Feature
Sowing partnerships, reaping good ties
[Nov. 10, 2008/ Makati City] - Reviving our country’s forests takes a lot of seedlings, soil, rainfall, sunlight and a strong spirit of volunteerism, as displayed in a recent tree planting activity at Mt. Banahaw in Sariaya, Quezon by telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), wireless subsidiary Smart Communications Inc. (SMART), and Japan’s NTT DOCOMO, INC. (NTT DOCOMO).
The PLDT-SMART-NTT DOCOMO initiative to plant trees all across the country adds up to one big effort. PLDT-SMART Foundation President Butch Meily says, “It’s important because years from now, we hope to come back here and see that this is a forest. For now it’s just an empty mountain in some areas, so that means a big deal. It’s something we can tell our children about, and they can also enjoy it in the future.”
Employee-volunteers from PLDT, SMART, the PLDT-SMART Foundation and representatives from NTT DOCOMO worked with the local community to plant fruit-bearing and endemic trees to support agroforestry in the area, and help improve the state of the ecological makeup of the locality and of the communities living there.
A common goal plus a lot of hand signals, gestures and smiles more than made up for any language barrier between the Japanese nationals and their Filipino counterparts. The target was for the delegation of around 80 people to plant 5,000 seedlings, together with the local community.
“Walang separate culture. What unites all of us is our love for the environment,” says PLDT-SMART Foundation Vice President Rogelio V. Quevedo, referring to the diverse composition of the group that was in Sariaya, Quezon to help restore Mt. Banahaw’s once lush forest.
PLDT and SMART have been vigorously conducting tree planting activities around the country in response to the quickly-changing global environmental landscape. The partnership with NTT DOCOMO strengthens the group’s tree planting initiatives with a ¥3 million allocation for the year.
The blazing sun and intermittent rainshowers, combined with the slippery and muddy terrain, were not friendly to the volunteers, but nobody complained. There was laughter and even singing as employee-volunteers hiked to the planting sites.
NTT DOCOMO’s Itsunaga Shimojo, Executive Director of the Social Conservation Group, says that it was a great experience for them to get together with Filipinos to foster reforestation because it is very important for the Philippines. “We are doing our own activity in Japan, which is called Docomo Woods Project. Based on that experience, we know that it's very difficult and challenging to preserve the natural resources. We know the difficulty so we appreciate the efforts of people here,” he adds.
Sachiko Sugano, Manager of NTT DOCOMO’s Social Conservation Group, believes in building ties between neighbors to aid each other in developmental projects. She says, “It is important for Asian countries to support each other. I hope that tree planting would be an area of collaboration that will expand into other efforts not only in terms of environmental protection but also the economy, foreign affairs, and everything, in the future.”
“Planting a tree may be a small thing, but if everyone does some small good things, it all eventually adds up,” shares Yushi Miyamoto from the Global Business Division of NTT DOCOMO.
Collaboration, vigilant implementation, and dedication to volunteerism: the team has all it takes to change the face of the world. @
