MANILA, Philippines - Trees are perhaps the best gift that God ever gave to man. The depletion of our forests has created a big hole in the ozone layer. And the worst effect of the thinning of our ozone layer is global warming; carbon grasses are trapped in the atmosphere making temperature rise, and melting the glaciers of the North and South Poles. Freak weather occurs worldwide. There are drought and widespread dryness. And since the trees that store water underground are almost all gone, water tables that provide drinking and irrigation water are slowly disappearing. If this goes on for another decade or two, our planet will be uninhabitable. Another 10 or 20 years are enough time to grow back the trees destroyed by greedy men who modernize and industrialize our once forested land.
The Manila Seedling Bank Foundation (MSBF) Inc. has continuously maintained reforestation efforts, which should be taken seriously, as well as a total log ban to be imposed for the next 25 or 35 years (the age of a mature tree).
A mature tree six inches in diameter and chest height can absorb as much as 200 liters of water during rainy season and slowly disperse it during the dry months. Trees therefore are very important, most especially on mountains and in the city.
The MSBF also maintains that tree-planting alone is only 10 percent of the whole process. Maintaining the tree — meaning, watering, fertilization and cultivation up to its maturity — is 90 percent. The planting is not for publicity purposes. What is important is what happens after the tree is planted, after the photos have been taken. A seedling left alone will perish if not nurtured properly.
MSBF strongly opposes organizations and individuals who claim to love the environment by having their picture taken planting a tree seedling, without any after-care involved. If 90 million Filipinos could be encouraged to plant a tree and take care of it, then many lives would be saved.
If each person will plant and care for a tree, each year for 10 years, imagine how many trees will grow and replace the lost ones. According to MSBF president Chito Bertol, the Manila Seedling Bank Environmental Center has been consistently growing and dispersing of trees for several years now. Its efforts in saving our forests and greening of the Metropolis will be useless without the cooperation of the environment, conscious individuals and organizations.
At the Manila Seedling Environment Center hundreds of thousands of trees of different sizes — from seedlings to full-grown and ready-to-plant — are available for landscaping, urban greening, watershed rehabilitation and reforestation. To encourage people to save trees, the center also avails of tree relocation, pruning, rehabilitation and treatment services.
Bertol concludes, “Mother Earth has given us trees as gifts. Let us give trees back not only to our Mother Earth, but also to our future generations.”
For information, visit the MSBF website at www.msbfi.com, e-mail qualitytrees@msbfi.com and quality_trees@yahoo.com, or call 924-7001-02, 929-9312, telefax 924-0166.