With barely any gov’t fund, trees grow in Tanay

SAN PEDRO CITY—Through a lesson that had been learned the hard way and an aggressive marketing strategy, the town of Tanay in Rizal province is implementing a greening program that is all too familiar, except for one distinction—little or no government fund is being spent.

The town’s “Reforest Tanay Program” seeks to plant trees in 20 hectares of watershed areas every year. It was launched in 2011.

Carlos Inofre Jr., Tanay environment officer, said program proponents have exceeded targets, being able to reforest at least 130 hectares as of September 2014.

Tanay’s program is in line with President Aquino’s national greening program to plant 1.5 billion trees, covering 1.5 million hectares from 2011 to 2016.

Inofre, in a recent phone interview, said proponents of the Tanay tree planting program spent P400,000 only to start it. The money, Inofre said, was used mainly to buy tree seedlings.

In the succeeding years of the program, he said, funds started to pour in from donors and were taken from other environmental projects.

Dumagat help

To propagate tree seedlings, the town government has tapped the help of the indigenous Dumagat community (population 200) in the town’s upland villages of Daraitan, Laiban, Kay Buto and Sto. Nino.

Each seedling costs P10, which the Tanay government purchases from the Dumagats.

The seedlings are either planted by the Dumagat themselves or are sold to companies, schools and business groups that are implementing their own tree-planting projects.

Inofre said each Dumagat earns P500 for every transaction (tree-planting activity) and “it is almost every week we go and buy seedlings from them.”

The project also provides a source of livelihood for the Dumagat since charcoal-making and logging were banned in Tanay.

The town has set a tree-planting activity on Sept. 26, during which a record number of volunteers had been expected to take part.

Inofre said over 2,000 volunteers, among them are students, local government officials and members of civic organizations, had signed up to reforest 20 more hectares in the town.

Painful memory

The tree planting activity falls on the fifth anniversary of the Typhoon “Ondoy” that killed hundreds and left a trail of devastation in several towns and cities in and around Metro Manila.

“We are reminded of how the microwatershed overflowed leaving Tanay badly hit with more than 60 fatalities. Maybe that is why we have become aggressive with our efforts on reforestation,” said Inofre.

Tanay is part of three different watersheds—the upper Marikina watershed, the Kaliwa watershed and the Tanay microwatershed.

Inofre said no government money was used during the Sept. 26 tree planting project, since program proponents used the P103,000 raised during an Alay Lakad (walk for a cause) in June to buy tree seedlings.

Aside from tree planting, Tanay had also started a weekly activity called “Dance with Mother Nature.”

Residents participate in an hour of choreographed workout at the public park by donating recyclable materials.