Lopez group scales up ‘Forests for Life’ backing

Lopez group’s diversified conglomerate First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH) joined a newly launched Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) program that seeks to reforest critical areas of the country.

The company’s initiative is part of a shared commitment to climate resilience, sustainable forest management and a regenerative future.

FPH chairperson and CEO Federico Lopez signed with Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga a memorandum of understanding (MoU), wherein FPH committed participation as a partner in implementing the DENR program, called “Forests for Life.”

The DENR program, which also received the support of other conglomerates, aims to plant in the next three years 10 million trees that will contribute to the capture or sequestration by 2038 of an estimated 6.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases behind adverse climate change.

“We are at this critical juncture in the history of our planet, where we urgently need to solve the climate crisis by both transitioning to a clean energy future and ultimately reducing our carbon emissions. Our support for the DENR goes beyond simply planting trees and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. We also focus on understanding natural ecosystems and protecting precious but severely threatened biodiversity,” Lopez said during the MoU signing ceremony.

Flood-prone areas targeted

Pilot sites for the private-public reforestation initiative are spread across critical or flood-prone areas and watersheds in Ilocos Norte, Rizal, Leyte, Bataan, Bukidnon and Lanao del Norte.

Priority tree species for planting include tropical hardwoods, such as those known locally as yakal-saplungan and palosapis, as well as dao, lamio, kalumpit, bagras, kalantas, agoho, Antipolo, bagalunga, banlag, bitaog, bogo, kupang, and talisai-gubat.

FPH and its subsidiaries, led by First Gen Corp. and Energy Development Corp. (EDC), have gained extensive reforestation experience from Project BINHI, an internationally recognized reforestation program initiated by EDC to protect, conserve and propagate indigenous tree species.

Acknowledged as the Philippines’ largest reforestation project by a private company, BINHI has restored at least 10,140 hectares of denuded forest lands by planting close to 7 million native trees in these areas, which now serve as biodiversity habitats for more than 500 unique fauna species. Started in 2008, BINHI has expanded its scope with the help of the University of the Philippines Institute of Biology to include the rescue from extinction of 145 species of endemic Philippine trees.

FPH with other members of the Lopez Group has developed a long-term partnership with the DENR in the conglomerate’s mission of forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.