Team members of Aboitiz Group Companies planted an estimated 35,000 seedlings in different areas nationwide during their annual simultaneous tree planting last July 23. In Cebu, more than 500 volunteers braved the muddy and sloping terrain in Barangay Pung-ol Sibugay in Cebu City to plant approximately 17,000 seedlings of indigenous trees on a nine-hectare land.

Other sites of the tree planting included Laguna, Rizal, Compostela Valley, Agusan del Norte, Manila, Subic, Davao, Albay and Maguindanao.

The company plants these trees not for the sake of planting but to support local-indigenous tree planting to support and complement local flora and fauna for a healthier ecosystem. PBSP who was also present during the event, also supported such an initiative and even endorses integrated watershed management projects to its members as a strategy to combat climate change and to reverse loss of natural resources. The Aboitiz Group and PBSP have been partners in implementing various social development projects.

The simultaneous tree planting is part of AEV-Sustainability Team’s Aboitiz Passion for Reforest and Agrofest to keep (APARK), a group wide biodiversity enhancement program that seeks to plant 3 million trees nationwide by 2015. Partners have reported 90-95% survival rate for trees in Aloguinsan in 2009 and Barangay Sayaw in 2010.