SAVING what remains of the forest cover isn’t the lone responsibility of the national government. It requires a concerted effort among various sectors with a deep commitment to restore greenery and promote sustainability.
In an upland area referred to as Sitio San Roque in the municipality of Baras (in the province of Rizal), total strangers took the initiative to restore greenery by planting fruit-bearing trees with no less than the local farmers acting as stewards.
To be perfectly honest, tapping local farmers as stewards is the most logical step to ensure saplings get to grow healthy and productive. No need to check whether or not saplings have grown into full-blown trees from where the livelihood of these people depend.
I did some research on how long it would take for calamansi, cotton fruit (santol), guava (bayabas), mango (mangga), red lychee (rambutan), langsat (lanzones), tamarind (sampalok) and coconut (niyog) to yield fruits. According to web-based sources, farmers may start harvesting fruits in two to three years.
Admittedly though, not all 1,000 saplings would survive, but with “green thumbs” around, there is a higher probability that most of it would be bearing fruits in about five years.
I was among those who were invited by a longtime farmer-friend Jay Sambilay (in his capacity as president of the Farmer Inhabitants Inc.) to take part in the green initiative.
Even before the activity started, I saw hundreds of people flocking the converging point. But what struck me were the green taxi cabs parked at the uphill road side. It turned out that drivers of Green GSM taxi cabs are joining the tree-planting activity.
Green GSM taxis don’t emit smoke because it’s not running on fuel. Their taxis are full electric cars. In short, it doesn’t pollute the air. In short, they’re living up to what they stand for — pro-environment.
At the strike of 7:00 in the morning, joiners were told to follow the trail to the designated planting area. Trekking the trail was far from easy, but with local residents by our side, we safely reached the destination.
During the actual tree-planting, I lost words to describe how it feels to plant a tree.
But one thing is certain, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources should adopt the template that Jay Sambilay used — tap the farmers as stewards.
More than restoring greenery, such an initiative if applied on a larger scale would certainly yield positive results — helping the farmers while ensuring food security.