PLDT, PBSP continue Infanta Real Watershed Forest Reserve rehabilitation
After the devastations brought about by Tropical Cyclone Winnie and Typhoon Yoyong years ago, the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), in cooperation with the local government of lnfanta and Real, Quezon, and the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP), tookimmediate action to provide relief operations and medical missions for the affected areas.
PLDT and its partners initiated a rehabilitation plan to bring back the lush greens in the Infanta-Real Watershed Forest Reserve, one of the areas affected by the landslide. The PLDT TelePuno project is a fiveyear rehabilitation plan to regenerate the natural biodiversity of Infanta Real Watershed Forest Reserve. This year, the project reached its culmination with 80,000 seedlings planted in 80,000 hectares of land of the watershed.
Every year, PLDT employees volunteered to plant a number of seedlings, in a bid to accomplish the total targeted number by this year, the end of its fifth year program.
“In the first three years of the project, we were able to hit ourprojectednumber of trees thatwereplanted with the help of the PLDT employeevolunteers. Notwithstanding the high elevation and the muddy challenging trek, the volunteers managed to climb it. Our volunteers also had a good relationship with the farmers. They’re like a family. The farmers were even sad when we had our last planting but they are really grateful for PLDT’s help and promise to take care of what we planted,” PLDT Community Relations Head Evelyn del Rosario shared.
Planting 80,000 seedlings was a daunting task but the more challenging part was how to make it sustainable, especially with the majority of the residents relying on illegal logging as a source of livelihood back then. Aside from reforestation, PLDT also provided the locals with an alternative source of livelihood.
In 2012 the company initiated the construction of’ a fish nursery and provided 5,500 catfish and juvenile fish to the Samahan ng Magbubukid at Mangingisda sa Barangay Cawayan fo rtheir Pangasius Production Project. The farmerorganization is composed of 50 members from Barangay Cawayan, Real, Quezon. Kilos, another partner women’s organization with 30 members from Barangay Gumian, Infanta, Quezon, was provided with four highspeed electric sewing machines as a support to their EcoBag Project.
Kanlungan, an 80member farmer’s organization from Barangay Magsaysay, received training on vermicompost production at the PBSP’s Center for Rural Technology and Development with the local government employees assigned at the Municipal Recovery Facility of Infanta, Quezon.
The locals, who used to cut trees for a living, are now the vanguards of the environment. PLDT tapped them to produce the seedlings for the whole duration of the rehabilitation plan and were even paid for it. They also served as the guides of the volunteers and caretakers of the seedlings until it had fully grown.
Source: Business Mirror, November 25, 2014