Alaminos green campaign gets help from employees

Alaminos City, Pangasinan—Mother Earth got a little help from 100 volunteers who planted seedlings at the city’s mangrove park and cleaned the coastline at the Hundred Islands National Park (HINP).

Volunteers of the 3rd Shore It Up environment campaign, an annual project of the Metro Pacific Investments Foundation Inc. (MPIFI), spent Saturday afternoon planting mangrove seedlings at the Bued mangrove park, a 10-hectare mangrove forest along the coastline of Bued village overlooking the HINP.

They also interacted with 50 school children from Bued and Pandan villages, and gave them bags and school supplies.

Mayor Hernani Braganza said the mangrove park is flourishing because at every opportunity for more than 10 years now, city officials, residents and volunteers plant seedlings there.

The volunteers, who are employees of various companies under the Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC), were supervised by the city’s agriculture office and assisted by students, boatmen, vendors and residents.

Braganza cited the importance of mangroves in maintaining ecological balance, saying mangrove forests are breeding grounds of fish and shellfish and prevent soil erosion.

Mangrove forests protect the sea from pollution and act as a defense of coastal communities against storm surges, he said.

The Bued mangrove park has also become a haven for local and migratory birds.

“The city’s mangrove forest benefits fishermen not only because this ensures the breeding of marine species but because this could provide them another livelihood as guides to bird watchers,” Braganza said.