SM management commissioned the services of Deyan Construction to initially monitor the growth of the 30,000 agoho tree seedlings that were planted in Camp 7 and Santo Tomas area of the city-owned property and will plant the remaining 20,000 seedlings also in the same area this year. SM City Baguio management committed to plant a total of 500,000 tree seedlings spread over a 10-year period, equivalent to 50,000 tree seedlings annually starting this year, as part of its compensatory requirement of its mall expansion project even if the Department of Environment and Natural Resources required the management to plant 6,000 tree seedlings in lieu of the affected ones.
Deyan Construction’s contract with SM to maintain over 25,000 tree seedlings that were planted in Busol watershed already expired, while its contract to maintain the PMA plantation area where there were over 30,000 seedlings that were planted will expire by December this year.
Under its contract with SM management, the forestry contractor is obliged to guarantee the 100-percent growth of the planted tree seedlings by replacing the ones that have died among other necessary interventions over a three-year period.
Earlier, SM management revealed that the 60,301 assorted tree seedlings and saplings that it planted in various plantation sites in the city achieved a 100-percent survival rate because of the maintenance activities done by the hired contractor for the purpose of making sure that the trees will serve their purposes.
Some nearly 1,000 city and barangay officials and employees joined the citywide mass tree-planting activity in the city-owned property on Friday purposely to plant the 30,000 tree seedlings provided by SM City Baguio as part of contributions to the efforts of concerned government agencies and the local government to bring back the greenery of denuded and barren mountain slopes in the different parts of the city. Mau Victa
SM management reiterated its commitment to be a steward of the environment by being aggressively involved in efforts of concerned government agencies and the local government to reforest certain areas of the city and to preserve and protect the remaining watersheds of the city, which serve as the major source of potable water for the local residents and visitors alike.
SM management believes in the importance of the existence of trees that serve to control soil erosion and sustain the availability of abundant water for the rapidly increasing population and for the benefit of the present and future generations of people living and wanting to live in the city.
