By KIT KAIMO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - Eight hundred seedlings of mahogany and acacia mangium were planted near Merloquet Falls in Sibulao Village, the emerging tourist destination here, as part of the Arbor Day celebration jointly held on June 25, 2013 by the Vitali Field Office of the Zamboanga City Agriculture Office (CAO) and Atro Mining-Vitali, Inc. (AMVI).
Corporate Communications Officer Antonio
Manaytay of Atro Mining-Vitali, Inc. in his
press statement said that during the opening ceremony Elderico Tabal, CAO Vitali
field officer told some 300 participants of the importance
of planting trees and taking care of it. The participants were composed of
students, teachers, barangay officials, personnel from the local police and
Task Force Zamboanga, City Social Welfare and Development (CSWD) staff, and AMVI
employees.
“Today’s
Arbor Day celebration is one occasion to remind us the need to protect our
environment by planting trees,” the CAO officer said.
The
city government passed City Ordinance 281 in 2006 declaring June 25 as the
official Arbor Day.
According
to Wikipedia, Arbor Day (from the Latin word, arbor, meaning tree) is a holiday in which individuals and groups
are encouraged to plant and care for trees. It originated in Nebraska City,
Nebraska, United States by J. Sterling Morton.
It
said the first Arbor Day was held in the state of Nebraska on April 10, 1872;
an estimated one million trees were planted that day.
Today,
many countries and cities observe a similar holiday.
Tabal
noted that it is the first time Arbor Day is celebrated in Vitali District.
“This
is the first in our district with the help of Atro Mining company provided some 800 seedlings to be planted,” City Agriculturist stressed. The 800 seedlings
are enough to cover two hectares.
The
company, however, called for a more serious effort beyond “mere tree planting”.
In
an email sent to all AMVI field personnel, company president Elson S. Ogario
ordered that “tree planting activitiesshould have clear program of caring and
really making these trees grow.”
He
observed that“past practices (of other groups) of donating seedlings to so many
people and organizations but most of them failed.”
“Most
donations were being done just for purposes of compliance and for photo ops,”
he noted, adding: “I wanted to avoid this situation. Let's create a showcase.”
Aside
from supporting tree planting activities with seedlings from the company
nursery, Ogario told the company environment officer to explore “an area
somewhere there in the mountains of Vitali where we can directly reforest or
plant our grown-up seedlings where we can make it as a showcase rather than
just giving seedlings to people and we really don't know after giving whether
they will really take care of it.”
He
is looking forward to “tie up with Community Environment and Natural Resources
Office (CENRO) for an area where we can do our own reforestation program, so
much the better.
“Or
better still if we can contract with CENRO for an area for Industrial Tree
Plantation and also as our showcase for Reforestation Program,” he ended.
No comments:
Post a Comment