Fill the world with love and trees

MANILA, Philippines - Haribon Foundation invites members and nature enthusiasts to join them in their lineup of activities for this year as it celebrates its 40th anniversary of stewarding biodiversity conservation in the Philippines.

Haribon has been leading the efforts of recovering and revitalizing depleted forests in the country through its aggressive tree-planting activities, and you too can be part of it through its lineup of activities and programs.

 On its 40th birthday, a grand “Million Hectare Runners’ Challenge 2012” will be held on Nov. 25 as part of the celebrating the organization’s efforts at biodiversity conservation, inviting all runners and volunteers to join in the tree planting activity.

 It is a sequel to the “Million Hectare Challenge 2011” last Nov. 2011, with the theme “One for the Road to 2020.”

Like before, included in the race kit was an “Adopt-a-Seedling” certificate where one seedling shall be planted in honor of the runner to help bring life back to the Philippines’ denuded forests.

 Runners of MHC 2011 will join in the planting of their seedlings on June 16, 2012 in Baras, Rizal. For every runner who participates, a seedling will be planted for them.

For volunteers interested in joining forest restoration activities, e-mail Haribon at volunteer@haribon.org.ph.

Rainforestation is the planting of native tree species to bring back our forests, its biodiversity and ecological processes. Through a minimal donation P200 adopt a seedling of any of the Philippine native tree species like narra, dao, kamagong, makaasim, and lauan and Haribon will take care of the adopted tree for three years. The donation fee includes the seedling, land preparation for planting, and maintenance with Haribon’s partner community organizations helping. The adopted seedlings will be planted by Haribon members, volunteers, staff and partner communities in watersheds where cutting of trees is prohibited.

Haribon also encourages students and young people to start growing trees through their Nurture Card. For only P50 per card, a seedling that has been previously planted under the “Adopt-a-Seedling” program will be nurtured in donor’s name for a year, and the donor can continue to care for that tree with a yearly donation of P 50 per seedling per year. Proceeds from the sale of these cards will go to maintaining 60,000 trees planted last year for the next two years.

Tree planting activities will start this June.

For more information, call 421-1213 or 421-1209, 911-6088 or text 0922-8151942/ 0922-8152045 or log on to www.haribon.org.ph.