“EDC’s COO Richard B Tantoco talks of his personal and professional journey with his love for nature[1]” (Energy.com.ph).
Love for nature. During
the Age of Dinosaurs (large typewriters), I was a very busy Editor In Chief of
the Forest Research Institute (FORI), now Ecosystems Research & Development
Bureau, from 1975 to 1981, busy founding & writing & editing for FORI’s
3 regular publications – monthly newsletter Canopy,
quarterly technical journal Sylvatrop
and quarterly color magazine Habitat
(that I patterned after the US National
Geographic).
Nonetheless,
Mr Tantoco surprises me that, ever since, I have never met a Million Tree Man
like him! And native PH trees at that!
He writes (“Seeing Green”):
I have two dreams. The
first is a personal one, and that is to plant a million Philippine native trees
in five years. I still don’t have a business model for this endeavor right now,
but maybe at some point I can sell some of the seedlings and create an eco-tourism
venture that exposes the youth to nature and explains the importance of trees
in an experiential manner.
A million native PH trees. I say that should attract a
million PH youth, male & female.
But!
Isn’t Mr Tantoco simply dreaming and/or wanting to sound pro-nature!?
Mr
Tantoco joined the Lopez Group, becoming President & Chief Operating
Officer (COO) of the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) in 2008, EDC
is the Group’s “100-percent renewable power arm,” he says. That same year, the
Group also launched BINHI (seed), a greening legacy program, directed by Chair
Emeritus Oscar Lopez.
BINHI was established to
bridge forest gaps and bring back to abundance 96 of our vanishing Philippine
native tree species. At the outset, it was an ambitious goal to rescue the most
threatened endemic Philippine hardwoods from the brink of extinction. Trees of
these 96 species (were) being cut down at an alarming rate, given the natural
beauty of their grain and their mechanical strength.
Thus,
with BINHI, the Lopez Group aimed “to combine the business need to
reforest (their) concession areas with the need to preserve (Philippine forest)
heritage.”
BINHI
is collaborative. Making sure that the efforts are guided by science, the
planners were partners Perry Ong and
Leonard Co (UP
Diliman College of Biology), team of Pat Malabrigo (UPLB
College of Forestry), working with BINHI’s own Agnes
De Jesus, a botanist.
They also have a team of foresters, permanent hires
according to Mr Tantoco, for each of the project sites, to work with 88 farmer
associations in and around target communities “to ensure that the trees we
plant survive and grow into forests.” He says:
Our community partners earn
good living by taking care of the trees themselves… The millions of trees
planted to date have enriched the lush forests in our sites and in the areas of
our community partners. These have been crucial in creating robust carbon sinks
and in recharging the geothermal reservoirs that our business depends on.
Thank
you, Mr Tantoco, a businessman minding the conservation of PH native trees!@
[1]https://www.energy.com.ph/2021/06/17/seeing-green-energy-development-corporation/?fbclid=IwAR3HoLoJJIkGbjM5xT4pbIi2L6Yhf7sDbJnG_NrJ0m1FFrYMM9coKpvemTU
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