First Philippine Holdings Corporation (FPH), one of the country’s oldest and most diversified conglomerates, has joined a newly launched Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)program, calling for reforesting critical areas of the country as part of their shared commitment to climate resilience, sustainable forest management and a regenerative future.
FPH Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Federico R. Lopez signed with DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga a recent memorandum of understanding (MOU), wherein FPH committedparticipation as a partner in implementing the DENR program, called “Forests for Life.”
The DENR program, which also received the support of other conglomerates, aims to plant in the next three years 10 million trees that will contribute to the capture or sequestration by the year 2038 of an estimated 6.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases behind adverse climate change.
“We are at this critical juncture in the history of our planet, where we urgently need to solve the climate crisis by both transitioning to a clean energy future and ultimately reducing our carbon emissions. Our support for the DENR goes beyond simply planting trees and sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. We also focus on understanding our natural ecosystems and protecting our precious but severely threatened biodiversity,” Lopez said during the MOU signing ceremony.
Pilot sites for the private-public reforestation initiative are spread across critical or flood-prone areas and watersheds in Ilocos Norte, Rizal, Leyte, Bataan, Bukidnon, and Lanao del Norte. Priority tree species for planting include tropical hardwoods, such as those known locally as yakal-saplungan and palosapis, as well as dao, lamio, kalumpit, bagras, kalantas, agoho, Antipolo, bagalunga, banlag, bitaog, bogo, kupang, and talisai-gubat.
FPH and its subsidiaries, led by First Gen Corporation and Energy Development Corporation (EDC), have gained extensive reforestation experience from Project BINHI, an internationally recognized reforestation program initiated by EDC to protect, conserve and propagate indigenous tree species.
Acknowledged as the Philippines’ largest reforestation project by a private company, BINHI has restored at least 10,140 hectares of denuded forest lands by planting close to 7 million native trees in these areas, which now serve as biodiversity habitats for more than 500 unique fauna species. Started in 2008, BINHI has expanded its scope with the help of the University of the Philippines Institute of Biology to include the rescue from extinction of 145 species of endemic Philippine trees.
FPH with other members of the Lopez Group of Companies has developed a long-term partnership with the DENR in the conglomerate’s mission of forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.
One ongoing agreement between the DENR and First Gen along with non-profit sister company ABS-CBN Foundation calls for the protection of the marine ecosystem within the Verde Island Passage (VIP) in the provinces of Batangas, Marinduque, Romblon, and Oriental and Occidental Mindoro. This agreement strengthens efforts to save the fragile marine ecosystem in the VIP, which First Gen has been helping to conserve since the company started a VIP conservation effort, called Project Center of Center, more than20 years ago.
FPH, is also a partner of the DENR in Project TRANSFORM (Transdisciplinary Approach for Resilient and Sustainable Communities). With support from First Gen, this flagship multi-stakeholder engagement program of the DENR aims to reshape the landscape of environmental management and climate and disaster resilience in the Philippines.