ORMOC CITY – For Energy Development Corporation (EDC) to be able to provide BINHI native tree species to its partners in the region and spread awareness about reforestation as a vital solution to our warming planet, an EDC BINHI Vegetative Materials Reproduction (VMR) nursery located in Brgy. Tongonan, this city, was made possible and, thereafter, successfully launched on Tuesday, January 17, 2023.
The nursery uses a state-of-the-art, automated mist irrigation system. Its sensors can be programmed to automatically turn on the mist irrigation at the right time and with the appropriate moisture content, giving off just the right amount of mist to mimic natural forest habitat conditions.
The said automated VMR nursery will assist EDC’s BINHI team in propagating the region’s threatened native tree species, such as Katmon Bayani, Mapilig, Almaciga, and other dipterocarp species.
The facility, accordingly, is critical to the company’s thrust of mainstreaming native trees as it addresses the non-availability of planting materials or the rarity of tree species due to their threatened status.
BINHI, on the one hand, is EDC’s landmark 15-year-old greening legacy program that has been bridging forest gaps and propagating 96 flagship Philippine native tree species, a number of which have already been classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the global authority on nature conservation.
Meanwhile, EDC’s 711-megawatt Leyte geothermal facility currently supplies more than 30 percent of the country’s installed geothermal capacity, and is responsible for putting the Philippines on the map as the world’s third largest geothermal producer, providing a reliable supply of clean power to the Luzon and Visayas regions for almost 40 years. Finally, environmental protection is one of EDC’s top priorities, with an extensive environmental program being implemented across all of the company’s project sites, which portfolio includes forest restoration, watershed protection, advocacy and mainstreaming of Philippine native trees, biodiversity conservation, and assistance to local communities in the company’s operating areas in developing social and conservation enterprises. By Gwen Maurillo (EV Mail January 16-22, 2023 issue)
