Philex more than doubles reforestation area

TUBA, Benguet, Philippines — Philex Mining Corp. has more than doubled the area it had targeted for reforestation in 2017, planting 144,714 trees and other floras in 110 hectares of land in Tuba and Itogon—the two municipalities that host its gold-and-copper operations in this province—between July and October.

With a 90-percent survival rate, last year’s environmental-protection program also covered new refo areas and those being rehabilitated—replanted to replace the seedlings that did not survive in the previous reforestation programs, which run between three and five years.

Leon Mocate, senior forestry coordinator at the Environmental Quality Monitoring and Enhancement Dept. (EQMED) of the company’s Padcal mine, in Tuba’s Sitio Padcal, Brgy. Camp 3, said in a report that about 2,000 of the total number of trees and other tropical plants used last year had been donated to the outlying communities.

“Our refo program does not only involve us and our contractors planting trees in our host municipalities, but also us donating seedlings to local governments, schools, and other institutions that have established projects on and are adamant about environmental protection,” Julius Bayogan, EQMED manager, said in an interview.

He also said the 2017 reforestation program—which had been designed to reforest 50 ha. of land with 83,350 trees only—involved the planting of the forest trees Benguet pine, kupang, narra, gmelina, teak, ipil-ipil, and antsoan dilau; the medicinal trees eucalyptus and dapdap; the fruit-bearing trees avocado, bugnay (local wild berry), jackfruit, and guava; the tropical flowering plants bougainvillea, calliandra, and coffee; and vetiver, a bunchgrass used to prevent soil erosion.