The art community has shown solidarity to support the environment. Artists gathered in Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo City last August 19 to mark the museum’s partnership with the Energy Development Corporation (EDC) in saving premium rare and threatened native tree species.
Aside from preserving local art pieces, Pinto Art Museum is now a proud host of rare, threatened native tree species as it partners with EDC through the latter’s BINHI program. Under the partnership, EDC will provide seedlings of native tree species to be planted in the 4,000-square meter Pinto Arboretum.
A hundred native tree seedlings from 20 species were planted in the arboretum. Seedlings planted in the arboretum include Bagoadlau (Xanthostemon philippinensis), Sierra Madre mangkono (Xanthostemon fruticosus), Yakal saplungan (Hopea plagata), and Yakal malibato (Shorea malibato), which are all increasingly rare in the wild.
Distinguished guests from different sectors also graced the event to plant seedlings and support this endeavor. US Ambassador to the Philippines Mr. Sung Kim, US Deputy Chief of Mission Mr. Michael Klecheski and his wife Eloisa, and Vice Consul Walter Nightingale came on behalf of the US Embassy. Mrs. Ihoko Haneda was also present to represent her husband, Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Mr. Koji Haneda. Members of the local government were also among the attendees of the event. Rizal Provincial Governor Rebecca Alcantara-Ynares, Antipolo City Mayor Casimiro Ynares III, and Antipolo City Tourism OIC Mr. Marino Bacani attended on behalf of the local government.
BINHI is EDC’s flagship environmental program, which reforests EDC’s geothermal watersheds in its sites in Leyte, Bicol, Negros Island, and North Cotabato. Beyond reforesting these watersheds, BINHI has undertaken the daunting task of searching for the samples of 96 threatened native tree species, some of which have not been seen in the wild for decades. Since successfully locating and collecting the samples of these species in the wild, EDC has worked towards propagating them through its 2 state-of-the-art automated nurseries in Antipolo and in Valencia, Negros Oriental.
EDC is the world’s largest vertically integrated geothermal company and the only diversified renewable energy firm in the country, with an installed total capacity of 1,456.8 MW of purely renewable energy.
