15k volunteers run, plant native trees to green Cebu

More than 15,000 volunteers donned their running gear and a renewed vow to help Mother Nature in yesterday’s second Run for Greenin Philippines of the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) which was held in the mountain barangay of Jaclupan, Talisay City.

Rowena Alensonorin, RAFI’s executive director for integrated development said that the second edition of the tree planting-themed running event shattered last year’s attendance record with all sectors of society joining hands in a concerted effort to restore a greener Cebu for the next generation.

“I was overwhelmed by the strong support extended by all sectors for our cause. The entire event was highly successful, this is the first time that I saw the religious and non-government sectors of our society help plant the seedlings,” Alensonorin told Cebu Daily News.

Alensonorin also added that Cebuanos are now more aware about the importance of environmental conservation and it was easy for her and RAFI to draw in massive number of volunteers for the running/tree planting event.

According to her, most of the participants are students and volunteers and large groups numbering to a hundred are staff from the Cebu Provincial government and from the Talisay City Hall.

Seventy percent of the seedlings were planted due to the steep terrain of the planting site in Jaclupan. But Red Isabelo Montejo of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Talisay councilor Bernard Odilao said they will ask their respective departments to plant the remaining seedlings in the site and to also monitor them regularly to achieve the event’s targeted 100 percent survival rate of the planted seedlings.

Also aiding them will be the various mountaineering groups in Cebu which will conduct clean-up drives in the site.

The 3-kilometer fun run which aims to plant 220,000 native tree seedlings was simultaneously held in over 50 towns in Cebu, Davao del Sur and South Cotabato to continue the five-year agenda of the national government’s effort of reforesting the entire country. This the government hopes to achieve by planting five million trees with RAFI spearheading the cause.