|
Giving
Something Back
By Michael Alan Hamlin
May 07, 2001
A client of mine, SAP Philippines, the past couple
of years has chosen to celebrate its corporate anniversary doing
something more important than holding a cocktail for customers or
a barbeque for employees. Last year, SAP employees, partners, and
clients spent a day with Habitat for Humanity helping construct
houses for disadvantaged communities.
This year, the anniversary was marked by traveling
to the La Mesa Watershed to plant seedlings to aid in the reforestation
of this critical natural resource. Around 60 SAP employees, partners,
clients, and media friends devoted most of last Friday to this cause.
The reforestation initiative is championed by ABS-CBN, and is called
the ABS-CBN Bantay Kalikasan Adopt-a-Hectare project (It's also
possible to adopt a tree. They go for P100 each.).
It's not necessary to travel to the watershed to adopt
a hectare, but doing so brings the relevance and the impact of the
program into sharp focus for anyone who makes the trek. Our group
did pretty ceremoniously plant 40 seedlings, but the important part
of the afternoon was hiking through the watershed, and learning
from Forester Val Mendoza about the project itself.
The purpose of the project is to rehabilitate 1,200
hectares of poorly stocked and denuded portions of the watershed,
which covers a total area of 2,700 hectares. The watershed is home
to a variety of wild animals, including kingfish, butterflies, monkeys,
and wild pigs. The long-term objective is to develop La Mesa into
a nature park and biodiversity reserve, "for the future appreciation
and education of children, and the public," according to ABS-CBN's
Mia Bunao, who led our group.
The reserve will include a resort boasting a diverse
ecosystem, including grassland, tropical rainforest, lake, and river
areas. Visitors will be provided a variety of leisure facilities,
such as a campsite, orchidarium, butterfly garden, avian center,
a picnic area, boating and fishing facilities, and a swimming pool.
As Mr. Mendoza suggests, all in all a great alternative to the mall.
The watershed, of course, also acts as a reservoir
for water that flows from the Angat and Umiray watersheds. The water
is then distributed to thousands of households in Metro Manila.
According to Mr. Mendoza, about 45 percent of the La Mesa Watershed
area is denuded. If something isn't done about it, he estimates
that it will cease to be a viable water resource sometime within
the next few years.
Metro Manila has already lost one watershed, Montalban.
Losing La Mesa would create a serious water shortage for Metro Manila.
Because the Lopez-owned Benpres Group controls Maynilad Water, one
of two water utilities for Metro Manila, for some ABS-CBN's interest
in preserving the watershed through donations may seem self-serving.
I don't think that's the case, since Maynilad Water's
responsibility is distributing water resources, not creating and
maintaining them. In fact, La Mesa is owned by the Metropolitan
Water and Sewerage System (MWSS). And although the watershed produces
significant revenues for MWSS, it spends next to nothing to maintain
or preserve it.
Around 625 seedlings are being planted per hectare.
Thanks to the dedication of Mr. Mendoza and his staff, the survival
rate is better than 90 percent. Incidentally, the area was originally
denuded principally by upland farmers, who cleared the land to plant
food crops. That provided a net income, Mr. Mendoza says, of about
P5,000 a year per farmer family.
But Mr. Mendoza has gone to significant lengths to
explain the impact on the environment of the farmers' practice of
clearing the watershed of trees, which help the land hold water.
And he's gone an important step further. In return for desisting
from clearing land, he employs the farmers to help maintain and
protect the seedlings. He also allows them to plant crops between
seedlings, as long as the seedlings are protected.
Donors can adopt a hectare of the Bantay Kalikasan
project for just P40,000. In SAP's case, this donation was raised
from the same people who trekked to the watershed last week: employees,
partners, and clients made corporate and personal donations to adopt
the SAP hectare on the occasion of its sixth anniversary.
Why should a business like SAP be concerned about the
La Mesa Watershed? In SAP's view it has to do with giving something
back to the community to which it owes its success. Six years ago,
the company started out with three people and 10 clients. Now, there
are 40 technical support, training, and marketing professionals
working for SAP in the Philippines, and its client base has expanded
to better than 120 firms or 52 percent of the enterprise solution
market, according to third-party market researcher IDC.
So giving something back makes sense not just because
it's a feel-good, relatively affordable gesture. It makes sense
to contribute to strengthening the community responsible for the
corporation's success. Others feel the same. As I was leaving the
watershed Friday, Mr. Mendoza told me that the Japanese ambassador
together with top executives of Ayala Corporation were expected
Saturday, to make a substantial donation of equipment required to
maintain the watershed, and develop the reserve.
If your company is looking for a way to give something
back that's meaningful for more than just one night, the La Mesa
Watershed is a superb alternative.
(Mr. Hamlin is managing director of the consultancy
TeamAsia and the author of two books on Asian economies and managing
in Asia. His latest book is The New Asian Corporation: Managing
for the Future in Post-Crisis Asia. His e-mail address is mahamlin@teamasia.com.ph.)
|
