MADman on a mission

Raf Dionisio wanted to be a rich man, because he had set his sights on working for a multinational, being a corporate executive, using his penchant for Math and making a lot of money. Until a friend nudged him and said: you have to do something for the world. You have to make a difference. That woke him up and so Making A Difference or MAD travel was born.

He admitted to me that after college he had gone into as many as seven attempts to found a business that would survive. Some were purely commercial like buying and selling of cars, another was supplying vegetables door-to-door, another was investing in a social enterprise and even copying the ube jam of Good Shepherd, among many other attempts. But what got him deep into purpose, mission and what seems to be a sustainable business model is MAD travel. He established an adventure company. In this day and age when tourists look for experience and not things to buy or to just pose for a photo at a scenic spot, MAD travel became relevant.

Raf realized it had to be a little different and one had to be a little crazy. He designed his tours to allow people to “make a difference” like teach in a school, help reforest and care for the environment by avoiding waste. To roll all of these things together, he zeroed in on his niche market: school field trips and company corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ESG events. After all, which company has not yet done a tree planting exercise? Almost every volunteerism event asks you to plant a tree.

But he first had to learn how to deal with the Aetas or any indigenous tribe because they have their respected rules such as running every plan with their elders. They have a leader called the IPMR or Indigenous People Management representative and he or she must tell the community about plans to reforest or whatever activity must happen. Raf had to take lessons from a reforestation project in Bukidnon with similar conditions. He asked for the advice of John Perrine of Hinelaban Foundation who had experience in reforestation with the Tala-andigs. So John asked him to bring his community elders over to learn in situ.

The similarity ended there. Bukidnon had the support of multinational corporations while Raf’s Zambales site only had start up businesses. But he carried on, learning which tree species could be planted in his area in Zambales which had lahar (volcanic flow) soil from Mount Pinatubo’s eruption. Over time he learned that he could plant kupang, a species where bats roost as they grow up to 30-40 meters high, the balete for fruits, agoho and narra. He learned about native species also from University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB)and transformed from being a math whiz to being a forester. He learned that the community elders are the ultimate foresters.

He takes pride in having planted 148,000 trees over a few years through the business model he evolved into – and it is called Impact Tourism. He has a handful of tour guides who know the forest, and he now knows the seasons of when it is hot and when there are floods. They also have a mountain development framework where tall trees are planted at the very top, fruits trees at lower elevations so they can be easy to harvest (e.g. cashew) and at the bottom would be root crops for food.

MAD travel will soon be renamed MAD Earth but the mission has stayed the same: protect the environment while having a sustainable economy in these parts. And companies can very well support Raf while doing their CSR and ESG initiatives or even just compliance because some creditor requires them to do so. Raf does not mind the reason, he cares that you choose to plant the right trees in the right environment. So MAD Earth can handle school field trips, company excursions and even “barkada” treks. As he said: travel is the how and Earth is the why. Thus, it is now MAD Earth and appropriately so.

Raf has seven locations in and around Zambales for every trekker’s flavor profile. He has Tribes and Treks; Feast in the Forest and Heights in Harmony as some of the well-named tours his company has been developing. So if you wish to help reforest while making your staff feel excited, a MAD trek is what you should take. Already many of his trekkers belong to the younger generations – Gens Y, Z and Alpha. And that is good news. The younger ones are taking it into their own hands, literally. Digging the soil and planting those trees.

I wish Raf could replicate these tours in other places like Mount Apo, Mount Kitanglad and Mount Matutum. The same formula of Indigenous People plus mountain and the drive to reforest our denuded areas. It takes a madman, who was nudged into mission, to do something like this, keep at it for years and see it through. With Raf’s experience in Zambales, a hot and humid area, anywhere else that is cooler or higher might even be easier.

This is a good time to address our domestic tourism development with Impact Tourism projects such as MAD Earth. One man’s entrepreneurial dream may be the solution to climate change and sustainable development. Big words that can be solved by a crazy idea of an entrepreneur who has shown success in his pilot run in Zambales. Imagine that replicated across the country.

We hope your tribe increases, in a literal way. From one tribe to another, our indigenous people may be the solution to our climate change challenges. Reforest with the ultimate foresters. And throw in a Math whiz with determination and grit. That’s the MAD formula.