“Don’t cut down trees.”
Those were the words her father used to tell when Cecilia Dacillo was still young. Today, she’s reiterating those words to her children who, like her, also grew up to have some concerns for the environment.
Dacillo, who lived in Sitio East Marahan since 2008, is one of the recipients of the financial assistance given by the Therma South, Inc. (TSI), a subsidiary of the Aboitiz Power Corporation as part of the company’s Carbon Sink Management Program (CSMP).
For the love of trees and the surroundings where she lives, she used the money to make a nursery for young seedlings of hardwood trees and fruit-bearing trees. Touted to be having a green thumb, she loves seeing the seedlings grow and flourish.
Once these trees are fully-grown, they will be planted in her land, one of the chosen areas by TSI to be teemed with green color from a distance. She wanted to be part of the generation that tried to stop landslides caused by logging.
“The currently logged areas in Marahan will soon be filled with green trees that can potentially prevent landslides in the area,” said TSI in a briefer. “With her green thumb, she puts a lot of effort into furthering the tree-planting aspect of the CSMP.”
Marahan is just one of the areas covered by the CSMP; it is also being implemented in Namnam, Balite, Upian, Sumilop and Balawal, all in Marilog District of Davao City. These areas are inhabited by the Matigsalug, whose claim to their ancestral land spans some 40,000 hectares.
The TSI briefer stated: “Once heavily covered by forests and rich in wildlife, travelers passing through the Davao-Bukidnon Highway would notice something stark about Marilog District – its thin, almost zero forest cover. The hills are now mostly covered with grass even as ‘progress’ started creeping in – mountain resorts and buildings have started to sprout mostly along the highway.
“The environmental damage was brought about by massive logging in the 1970s. Ironic especially since Marilog District is the main-water catchment for several rivers that lead to the mighty Davao River. It is also a major water catchment for Davao City which is proud of its clean water resource.”
The TSI saw the opportunity of helping the Marilog District to be green again through the indigenous people living in the area. “For the company, it is about their responsibility over their carbon footprint,” the TSI briefer said. “For the Matigsalug community, it is about this once in a lifetime chance to bring back to life their ancestral land, long denuded by logging and irresponsible farming.”
The main feature of CSMP is the planting of trees that will ensure the “capture” of the carbon dioxide footprint of human activity creating a “sink” for carbon. The TSI’s 300-megawatt circulating fluidized-bed coal-fired plant is located in Davao City and Santa Cruz, Davao del Sur.
A “carbon sink” can be likened to that of a garbage bin that serves as a receptacle for carbon dioxide. Among the greenhouse gases that trap the heat near the earth’s surface, carbon dioxide is the primary culprit.
Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer climate change. Carbon dioxide, in the form of gas, can be sequestered out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis. The carbon dioxide is converted into sugar by the plant or emitted back to the air through perspiration.
Carbon stored in plant parts other than the stem wood or trunk are generally decomposable biomass which eventually becomes a part of the soil organic matter of which the more stable component is the 50% soil organic carbon.
Among the trees planted, which are seen to effectively sequester carbon emissions, include falcata, mahogany, mangium, narra and yemane. “These are grown along with other fruit-bearing and indigenous trees,” says Perpetuo Maningas, TSI forester.
Currently, CSMP is concentrating its efforts in reforesting the Marilog district, as it has meet all the necessary requirements for the project: vast land for reforestation, relatively accessible, within the area where the coal plant is located, and organized community.
“We train, give financial support and assist the livelihood activities of the Matigsalug,” Maningas said. “Through cooperation, we can achieve together the objective of restoring the forest cover of denuded ancestral land.”
Socorro Patindol, of the Aboitiz Power Coal Group, agrees. “The overall goal of the project is to establish a cost-effective, long lasting and significant strategy for carbon sequestration as mitigation to the emissions of the power plant,” she explained. “In addition, it is a way of promoting and achieving sustainability in forest protection and conservation in the community.”
According to the TSI briefer, the project is targeting 1,000 hectares of area in Marilog and as many as 250 farmer beneficiaries. “The plan is to plant one million trees in 10 years – all of these will absorb 15% of the total carbon emission of TSI’s power plant,” it said.
Communities involved in the program are trained to establish their own plant nurseries, just like what Dacillo has done. All the seedlings will be used for the tree planting aspect of carbon sink. “In the future, the same plant nurseries may be used for the beneficiaries to develop their own crops for their respective livelihood projects,” the briefer said.
In addition, TSI provides financial assistance – a start-up grant of P10,000 – so that the beneficiaries can plant and nurture the agroforest trees by themselves. “The by-product of the tilled land (from fruits to vegetables) will go to the beneficiaries and their families,” it said.
As a commitment to help organize the Matigsalug, TSI also renovated the dilapidated “tribal hall” of the Matigsalug Council of Elders, Marilog, Davao City (MACOEMADDACI). It was converted into a multi-purpose hall, equipped with some basic furniture and fixtures, and installed with solar-powered battery system.
“Part of the CSMP’s continuing implementation strategy is the regular conduct of capacity building trainings, workshops and consultations among its partner beneficiaries,” Aboitiz Power said in a statement.
It was for this reason why the “tribal hall” was renovated to what it is now. In addition to those mentioned earlier, the building can also be used as venue in settling minor disputes among members of the tribe, conducting validation meetings with the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples in securing their Free Prior and Informed Consent for various projects in their area, and doing tribal weddings and other rituals.
Earlier, it was stated that only 15% of the total carbon emitted by TSI’s power plants can be absorbed by the one million trees. What about the remaining percentage?
“The rest of the 85% carbon emissions are left for the end users – the actual electricity consumers – to manage,” the TSI briefer explained. “This will involve education and management of carbon footprint.”
