PROJECT 747
Green For Good

For four years and counting, San Miguel Global Power, in partnership with its foundation, has been planting over six million upland trees and mangroves nationwide under its flagship environmental initiative Project 747.

The Project is on track to meet its multi-year goal of growing seven million trees across four thousand hectares of degraded forest lands, in at least seven key provinces in the Philippines.

Growing, not just planting trees, is the main determinant of success. Close partnerships with the DENR and local communities—particularly fishers and farmers’ groups—are crucial to achieving this.

It is the role of the local DENR offices and community partners to identify indigenous tree varieties to be planted, nurture young trees, and ensure their growth. Through their efforts and SMGP’s continued support, survival rates of planted upland trees were at 90%, and mangrove propagules at 89%, as of January 2023.

To date, SMGP has planted 6,527,895 upland and mangrove trees across 2,000 hectares of land, in eight provinces: Albay, Bataan, Bulacan, Davao Occidental, Negros Occidental, Pangasinan, Quezon province, and Zambales.

The list is expected to grow as SMGP is committed to reforesting areas near its BESS facilities in Albay, Bohol, Cagayan, Cebu, Davao del Norte, Davao de Oro, Isabela, Laguna, Leyte, Misamis Oriental, Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Tarlac.

Across the San Miguel Group, other major reforestation initiatives have been successfully implemented, and continue to this day. These include San Miguel Brewery’s long-running “Trees Brew Life” program and similar projects by Ginebra San Miguel, Petron Corporation, and SMC Infrastructure.

Project 747 is by far the most expansive and most ambitious, yet. It targets to rehabilitate 2,800 hectares of upland forests and 1,204 hectares of mangrove forests. Tree varieties used in upland plantations include narra, molave, white lauan, palosapis, agoho, batino, igang, and malabayabas, while mangrove varieties include bakawan babae, bakawan lalaki, bungalon, and api-api.

The program is aligned with SMGP’s thrust to help mitigate the impacts of climate change by lowering its carbon footprint through this nature-based carbon capture initiative.

Other Related Stories