25 June 2021, Siniloan, Laguna, Sierra Madre Mountain Range. This tree planting initiative was conceived by Merck Business Solutions Asia Inc. (MBSAI) to boost environment regeneration efforts at the Laguna Quezon Land Grant, an over 9,000 hectare protected forest reserve situated in Siniloan, Laguna (Sierra Madre Mountain Range) managed by FEED’s first and longest Living Legacy partner the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).

With the direct help of trained local community members in and around Siniloan, Merck Business Solutions Asia Inc. were able to plant 722 seedlings. 1 tree planted for each of the 722 Merck employees based in the Philippines – great work Eco-Warriors!

Merck acts ethically and sustainably, according to MBSAI Managing Director Maria Alma Nimfa Edan. “We embark into purposeful activities as part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), that will have significant impact to the environment and the society. Merck consciously drive awareness and uphold high standard of environmental protection while encouraging our employees to do the same,” she added.

• Malaruhat   – 350
• Dangula  – 250
• Narra – 75
• White lauan – 47

Reforestation/tree-planting is included in Merck’s sustainable development goals and contributes towards alternative local community livelihood opportunities, but also protects communities in the lowlands including Manila.  Planting upland helps us have a cleaner water supply, stronger soil that prevents soil erosion and land slides, and trees that provide oxygen.   

GPS Coordinates

• 14’28’38.70”N
• 121’31’24.11″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:

Thank you to MERCK for supporting our community livelihood programs, protection and conservation programs of the Sierra Madre mountains.

Merck has been active in Philippines since 1977, when the first representation was opened. Please find below further information about our subsidiaries and distributors in Philippines . Get in touch with us.

As a vibrant science and technology company, we believe in science as a force for good. We make a positive difference in millions of people’s lives every day.

Our passion for science and technology is what drives our 58,000 employees in 66 countries to find solutions to some of today’s toughest challenges and create more sustainable ways to live.

We are here for people at every step, helping to create, im-prove and prolong life. We deliver personalized treatments for serious diseases and enable people to achieve their dream of becoming parents. We empower the scientific community. Our tools, services and digital platform make research simpler, more exact, and help to deliver breakthroughs more quickly. Our solutions accelerate access to health by assuring tests are accurate and the medicine we take can be trusted. We are the company behind the companies, advancing digital living. Our science sits inside technologies that are changing the way we access, store, process, and display information. Our innovations are unlocking the power and potential of data to open new possibilities to transform life on Earth as we know it.

Thanks to the constant curiosity of our employees, we are making discoveries that can change the landscape of entire industries. For more than 350 years, we’ve been pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and we’ll continue to do so in the years to come.

Merck Meeting FEED

Merck’s Sustainability Team who organized the planting on behalf of their organizaiton, meeting with FEED’s Director of Partnerships at their headquarters at Bonifacio Global City. Congratulations to all Merck Eco-Warriors and thank you from our forest guards and forest guardians of the Sierra Madres!

Sustainability Firmly Embedded in Merck’s Culture

We are curious minds dedicated to human progress. Our mission is to pursue progress for people everywhere. We believe that we can harness science and technology to help tackle many global challenges. Always guided by a robust set of values, we approach all our actions and decisions with a sense of responsibility. Sustainability has therefore been vital to us for many generations. For us, sustainable entrepreneurship and profitable growth go hand in hand; we can only ensure our own future success by also creating lasting added value for society.

As a sustainable enterprise, we create long-term value through our core business while seeking to balance environmental, social and governance aspects – for us as a business, for our stakeholders and for society at large. In doing so, we are helping tackle the great challenges facing today’s world, such as disease, poverty, hunger, and climate change.

For a global science and technology company like us, sustainability is an essential component of our Group strategy. Through our business activities, we want to be economically successful and create value for society. At the same time, we endeavor to avoid generating subsequent costs for society.

For more details, reach out to Merck: https://www.merckgroup.com/en/company/contact-us.html

Climate Change Action
FEED’s Climate Change Action Programs are community-based planting interventions ranging from:

• Watersheds: Upland agroforestry sites (protected rainforests managed by Bantay Gubat/Forest Guardians/AFP Jungle Warriors), to
• Mid-land: food forests (for and by public schools and remote areas far from market-access roads); and
• Sea: Lowland mangrove and coral plantings (in coastal areas with trained Bantay Dagat/Fisheries Cooperatives/La Union Surf Club, Inc.).

These Ridge to Reef programs endorse the management of waters from source to sea; “healthy and well-managed river basins and coastal areas where people and nature thrive, is the vision behind the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) initiative”.

“Healthy ecosystems are ecological life-support systems. Lands and waters that function to provide goods and services that are vital to human health and livelihood are natural assets that are increasingly referred to as ecosystem services. These services can include clear air, high quality water, carbon sequestration benefits, and habitats that support a range of economically and ecologically valuable resources.” (Source: US Land Trust Alliance)

“Tropical forests have a valuable role in relation to climate change, being a source and sink of carbon…Carbon density ranges widely from less than 5 t/ha to more than 200 t/ha in the following order: old growth forests > secondary forest > mossy forest > mangrove forest > pine forest > tree plantation > agroforestry farm > brushlands > grasslands. Carbon sequestration ranges from less than 1 t/ha/yr in natural forests to more than 15 t/ha/yr in some tree plantations. Land-use change and forestry make an important contribution in the national emissions and sinks. It is estimated that Philippine forest lands are a net sink of greenhouse gasses (GHG) absorbing 107 Mt CO2 equivalent in 1998, about equal to the total Philippine GHG emissions.” (Source: Lasco, R.D. & Pulhin. F.B. (2013). Philippine Forest Ecosystems and Climate Change: Carbon stocks, Rate of Sequestration and the Kyoto Protocol, Annals of Tropical Research 25(2): 37-51)

The average number of trees per hectare (in agroforestry and/or industrial plantations) ranges from under 500 to over 2,000 depending on species and site. In this instance, with spacing of 1 square meter between each Philippine indigenous tree, according to Forester Rey Lorida, field supervisor of the Laguna Quezon Land Grant, this tropical tree plantation can sequester an average of 10 tons of carbon per hectare per year.

May the Forest Be With you Earth Keepers!

On behalf of our forest guardians, thank you to all involved for your outstanding support especially during this challenging Covid-19 pandemic, a critical moment in our history that compounds the seemingly insurmountable hurdles the world faces with climate change.

Congratulations to all at Merck participants who enabled this much-needed community-based support. As CSR Patrons of Education and the Environment, we thank you and hope that your support also inspires others to continue remembering our environment and the protection of our critical natural ecosystems.

Your CSR contribution provides much needed livelihood our forest communities need to ensure full survival of species planted, also enabling them to expand their own fruit and vegetable gardens for their own sustenance, as part of the master plan development of our protected forest.

• 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.

  Mother Nature is Speaking – Here’s what she would say to us

  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.

  Tree -Planting with FEED: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPC29Rwr6Pg

  © Fostering Education & Environment for Development, Inc.