The 2021 Philippines Impact Report

With our holistic, sustainable approach, we have been bringing sustainability into everyday life for over three years. Together with you and our more than 160 partners, we plant trees to create biodiverse forests.

With our holistic, sustainable approach, we have been bringing sustainability into everyday life for over three years. Together with you and our more than 160 partners, we plant trees to create biodiverse forests.

But of course it doesn’t stop at planting trees, with our reforestation project we support 16 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals and create so much good – from jobs to new future prospects for collecting and recycling plastic waste.

You can read about the mega successes we were able to achieve with our project in the Philippines in 2021 here.

Reforestation project: Philippines

Who, how and what: Here is a brief summary of the facts for you. If you already know our project and want to read directly about the successes, click here.

The country

The Philippines is a Southeast Asian country in the Western Pacific and comprises more than 7,000 islands. UN Human Development Index rank 107 (Germany: rank 6; UN Report 2020).

The place

San Isidro, Davao Oriental, Mindanao; coordinates: 6°53’17.0″ N, 126°09’52.1″ E.

And here zoomed out again

The mission

Our mission is to create long-term full-time jobs and sustainable food security for local farmers while removing plastic waste from the ocean.

Procedure

Our tree planting in the Philippines aims to create a natural forest that has the best chance of survival. To this end, we plant trees that are suitable for the humid, green and coastal areas – mangrove trees.

Workers in our reforestation project

Full-time workers, both for planting and caring for the trees. The same applies to the collection of plastic waste.

Planting time

All year round; there is a break in the summer months as it is too hot for planting.

Plant species in our reforestation project

13 mangrove species were planted in Q4 2021.

Special feature of the project

In addition to the sustainable creation of full-time jobs, 1 kg of plastic is removed from the ocean for every tree planted in the Philippines.

We have compiled more in-depth details about our reforestation project in the Philippines on Planting trees in the Philippines – Why we plant trees for the oceans.

Project successes to date in our reforestation project

Click A Tree has been planting trees in the Philippines since 2019. The project has been open for customer support since mid-2020. Thanks to the great support of numerous partners, the following has already been achieved:

Important: “Newly created working hours” only takes into account all additional working hours created in this month. Even with small numbers (e.g. 0 in Q4 2020), all existing jobs will be retained. At such times, for example, the nursery is expanded, the field prepared, planned, etc.

More than just a reforestation project:

The expansion of the tree nursery

The reforestation of mangrove forests in the Philippines is Click A Tree’s latest project. We are all the more pleased that it has been so well received by companies and private customers across the planet – in fact, well enough that we had to expand our nursery in the summer.

The new tree nursery has space for thousands of new seedlings – and yet is already reaching its limits. The extremely successful 2nd quarter of 2021 exceeded all our expectations – over 8,000 trees were ordered!

The month of the mangrove

This is partly due to the “Month of the Mangrove”, which we celebrated in July. Thanks to increased posts on social channels as well as direct contact with existing and new corporate customers, the oceans and their deep-rooted protectors received an enormous amount of attention – and fortunately, this attention is also reflected in the extremely high planting figures.

We also promoted Mangrove Month with a very special campaign: in future, 1 kg of plastic will be collected from the ocean for every mangrove planted.

For us, this is another step on our path to holistic sustainability, which has been sensationally well received by all our supporters: Over 8,000 kg of plastic was removed from the oceans in Q2 2021 alone! What a brilliant start.

More on this in a moment. First, back to the mangroves and their planting.

Planting out the seedlings in December

The sudden increase in demand for mangrove plantations caught us somewhat by surprise. Who would have thought that after normally planting 1,000 – 1,500 mangroves per quarter, there would suddenly be 8,301 mangroves to plant for Q2? Even we weren’t quite that optimistic.

But challenges are there to be overcome. Fortunately, the nursery had already been expanded. And thanks to many diligent workers, 6,500 mangroves were actually planted in the 4th quarter.

The remaining 1,801 mangroves will now be planted together with the Q4 planting in the new year.

Do you want to do good and support reforestation? Then send us an e-mail today:

More than just a reforestation project: collecting plastic waste

Since summer 2021, we have been removing 1 kg of plastic waste from the sea for every mangrove tree planted. A unique project that enables all our supporters to achieve the greatest possible positive impact for our planet with very little effort.

Fortunately, the concept has been very well received: we have already been able to remove 9,503 kg of plastic from the sea. That’s almost 10 tons less waste that marine life off the Philippine coast has to suffer. A strong start that would not have been possible without so many hard-working supporters – thank you at this point.

The garbage is often collected by older people. State pensions are very low here – if payments are made at all.

As planting trees is hard physical work, collecting plastic is an ideal way for older people to earn a living.

And to prevent plastic waste from simply ending up in the sea again, we are currently working on an exciting option for reuse – more on this in a moment.

New projects in the pipeline

Thanks to the extremely positive development of the reforestation project in the Philippines, we are simultaneously developing further projects to ensure smooth further development.

All new projects are initially developed independently by Click A Tree – our partners can get involved as soon as the projects have been satisfactorily developed.

Chairs made from plastic waste

For every mangrove planted, 1 kg of plastic is removed from the ocean. As the collected plastic should not simply be dumped in landfill, we have come up with an exciting recycling solution:

school chairs.

This is what the first chairs made from plastic waste look like. This gives thousands of children a stable chair at school – even with a built-in desk pad.

A total of 30 kg of plastic is needed to produce one chair. Of course, the chair won’t weigh 30 kg – but so much plastic has to be collected.

Unfortunately, not all plastic can be recycled. (At least not yet – we are constantly looking for other methods. If anyone here knows someone, we are always happy to hear from valuable contacts).

Next Steps

As we are still in the early stages of this project, we will continue to refine the process over the next few months until we can fully integrate it into our project. The next task will be to see how the costs of chair production can be covered.

Click A Tree and the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Planting trees helps with 16 of the following 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This illustrates why planting trees saves the planet in so many different ways.

Would you ever have thought that trees are so multi-talented? That is why it is so important to us that we not only plant the trees, but also look after them in the long term.

You can read here which goal we are not yet meeting and how we are incorporating the other 16 goals into our reforestation project: Sustainable Development Goals.

About Click A Tree

Click A Tree runs sustainable reforestation projects worldwide. The aim is to implement these projects cost-effectively and to the benefit of all parties involved.

In order to succeed with this mission, we have created a system in which not only the planet wins, but EVERYONE involved.

Because if we want to save the planet, we have to do it in a way that benefits everyone: you, your customers, us and, of course, the planet.

Curious about how sustainability can be profitable? And can anyone REALLY benefit from a partnership with Click A Tree? What is the real deal?

Find out here: The 4-Win Formula from Click A Tree

Do you also want to do good as a company and support our reforestation project?

Do you also want to be part of this mission? Then send us an e-mail today.

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