800 volunteers plant 3 thousand trees

CEBU, Philippines —  The Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) planted at least 3,000 trees yesterday at the Buhisan Ecopark as a contribution to its massive tree planting project.

The massive tree planting is in connection with CENRO’s greening program that looks at planting 350,000 trees to replace the 2,182 existing trees that will be earth-balled with the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

It was raining during the activity but the number of volunteers who showed up was more than what was expected.

“Wala mi nag specific og target (sa number of volunteers), ang willing lang motabang. Modawat pa (mig volunteers),” CENRO Head Nida Cabrera told The FREEMAN last Friday.

Fortunately, from the 400 individuals who were registered last Friday, yesterday’s tree planting activity gathered 800 volunteers who helped and planted trees at the Buhisan Eco park and Toong.

Cabrera said the trees planted comprise of assorted fruit bearing trees and indigenous trees.

As to the earth-balling of trees within the route of the BRT project, Cabrera said there are more than 100 trees that have already been earth-balled from Mambaling, Plaza Independencia, near the SRP and others.

Existing trees along the route of the BRT project will be removed and relocated to river-parks and open spaces.

Cabrera added that there will be a final river cleanup drive in Bulacao this April 23.

The next barangays targeted for the tree planting activities include Barangay Tabunan on April 13, and Barangays Buhisan and Quiot on April 27. — Raizza Aliviado, USC Intern GAN (FREEMAN)