BAGUIO CITY – Three mountain bikers are raising pledges to help reforest the Cordillera, hoping to profit from an environment consciousness that has been fueled by fears over global warming and rising oil prices.

Joseph Paul “JP” Alipio, an environmental activist, and his friends, Ben Muni and Donni Gonnatice, vowed to bike through at least eight Benguet towns based on the value of pledges they get online or from coffee sales at a local cafe to raise a watershed seed fund.

Began as an online pledging page in July, Alipio’s “Padyak Para sa Binhi ng Kordi (Pedal for the Seeds of the Cordillera)” was relaunched as a corporate-led crusade on Saturday.

“[We] will dedicate each kilometer that [we] will cover in 24 hours toward establishing a seedling fund to plant new [trees] in the many denuded areas of the mountains,” said Alipio.

Donations

He said private donors can pledge P1 up to P1,000 for each kilometer the biker traverses.

“[The] number of seedlings will depend on how much money we will be able to raise, so I can’t say at the moment [how much seedlings would be put up]. Hopefully, we can raise enough to plant a substantial number [of trees],” he said.

Donors may even send the bikers seedlings, Alipio said.

Alipio also opened an exhibition of his nature photographs, hoping to donate 30 percent of its proceeds to the “Binhi” fund and to Cordillera Coffee’s trust fund to support coffee farmers in the region.

Alipio said the bikers have started training for the trek on Nov. 15.

“Much of the Cordillera’s mountains have, in recent years, suffered severe deforestation from logging and other human [activities] that have slowly deteriorated the quality of the forests in the region,” Alipio said in a letter sent earlier by e-mail.

“Many of these forests are important watersheds and repositories of biological wealth that may be lost to time if the deforestation is not slowed,” he said.

The bikers, he said, would pedal through mountain trails in the towns of La Trinidad, Tublay, Kapangan, Kibungan, Bakun, Kabayan and Bokod before returning to Baguio City.

“At the end of the 24-hour ride this coming November, the riders will tally the total distance that the team will be able to cover and that will be multiplied by the pledge that you have promised. You will be sent a notice of how much your total pledge will be so you can officially donate the funds for the seedlings,” Alipio said in his e-mailed letter.

Pledges may be directed to padyakbnhi@gmail.com.