursery maintenance, replanting, ringweedling, and forest inventory.

With the project’s development, infrastructure and electrification have been ushered in. Access roads have been constructed to link the area to the barangay. Plantation roads and foot trails have also been made, allowing the Dumagats to bring their produce to the cities.

Stewardship

"Environmental stewardship has always been part of Meralco’s corporate social responsibility," said corporate safety head Fred Ramos.

Meralco’s commitment to this philosophy was bolstered with the creation of the Corporate Social Responsibility Office in January 2001. In the past three years, the CSRO has been Meralco’s strong arm in the areas of social investment, community sponsorship, workplace, and environment stewardship.

One of Meralco’s recent environment projects is Bantay Baterya, in which the firm partnered with Bantay Kalikasan to promote public awareness of the health and environmental hazards posed by the indiscriminate disposal of junk batteries, as well as to recover and process batteries in an environmentally safe manner.

Challenges

The journey hasn’t been an easy one for Meralco’s foresters, however. They have had to come up against people who discouraged them, saying the area’s soil isn’t conducive for planting and the land is steep. Malaria has been a perennial problem, and they have had to deal with forest fires which threaten to wipe out everything they had toiled for years. Foot patrolmen are now deployed on rotation to protect the area from fires and other elements of destruction.

Another major dilemma is whether the project will be maintained after they turn over the site to the government, the MoA being for only 25 years.

"It would be a waste having the area reforested, only for illegal loggers to get their hands on the site and cut down all the trees we planted," said forester Emman Veran.

Saving and preserving the environment is something everybody–both the government and private companies as well as individuals–should look into.