Arroceros Forest Park celebrates Earth Day

In many cities all over the world, many commercial centers have been destroyed to make room for parks. In Manila, the Winner Foundation converted a 21,428 square-meter wasteland into a forest park. This took ten years and started with an agreement with the City of Manila. Mayor Lito Atienza’s motto for Manila is "Buhayin and Maynila."

And Manila is certainly alive both in its historical and environmental aspects. One has only to visit Intramuros to see that it is now a fit tourist attraction. Now, one can literally walk around the whole circumference of the old walls. They have been well restored. And Manila now literally has a forest right in its very center, thanks to the joint agreement that they had with the Winner Foundation. The beautification projects of Mayor Atienza have also helped a great deal to restore the city to its old grandeur.

Today, in celebration of Earth Day 2003, the Winner Foundation in cooperation with Clean and Green Foundation, Heritage Conservation Society and Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission, a program will be held at the Arroceros Forest Park from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be a food and plant sale, a demonstration of fragrance extraction, a guided ecological tour of the forest, a lecture on traditional Philippine medicinal plants and a band concert. We cannot think of a better way to observe Earth Day. You will see a forest with 60 kinds of different trees, all properly identified by the U.P. Los Baños, and the forest has attracted no less than 10 different bird species. This is important because we only have 170 endemic bird species and many of them are in the endangered list. I would like to suggest that those in charge of the park also introduce bee culture in the forest. It will be a source of honey, but, more important, the bees will help propagate more flowers.

We are glad to say that students have been very interested in visiting the park. Many of them have volunteered their help to maintain and develop the park further. They plan, clean-up and tend the compost post. What was done in the Arroceros Park can be duplicated in the former Mehan Garden. Before the war that was known as the Jardin botanico, which was later expanded into a zoo.

We must congratulate Wilfrido Dizon, who was the landscape architect of the forest park. The park truly blends with its environment. The heavy steel gates and fence were obviously inspired by the vertical lines and circle-patterns that marked Intramuros and the Malacañang area. The main entrance is made of natural rocks that were installed by Igorot workers brought down from the Mountain Province.

The site of the Arroceros Forest Park is very historical. It was once the Parian district outside Intramuros, a place that dates back to 1671. In 1892, a tobacco factory was constructed in the site. American troops occupied the place during Liberation and installed temporary buildings in the area. Later, the Department of Education occupied one of the abandoned quonset huts and that was the official office of the Education Department.

Now the whole area is a man-made forest, thanks to the City of Manila and the Winner Foundation.