Miss Earth 2014 joins project rebuilding beach-forest

PALO, LEYTE, Philippines  — Miss Earth 2014 Jamie Herrell this week participated in the beach-forest rebuilding project along the coastlines of Eastern Visayas, lashed and destroyed by Yolanda in 1013.

Herrell, together with Ms. Earth Foundation project director Princess Manzon, visited the Yolanda-stricken Leyte and told the media she wanted to plant trees as a way of helping the rehabilitation of the region and its environment.

“For Miss Earth, not only that we think about helping the environment but at the same we also help people rebuild communities,” said Herrell, who also admired the resilience of the people here.

The beauty queen, a native of Masbate but represented Cebu during the pageant, joined the EcoBlast, a re-greening project of the St. Paul School of Business and Law for the beach forest rehabilitation, in partnership with the local government units.

The SPSBL’s Ecoblast rolled off simultaneous in five areas: Tanauan and Tolosa towns in Leyte, San Juan in Southern Leyte, Naval in Biliran and Guiuan in Eastern Samar.

International auditor and SPSBL president Erwin Vincent Alcala, opted to celebrate his 50th birthday by engaging in the Ecoblast, as humanity’s way to give back what was taken from Mother Earth.

Alcala said the school, which included environment management subject into its new curriculum, advocates for community service, “which is why we conceptualize this beach forest rehabilitation project.”

Alcala added that SPSBL’s faculty and students will also monitor the growth of the planted propagule, making sure these will not be washed off shore. “The school will also embark in upland tree-planting in the coming years,” he said.

The Ecoblast tree-planting activity was done in cooperation with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-8, which provided 5,000 propagules earmarked for replanting the eastern coasts of Eastern Visayas.

Paquito Dabuet, of the DENR-8 Forest Management Service Department, said hundreds of thousands seedlings are needed for the region and that each person here must plant 100 seedlings to achieve the target.

DENR-8 Assistant Regional Director for Management Services Arturo Salazar thanked the school for coming up with the project to help the government’s rehabilitation efforts.

“This environmental concern is not only the concern of the DENR but of all. Climate change is now before us and we can already feel the change of weather, typhoons visiting us most often than before,” said Salazar, who also thanked the Miss Earth Foundation for its help in the environmental advocacy. (FREEMAN)