Isuzu turns 15 with another green CSR effort
By Kap Maceda Aguila
(The Philippine Star)
Updated August 24, 2011 12:00 AM
World Wide Fund for Nature Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Tan and Isuzu President Ryoji Yamazaki pose during the symbolic turnover of a seedling.
MANILA, Philippines - It wouldn’t be exaggeration to say that Isuzu Philippines Corporation (IPC) has adopted quite a great way to mark its birthdays.
“Being already a tradition, we are once again commemorating our anniversary by simply giving back to the community,” said IPC president Ryoji Yamazaki at the celebration of the Japanese automaker’s 14th year in the Philippines.
Actually, the birthday once again took a back seat to the launch of IPC’s corporate social responsibility thrust – launched at the same event at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel.
This time around, the automotive manufacturer has teamed up with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) for an agro-forestry campaign to conserve the watershed in the Sierra Madre mountain range in Ilagan, Isabela.
According to the WWF, the 300,000 hectare-plus Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park is the “largest remaining swath of old-growth rainforest in the country,” which is also a wildlife sanctuary and a source of water that “feeds the Cagayan Valley, Luzon’s largest rice granary.”
WWF says that the natural park is suffering deforestation owing to rampant illegal logging, along with slash-and-burn farming – both attributed to poverty, population growth, lack of property rights, poor governance, and ill-informed farmers.
IPC has sort of shown an affinity for environmental causes – beginning in 2002 when it organized an “environment-themed show” for children of Biñan, Laguna.
Santa Rosa residents, meanwhile, received a new river garbage trap, and 10,000 tilapia fingerlings went into the Laguna de Bay.
In 2005, IPC helped create a man-made “forest strip” in Atimonan, Quezon via some 15,000 Narra seedlings.
The following year, IPC caused the planting of mangroves in a five-hectare sprawl at Pangasinan’s Hundred Islands. According to company literature, Isuzu also gave out “environmental signs and (planted) 500 flowering trees along the National Highway entering the town of Alaminos.”
The historic Rizal Park was among the chosen beneficiaries in 2007.
IPC donated “African tulips and flowering plants, vicinity maps with environmental messages, and waste receptacles.” IPC also gave ornamental plants, plant pots, and environmental markers to Osmeña Park in Cebu, plus more than “100 palm-tree seedlings, waste receptacles, and lighted signboards with environmental messages to the Davao City Park.”
In 2008, it was the La Mesa Watershed (main source of water for Metro Manila); then next year it was Caliraya, Quezon (in partnership with the Haribon Foundation. Ecosave, and Napocor); Cebu; and Surigao.
Last year, IPC people trooped to Mt. Makiling in Laguna, where the company adopted 13 hectares of forest for three years (one hectare for each year of its history). The firm committed to plant 300 seedlings and to construct a “1.3-kilometer walkway inside the Makiling Botanical Garden.”
This year, IPC has found a formidable partner in WWF, the largest conservation organization in the world that “spearheads practical solutions to help the country adapt to climate change, secure food sources to alleviate poverty, conserve local ecosystems to reap natural benefits, empower communities to live low-impact lives, help corporations develop equitable, low-impact supply chains and promote renewable sources of clean energy.”
Yamazaki said, “IPC has committed to fund the establishment of 40 hectares of agro-forestry land and plant 100 mango seedlings per hectare and to train farmers in agro-forestry and seedling production.”
IPC will also conduct educational programs for local farmers to avert – and reverse – forest destruction. Yamazaki sees a way to help both forest and the people within and around it. “Agro-forestry will teach farmers to be independent as Isuzu is after sustainability and long-term empowerment,” he continued.
Later, WWF-Philippines CEO Lorenzo Tan addressed the assembly of media practitioners, Isuzu dealers, and other guests. “We’re very happy to see Isuzu come in, because Isabela is home to the largest remaining block of forest in the Philippines,” he underscored. “It’s home of the Philippine eagle (and) some of the most beautiful rivers in the country.”
IPC will infuse funds for WWF to “pilot and expand agro-forestry in grasslands, upland corn- growing areas and farms in order to maintain life-giving watershed functions and services.”
Isuzu points out that the environment-related involvement is “in line with the United Nations’ proclamation of 2011 as International Year of the Forests (Forests for People), which focuses on reforestation and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
IPC says it will present the results of the project to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources “in support of the President Aquino’s National Greening Program under Executive Order No. 26 which aims to plant 1.5 billion trees from 2011 to 2016.”
WWF’s Tan juxtaposes two figures to explain the importance of the Isabela mission. ”You have 300,000 rice and corn farmers in Isabela, there are only 3,000 people who work illegally in the forest. What’s more important – 300,000 or 3,000?”
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