Sustainability Corporate Social Responsibility Hedcor Group

Hedcor plants 15000 trees at the onset of the rainy season

August 07, 2019

As the rainy season is underway in the Philippines, over 15000 trees were planted in Northern Luzon and Mindanao by Hedcor volunteers, including its stakeholders, partners from the local government agencies, and media practitioners.

“Seedlings have higher survival rate if planted during the rainy season,” Cranep Udan, Hedcor’s Environmental Initiatives Officer, said.

Up the North in Luzon, 8200 assorted tree seedlings were planted: 3700 trees were planted in Tuba and Bineng, Benguet; 2200 in Bakun, Benguet; 1500 in Sabangan, Mt. Province and 1000 in Ilocos Sur.

Trees planted include that of lemon, rambutan, guyabano and coffee among others except in Ilocos Sur wherein mahogany seedlings were planted.

All these were made possible through  some 300 volunteers who covered 4.24 hectares of land.

Down the south in Mindanao, volunteers were as proactive in reforesting the environment. A total of 7000 seedlings were planted, where 3500 seedlings were planted in Manolo Fortich, Bukidnon and another 3500 in Davao City.

To cover a total of 5.30 hectares of land area, 200 volunteers worked together in planting falcata, narra, and durian seedlings.

Udan said, “Trees are the world’s biggest plants. Justified by its size, trees are one of the largest suppliers of materials for tools and shelter, fruits and other food, and not to mention--oxygen. With these facts alone, it’s no question that trees are vital to life.”

“Because it is Hedcor’s purpose to drive change for a better world, it made sure that every Kabisig were on-board in  every Aboitiz Tree Planting activity,” Udan added.

The Aboitiz Group’s initial goal was to plant three million trees by 2015. Aboitiz readily surpassed that goal and raised its target to nine million trees by 2020. As of end 2018, the group has planted 6.6 million trees all over the Philippines. And, Hedcor is committed to contribute to this effort. To date, 2.8 million trees were planted by Hedcor with 87% survival rate.

Granted such opportunity to work together for our planet, Hedcor’s Environment and Sustainability Team made sure to extend its impact. Along with the non-bearing tree seedlings identified by CENRO and DENR, Hedcor made sure to include fruit-bearing trees so that host communities are able to further benefit from the event.

Hedcor, a run-of-river hydropower arm of AboitizPower, operates 21 plants across the country with a total generating capacity of 258.4 MW of clean and renewable energy.