Nature preservation with One For Trees

Meralco’s sustainability campaign not only has solid proofs but with an award-winning report on its deliverables to boot.

The 9th Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards has recognized Meralco’s 2022 Combined Annual and Sustainability Report dubbed “Sikat” with a Gold Award under the “Asia’s Best Workplace Reporting” category. The utility company also has secured a Gold Rank from Asia Sustainability Reporting Rating 2023 for the fourth consecutive year, underscoring its consistent excellence in communicating sustainability performance.

Bolstering “Sikat” is the real deal of Meralco’s sustainability efforts, its One For Trees (OFT) program.

One Meralco Foundation (OMF), the corporate social responsibility (CSR) arm of Meralco, executes the OFT which saw volunteers from the company celebrating Earth Day on 22 April together with the University of the Philippines Laguna-Quezon Land Grant (LQLG) in Siniloan, Laguna by reforesting parts of the southern Sierra Madre mountain range, Luzon’s barrier against typhoons.

More than 50 employees from the Meralco Internal Audit team and partners were joined by Meralco senior vice president and chief audit executive Melanie T. Oteyza, FEED vice president for operations Diane Penales, OMF president and chief CSR officer Jeffrey O. Tarayao, members of the Philippine National Police and LQLG staff in planting 600 more trees at the LQLG, bringing the total number of trees planted in the area to 202,604.

“Sustainability programs help us improve our own relationship with the environment. In Meralco, the significance of Earth Day is beyond an annual activity,” Tarayao said.

The OFT, initiated in 2019, has so far nurtured over 2.3 million trees through partnerships with various local government units and organizations.

Mangrove champ

Also at the forefront of OFT are leaders of mangrove conservation efforts in the country. One of them is Retchie Sacapaño, the bakhawan champion from Ibajay, Aklan.

As a child, Sacapaño would catch crabs along her hometown’s coast during low tides so her family can have something to eat for dinner. Today she is among the caretakers of the Ibajay Mangrove Forest, or what locals call Katunggan It Ibajay (KII).

KII, located less than an hour away from Boracay, is a mangrove ecotourism park that provides livelihood to the Bugtongbato and Naisud villagers. The park is managed by the Bugtongbato Fisherfolk Association as an ecotourism site.

“We don’t just earn money from being tour guides; we also educate our visitors on why we must plant more and preserve our forests,” Sacapaño said.

The BFA has over 70 members, including Sacapaño. Wives plant and nurture mangroves while their husbands fish.

To further develop and rehabilitate KII, OMF funded the planting of 50,000 mangroves there in 2023 so more farmers can work as nurturers. These efforts also give residents a sense of ownership and responsibility of growing the mangroves so the future generation can benefit from it.

“By extending help to us, you enable us to be effective stewards of the forests. We feel the need to protect them because these forests also protect us from hunger and storms. By taking care of these mangroves, we invest in our future and that of our children who will inherit a better community. My kids can proudly say, ‘my mother planted that mangrove,’” she said.

Through OFT, OMF is committed to reforesting upland forests and wetlands resulting in both environmental and socio-economic benefits to the local communities by increasing carbon sinks, creating more jobs that generate more income for the people, and growing sustainability awareness so the trees planted and the forests they grow continue to provide for and protect the community for years to come.