Imagine driving down the North Luzon Expressway and finding long stretches of it lined with trees (and not billboards). And not just any trees, but native trees, that is, species that are either indigenous (originating in the Philippines, but found also in other countries) or endemic (found only in the Philippines), and which are fast disappearing not just because of deforestation, but also because they are being eased out by non-native trees.
Tomorrow, the Feast of St. Benedict, members of the San Beda College Alumni Foundation, with their friends and sponsors as well as students and faculty of San Beda, will gather at NLEX to plant 2,000 seedlings of two species, the balitbitan and the dao, on the first five kilometers and the last five kilometers of the expressway (northbound).
The tree planting is part of the “Red Lions Living Highways Plant Native Trees” project. As explained by Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, president of the foundation and former health secretary, they initially “were just on the lookout for a productive fund-raising project” for their main purpose of funding scholars and professorial chairs in San Beda. “But with the help of well-meaning environmentalist friends, we realized that we can turn our project into a high-impact advocacy as well,” said Tan.
That advocacy is not limited to planting trees, already a great service to the environment, but planting native trees and thereby promoting biodiversity and preserving endangered tree species.
As one alumni officer put it: How can we Red Lions become the King of the Jungle when there are no more trees?
* * *
AS envisioned, the project will involve the planting of a total of 32,000 native tree seedlings from 32 different native tree species along NLEX. Manuel V. Pangilinan, a San Beda alumnus and chair of Metro Pacific Group which manages Manila North Tollways Corp., was easily convinced to join the project, and shortly after, Smart Communications and PLDT agreed to be the project’s first sponsors, funding tomorrow’s tree-planting.
But the Bedan alumni are still on the lookout for more corporate and individual sponsors, promising that, as Tan said, “we will have practically a native tree museum that we all can enjoy and be proud of as we drive along the best superhighway. Imagine what our children will learn when they see these trees, among many other benefits.”
Sponsors (who can have their names or logos attached to each tree planted) will give P2,500 for every tree, and be encouraged to support an entire five-kilometer stretch of the 80-km highway. For every tree planted on NLEX, the foundation will plant a counterpart tree in a Manila public school, so that the tree may be used as a teaching aid on the value of native trees. The foundation also promises to maintain the trees and to replace each tree lost to accidents or calamities.
The funds raised will go to supporting scholars from disadvantaged families and providing professorial chairs to San Beda alumni. Two of the foundation’s five scholars were present at the media lunch and they proved that they were indeed deserving of assistance.
* * *
BUT why the emphasis on native trees? Won’t just any tree do?
No, says Leonard Co, described as perhaps the country’s foremost authority on native tree species. While “alien tree species” like mahogany, gmelina, acacia and the fire tree are fast-growing, which explains their popularity among tree-planting enthusiasts, Co says they are actually ecologically harmful. They do not allow native species to thrive with them, and almost no insects and animals can depend on them for survival. Bees, for instance, which are so vital to cross-pollination, ignore alien trees.
In the case of the tarsiers of Bohol, scientists had long been wondering why their number has been dwindling. Then they discovered that because the animals live in a man-made mahogany forest, they couldn’t find any insects to feed on, and were thus dying off.
Native trees, said Co, are ideal for local conditions: deep-rooted, stronger and more beautiful.
To prove his point, Co and Imelda Sarmiento of the Hortica Filipina Foundation, which is partnering with the Bedans on the project, held a show-and-tell, on the more common native trees.
* * *
AS they pointed out, these trees are known among urbanites mainly as street names: yakal, bagtikan, guijo, kamagong, batikuling, dao, and narra. The banaba, with its distinctive purple blooms, has leaves that can be boiled and made into a medicinal tea.
One tree, the mangkono, is also known as the “iron tree,” because it has one of the hardest woods in existence and has been known to absorb heavy metals in the soil. The San Beda alumni said they were inclined to adopt the mangkono as their “signature tree” since it also sports bright red spiky blooms.
I was more than glad to find out that the tuay (called “tua” by Caviteńos) tree is also a native species, as three of them can be found in the garden of our weekend home in Alfonso, Cavite. The reason the trees are still standing, it was explained, is that the tuay tree has soft wood, which means it isn’t useful for furniture or for building.
The trees were the reason we fell in love with the lot when we first saw it, imagining family and friends sheltering beneath their leafy branches for lunch or enjoying dinner with hurricane lamps gleaming from overhanging branches.
For the past year or so, that’s what we’ve been doing, hosting meals beneath the intertwined branches of our old trees. That they also happen to belong to the endangered community of native trees is a pleasant bonus. And they will soon be joined by a molave seedling that I took home, giving rise to new dreams, new visions.
