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Friday, March 29, 2024

EDC inaugurates Vegetative Material Reproduction nurseries in Antipolo, Negros

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Geothermal leader Energy Development Corporation marks another milestone with the inauguration of two Vegetative Material Reproduction Nurseries in Antipolo City, Rizal and in Valencia, Negros Oriental last April 20.

Inaugurated last April, the EDC-BINHI Vegetative Material Reproduction nursery in Antipolo uses a state-of-the-art, automated mist irrigation system that mimics natural forest habitat conditions, which increases the survival rates of the seedlings. It can house a total of 50,000 seedlings at a time, addressing the needs of the BINHI program’s partners in Luzon for these seedlings.

In support of EDC’s BINHI program, the company’s corporate greening initiative, EDC constructed state-of-the-art VMR Nurseries to restore 1,000 hectares of denuded forests and bring back the abundance of the country’s premium threatened native tree species within 10 years. 

EDC’s BINHI team has already identified, located, and collected samples of 96 targeted threatened native tree species and have sought out to propagate them.

As the company aims to plant more native trees throughout the country, “the first VMR nursery in Luzon was built in Antipolo to serve the big and ever-growing demand for our native trees in the region. It can house a total of 50,000 seedlings at a time,” said Ricky Carandang, EDC’s Vice President for Corporate Affairs.

The VMR facility in Negros Oriental will serve the need for native seedlings of EDC’s BINHI partners in the Visayan region and its 10 million in 10 years for a Greener Negros movement partners  who have committed to plant, grow, and maintain at least 10 million trees in 10 years to grow back the forests in Negros island.

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To date, EDC has 152 partners from 16 regions around the country who have pledged to plant and nurture native trees in addition to the 6.3 million seedlings that the company has already planted since 2008. 

With the establishment of the two VMR nurseries, EDC intends to multiply the endangered tree species in secluded spaces to safekeep the seedlings. The seeds planted in the nursery will be used to grow mother trees to ensure the survival of high-value and fast-dwindling native trees.

“Most of the species have limited stocks while some are not prolific seed producers. Mother trees are needed in our gene bank and this is where this scientific approach is useful,” said Jay Joel L. Soriano, head of EDC’s Negros Island Geothermal Business Unit (NIGBU).

Both nurseries utilize an automated mist irrigation system that  can be programmed automatically to activate the mist irrigation at an accurate time and percent moisture content to mimic the conditions of a natural forest habitat.

With EDC’s mission to promote a sustainable environment for the future, EDC and its partners are proud of successfully propagating, nurturing, and growing native tree species that have evidently grown in numbers. To widen the reach of the BINHI program, EDC further reveals its plans to build another automated nursery in its Mt. Apo Geothermal Business Unit in North Cotabato to better serve its partners in Mindanao.EDC is the world’s largest vertically integrated geothermal company and the only diversified renewable energy firm in the country, with an installed total capacity of 1,456.8MW of purely renewable energy.

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