5,000 Trees Added to EcoMatcher’s Fabulous Forest in the Sierra Madres

25 September 2020, Siniloan, Laguna – Sierra Madre Mountain Range. Another 5,000 native Philippine trees were added to EcoMatcher’s forest in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, which grew from 1,000 in September 2017 to now 35,000 mixed species sourced from the nursery at the Laguna Quezon Land Grant site, with whom FEED was inspired to establish its Living Legacy Climate Change Action program series.

FEED partnered with EcoMatcher in 2017 to enhance the scalability of tree planting efforts in the Philippines. More and more companies start to realize that climate change and being sustainable is a business opportunity, not a burden. Customers and employees demand action. Companies though need trustworthy partners offering transparent sustainability solutions.

Despite of the lockdown EcoMatcher and a mixed team of 25 permanent Forest Guardians and community members proudly added carbon sequestration capabilities to the southern part of Sierra Madre Mountain Range.

EcoMatcher partners with vetted foundations from around the world specialized in tree planting supporting smallholder farmers. Through tree planting, not only the livelihoods of the farmers are improved. As trees are planted in tropical climates and have leaves all year round, carbon is being sequestered all year round as well.

Forest guardians involved in the planting of 5000 malaruhat trees included:

Mr. Reynaldo E. Lorida Mr. Bryan C. Bacasen
Mr. Renato Q. Dagumboy Mr. Albert I. Bgayan
Mr. Teotimo B. Argete Mr. Senando C. Velina
Mr. Lauro G. Rizaldo Ms. Maria Salipot
Mr. Deraño G. Alawas Ms. Shirley Matin-ao
Mr. Armando L. Atip

Can Planting a Trillion Trees Save Our Planet?

Source: https://www.oregonmetro.gov/news/power-trees

There are about 3 trillion trees in the world, according to a 2015 study led by researchers from Yale University and published in the prestigious science journal Nature. While that is a lot, the number has actually fallen by about half since the start of modern human civilization, meaning that 10,000 years ago there were twice as many trees. Worse, we continue to lose 10 billion trees each year.

Where do they all go? Conversion to farms, ranches, cities and loss to drought (desertification) are among the biggest contributors to tree loss.

A 2019 study from the Swiss Institute of Integrative Biology suggested that planting 1 trillion trees would dramatically reduce the amount of carbon in the atmosphere and significantly help stop global climate change.

So should we all get busy planting as many trees as possible, as soon as possible?

Well, yes and no. Among their many amazing qualities, trees absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Planting a lot of them would – eventually – absorb a lot of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Although any tree absorbs carbon, forests – with their many interwoven elements – provide many other benefits. They clean our air and water, reduce flooding, and provide habitat for other plants and animals. In cities, trees especially help keep things cool, reducing what is called the Urban Heat Island Effect, where human activities, asphalt and the built environment lead to far hotter temperatures than surrounding rural areas. The planet can surely use a lot more of all that trees provide.

Stopping climate change with a trillion trees however, is more complicated than it might seem.

Forests typically have 100 to 200 trees per acre. One trillion trees would require five to 10 billion acres of land, two to four times the entire area of the United States. Where would all those trees be planted? By whom? Who would pay for them? Who would care for them? What species would be planted? Could they be harvested? Who gets to make these decisions? What else could that money be spent on?

Many experts think the best solution for stopping climate change is keeping fossil carbon like oil, coal, natural gas and old-growth forests in the ground in the first place. They fear a focus on planting trees would distract from efforts to reduce carbon emissions. While trees and forests are wonderful for many reasons, one tree grown in Portland for 10 years stores about the same amount of carbon as 7 gallons of gasoline or reducing one household’s annual electricity use by 1%….So while restoring habitat by planting the right trees in the right place is always a good thing and can certainly make a difference on the regional scale, if you really want to save the planet, be sure to take the bus. Or carpool on the way to the planting project, and turn off the lights before you leave the house.

Sample of GPS capture image

GPS Location
Stn 1.       14 28’42.20”N Stn 4.      14 28’41.03”N
                 121 31’17.10”E                  121 31’20.45”E
Stn 2.       14 28’42.85”N Stn 6.       14 28’40.24”N
                 121 31’18.33”E                  121 31’19.88”E
Stn 3.       14 28’41.74”N Stn 7.      14 28’39.76”N
                 121 31’19.04”E                 121 31’18.05”E
Stn 4.       14 28’41.79.”N
                 121 31’20.02”E

Use any GPS (Global Positioning System) software / applications to input the latitude and longitude coordinates to be able to remotely see the location of your trees planted. Some examples include:

EcoMatcher 3,000 Tree Planting by Forest Guardians, Sierra Madres

                  

About EcoMatcher Ltd.

FEED has been planting with EcoMatcher since 2017 under FEED’s LIVING LEGACY program, and all we can say is thank you and more power to your advocacy. You have reached clients from around the world as far as France and the US to enable us to restore the Sierra Madres to her original glory.

An additional and increasingly in-demand feature of EcoMatcher’s tree-plantings include the capturing of individual tree-specific images, farmers/foresters/community planters names, mobile numbers and Global Positioning System (GPS) tags, using EcoMatcher’s unique TreeCorder application – which enables those who adopted these trees through EcoMatcher with FEED to remotely monitor your tree, from anywhere in the world.

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About EcoMatcher

Business Opportunities
More and more companies are starting to realize that climate change and sustainability is a business opportunity, not a burden. Customers and employees are demanding action. Companies, however, need trustworthy partners that offer transparent sustainability solutions

Welcome to EcoMatcher
Through EcoMatcher, companies can plant trees, use them in innovative ways and improve their businesses. For example, companies can use the EcoMatcher platform to gift trees they plant on behalf of the customers, or plant a whole forest and distribute the trees to each of their employees, or gift trees as a reward for finalizing a survey. The possibilities are endless.

So how we do that?
We partner with vetted foundations from around the world that specialize in tree planting. Through our platform, you have access to information about every tree you plant, and you can tap on cool digital technologies to make the best use of the trees you have planted. We cannot change the world by ourselves, however with a bigger team effort we can make a difference, while improving our businesses at the same time.

More here: https://www.ecomatcher.com/

NATURE IS SPEAKING (Narrated by Julia Roberts)

What can I do to stop climate change?

“As the world warms, extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, sea levels are rising, prolonged droughts are putting pressure on food crops, and many animal and plant species are being driven to extinction. It’s hard to imagine what we as individuals can do to resolve a problem of this scale and severity.

The good news: We are not alone. People, communities, cities, businesses, schools, faith groups and other organizations are taking action. We’re fighting like our lives depend on it — because they do.

In a world of more than seven billion people, each of us is a drop in the bucket. But with enough drops, we can fill any bucket.” –  David Suzuki

Contact FEED

In 2015, the Philippine government submitted to the United Nations the country’s commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The country committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030. The carbon dioxide reductions will come from the sectors of energy, transport, waste, forestry and industry.

Join us!  Help us reverse the Earth’s “hothouse climate” tipping point.

Tree-Planting with FEED

Contact us at FEED for more details, to join our regular activities or to design your own tree-nurturing event: info@feed.org.ph or call/text +63 (0)917 552 4722.

© Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc.