Geoaxioma Project "Plant The Trees And Light The Villages" Reaches One Third Of A Million Tree Milestone

Island garden City of Samal, Philippines, January 6, 2015 (Newswire.com) - In early 2012, Bentley House International Corp and Geoaxioma launched a reforestation program to rehabilitate the decimated Sarangani Rain Forest, in Malungon, Sarangani province, Philippines.

The project site is the traditional ancestral lands of the Blaan and Tagakaulo tribes with history dating back to 500BC. This area was selected as it was impoverished, being a land-locked municipality where the inhabitants live deep in the mountains, without traditional fishing as a livelihood income source.

In 2013, understanding the plight of thousands of families still using kerosene bottle lighting, which is a known carcinogen, the project was re-named  “Plant The Trees And Light The Villages”   a strategy to encourage the indigenous people, to accelerate the re-planting of the Sarangani Rain Forest with the reward of free home solar kits to every family that plants 500 or more trees in the Project.  

The since the launch of the project, over a third of a million trees have been planted and almost 500 remote native houses now have solar lights  

Project Managing Partner and President of  Bentley House International,  (BHIC)  Mr. Jonathon Bentley-Stevens said, “We have been undertaking Agro-Forestry projects to assist the indigenous tribes in Mindanao since 1994, but this partnership with Geoaxioma is clearly the most successful project to-date. We have really connected with the indigenous people in each of the seven villages, who now earn money from potting seeds, growing seedlings in the nurseries, transporting mature seedlings to the mountain tops, then planting and weeding”.   

He continued, “ The lasting benefit of the solar lights is a direct saving of around $5.00 per family per month ( 250 Pesos) on kerosene, formerly used for lighting, which had to be carried for up to 40 kilometers to the remote mountain villages. With this saving, the planting families are now responding by building community sheds for tribal gatherings, day care centers and kindergarten, using their own funds earned in the Geoaxioma - Bentley House Project”.

   Project sites are in Tagbungan, Kadala Dalaan, Sitio Candice, Patulang, Patulang Centro,  Sabangan, each of the 7 existing nurseries have seedling capacities of between 30,000 to 70,000 growing trees at anytime.

A ceremonial planting of the 333,333th tree will be commemorated by a plaque to be unveiled.

Planned invitations include, Sarangani Congressman, Manny Paquiao, Governor Miguel Dominguez,  Vice Governor Jinky Paquiao, Mayor Reynaldo M Constantino and Barangay Captain Rommel Retuya, as well as tribal chiefs of the Blaan and Tagakaulo tribes.

 In March of 2012, Geoaxioma Founder, Vanessa Salvi planted one of the first trees in Tagbungan, a fast growing Falcateria Albizzia species, which now has a circumference of 45cm and height of over 7 meters. The ceremonial tree will be a Binoang Tree, a rare and endemic species of Sarangani.

In all an additional 100 Binoang trees will be planted in a Geoaxioma Commemorative Park in Tagbungan. These rare trees have a lifespan of 500 to 1,000 years.

The project is now one third of the way to its target of one million trees, and a bronze plaque will be unveiled at the January planting commemorating the milestone achieved.