PBSP to hold reforestation caravan

PBSP to hold reforestation caravan
By Jessica Ann Pareja
The Freeman News
June 13, 2010


The Philippine Business for Social Progress will hold its largest reforestation caravan on June 19 where more than 600 volunteers from different institutions committed to take effective role in protecting Cebu's environment by planting trees at the onset of the rainy season.

For this year's kick off day of the reforestation caravan, PBSP targets to plant more than 200,000 tree seedlings in about nine hectares of lot in Sitio Cantipla I and II in Barangay Tabunan.

Small and medium enterprises who have already committed to participate in the activity include San Miguel Corporation, Jollibee Foods Corporation-Visayas and Mindanao, Cebu Daily News, Punongbayan and Araullo, Qualfon Philippines Incorporated, Lexmark International Philippines Incorporated, TMX Philippines Incorporated, Cebu Energy Development Corporation and Cebu Microelectronics Incorporated.

The reforestation caravan will run for 15 Saturdays starting June 19 until September 25. PBSP already got the commitment of over 1,000 planters from 31 institutions as of the first week of this month.

For the whole 15 Saturdays, PBSP targets to enrich 124 hectares of barren lot in the hillylands, including that of Tabunan, by planting 300,000 endemic, fruit bearing and forest trees.

Companies that have already booked on a Saturday are NKC Manufacturing Philippines Corporation, Dumaguete City Development Bank, Lear Corporation, Cebu Dynamic Youth, MSM Cebu Incorporated, Taiyo Yuden Philippines Incorporated, Vivant Corporation and Visayan Electric Company (VECO).

PBSP has been organizing annual reforestation caravans since 1988 in coordination with its member companies and other groups. It aims to reforest barren areas of the 29,000-hectare Central Cebu Protected Landscape, Metro Cebu's main source of water.

PBSP is the largest corporate-led social foundation in the country. It is the first of its kind in Asa leading the promotion and practice of Corporate Social Responsibility.