DUMAGUETE CITY, Negros Oriental — Geothermal power leader Energy Development Corp. (EDC) launched Friday at Southern Negros Geothermal Project (SNGP) in Valencia, Negros Oriental its Vegetative Materials Reproduction (VMR) facility, an automated nursery that propagates endangered native trees recovered from various places across the country, .
Jay Joel L. Soriano, head of EDC’s Negros Island Geothermal Business Unit (NIGBU), in his message during the opening program, said the VMR project was an offshoot of a project to identify, locate, rescue and collect samples of the 96 targeted threatened native tree species for propagation.
Last year, the EDC launched its BINHI coffee table book that contains the 96 threatened tree species that are now being propagated after years of search-and-rescue all over the country.
The VMR facility, which was originally established in the EDC’s Northern Negros Geothermal Project in Bago City, Negros Occidental, has been expanded to Negros Oriental, with a state-of-the-art technology from Israel that provides for automatic spray-misting of plants in the nursery at an appropriate time with the right amount of mist to mimic “forest-like” conditions.
“EDC built the VMR facility by installing the Israeli technology called Dream Controller System, the first of its kind in the Philippines,” he said.
“The VMR will help us keep up with the growing clamor for BINHI parks from our partners here in Negros Island,” Soriano added.
The BINHI Greening Legacy Program of the EDC was launched in 2008 and aims to restore least 1,000 hectares of denuded forestlands within 10 years.
According to Soriano, the VMR automated nursery will allow EDC to accomplish such feat.
He said the firm now has 149 partners from 16 regions all over the country who have pledged to keep on planting and nurturing native trees in addition to the 6.3 million seedlings that the company has already planted since 2008.
“We are proud to say that 2.5 million or 40 percent of these 6.3 million seedlings were planted in over 3,000 hectares here in Negros Island,” Soriano said.
He added that “to make the VMR more accessible to our partners here in Negros Oriental, where we have our 2nd largest geothermal project, we have decided to transfer our first VMR in Bago City, Negros Occidental to this place where we are now in Valencia as we continue to serve the demand not only of our BINHI partners in the Visayas region but also that of our over 140 partners in our 10 million in 10 years for a Greener Negros Movement that was launched here in 2015.”
The EDC has also built its first VMR nursery in Antipolo City in Luzon, which was also inaugurated on Friday as part of their Earth Day celebration this year.
EDC’s VMR facility in Bago City has already produced 30,000 rooted cuttings since 2014, and in addition, the company has raised 9,700 seeds and wildlings in its nurseries for a total of 39,7000 seedlings of their flagship 96 threatened and premium native species since the start of the VMR nursery in Bago City, Soriano said.
The launching of the VMR is part of EDC’s celebration of Earth Day in Negros Oriental this weekend, along with a two-day trek and tree-planting activity to Cuernos de Negros, also known as Mt. Talinis.
Soriano said participants in this Earth Day climb will be planting seedlings of the threatened species varieties taken from the VMR nursery at the SNGP in Valencia.
Among the native and endemic tree species that can be found at the VMR facility are Tindalo, Almaciga, Yakal, Malabayabas, and Mangkono. (PNA)
