Jan. 02, 2015 – BAGUIO CITY, Benguet–Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan commended the management of SM Prime Holdings for making the Summer Capital and the province a major reforestation site of the retail chain’s environmental protection program.

“We deeply appreciate the move of SM management to plant at least 500,000 assorted trees in identified critical watersheds in Baguio and Benguet,” he said, citing SM’s best practices by hiring foresters to manage new plantations where seedlings would require at least three years of monitoring and nurturing gowth.

O the city’s 57.4 square kilometers land area, Domogan said only about 20 percent of the natiral forest cover remained mainly due to the rapid urbanization.

Engr. Paquito T. Moreno, regional executive director of the Cordillera office of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, also commended the partnership with the private sector.

“We still need more institutional partners like SM so that we will be able to effectively and efficiently contribute in the government’s goal of reforesting at least 1.5 million hectares of denuded watersheds nationwide,” he said.

“We look forward to much bigger partnerships with institutional partners for us to realize our goal of planting more than 1.5 billion assorted tree seedlings in the different parts of the country.”

He cited SM’s commitment to plant 1 million seedlings in Baguio and Benguet as a substantial contribution in greening the lansdcape and improving water supply that is dependent on watersheds and other sources such as Bued river along Kennon road and the Agno river providing water for the Ambuclao and Binga dams.