Category Archives: travel and leisure

The Treetment Project

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by in natural farming methods, travel and leisure

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“A tree is worth $193,250. A tree living for 50 years will generate about $31,250 worth of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, control soil erosion and increase soil fertility to the tune of $31,250, recycle $37,500 worth of water and provide a home for animals worth $31,250. This figure does not include the value of fruits, lumber or beauty derived from trees.”
                                                             – Dr. TM Das, University of Calcutta
“Save the planet, one spa treatment at a time.” is the slogan of “The Treetment Project.” Started by Mandala Spa in Boracay Island, Philippines; it is a response to the global call for environmental action and focused on the reforestation of Boracay Island as well as the adjoining town of Malay in Aklan province. Over the last 50 years, 66% of the Philippines’ forest cover has been lost, one of the highest deforestation rates in the world.
The Treetment Project was conceptualized as a corporate pledge of the multi-awarded Mandala Spa, perhaps the best destination spa in the Philippines today. It is a pledge to plant a tree for every treatment and room night booked in Mandala Spa and Villas. The tree would then be planted in government-designated and protected areas and cared for by Mandala Staff, with the tree owners given the option to name their tree and given updates on its growth and development.

Dieter Schrottmann, founder of The Treetment Project

Created in June 2009, The Treetment Project is the brainchild of Mandala Spa owner Dieter Schrottmann and meant to connect guests with nature, one tree at a time. It is also meant to inspire people to care for the planet in the same way that they care for themselves through wellness treatments. It has also become Mandala’s statement of commitment to the environmental sustainability of Boracay Island and its nearby forest area.

Miss Earth candidates join The Treetment Project

From the first seedling planted on July 13, 2009 at the Mandala Spa grounds, the project has grown in leaps and bounds with its reforestation initiative. Partnering with the local government of Malay, Aklan, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as well as Boracay Island Water Company, the Treetment Project has to date planted 14, 320 trees in Boracay and the Nabaoy watershed in Aklan, the source of Boracay’s fresh water supply.

Volunteers hike the mountains of Malay, Aklan to plant trees

It has included in its ranks of volunteers government officials, barangay workers, private citizens, staff of project partners and residents of Boracay Island. The project has incidentally also earned an eco-establishment certification for Mandala Spa from TUV Rheinland, a respected German certification body with over 140 years of experience. It currently remains as the only TUV accredited eco-establishment in Boracay Island today.

Treetment Project tree planting activity in Nabaoy

The Treetment Project is a continuing commitment by Mandala Spa to the environment. It will continue to plant trees for as long as guests come for treatments and stay at its villas. It has generated much interest from other sectors and will involve large corporations in the future, all committed to the preservation of the environment and to corporate social responsibility.

Big things come from small beginnings, they say. Forests, too, will sprout from one small but revolutionary idea. An idea to give back to mother nature, an idea to connect luxury to reforestation. An idea with a lifetime of benefits, just one spa treatment at a time.

“For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver.” 
                                                                                    – Martin Luther 

Amanpulo : One Last Call

17 Sunday Jul 2011

Posted by in natural farming methods, Organic Farming, travel and leisure

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amanpulo sunset

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                ~Lao Tzu

It has been a year of coming full circle for me, coming back to where I started. This time, returning to the roots of my island farming career once more – to the tiny island known around the world as “Amanpulo.” This was where “island farming” was first coined, as a fun status update on my Facebook page which I wrote on my first visit here over three years ago. Ironically, I am also writing this from Casita 30 – the same treetop cottage I was given on my first visit here back in 2008. I was still a novice farmer then, and Amanpulo was my first ever project outside of our farm in Negros Island. I had been learning the ropes of organic farming then, having gone back to my home island of Negros after 3 years of living in yet another little piece of paradise called Boracay.

Casita 30

This time around,  I was in Amanpulo with an organic guarantee inspector, to have our little organic garden finally certified – the highlight of over three years of patient work. We were set to become the first island resort in the Philippines to have a certified organic farm. And as I looked back over three years of painstaking work, I gave myself a little tap on my shoulder even as I was out laying on a beach bed overlooking the neighboring island of Manamoc. We had truly created a gem of a garden here and I was mighty proud of it too.

amanpulo organic garden

It was a truly daunting task when we started this garden in 2008. The island had a tiny garden with a few plots, some clayish soil and some puny little plants in it. The island, itself, has no top soil. Essentially a huge sand bank where plants started to grow, Pamalican Island is barren, dry and has a large number of animals and birds roaming freely around it. We started using kitchen waste for our vermicomposting substrate,, mixing it with shredded garden waste which was collected daily. These were put in compost pits to decompose and fed to worms later to create fertilizer. We started to ferment fruit scraps, fish guts and seaweed – all waste products from the kitchens as well as the beach that were being collected everyday.

amanpulo organic garden

Today, the organic garden supplies a good amount of the vegetables the resort consumes regularly. At several of their food outlets, farm-to-plate salads are served to guests straight out of our daily harvest. The garden also grows native herbs that are used for Vietnamese restaurant. The Picnic Grove serves fresh arugula salad for guests as an addition to their ordered pizzas.

fresh arugula salad

When you grow lettuce in a farm with top soil and adequate sunlight, it may seem quite normal and the work of nature. When you do this less than 50 meters from the beach, in a hot and humid tropical island, that would already be close to a miracle. As the French would say, “Tout es possible,” or everything is possible. What we can dream and conceive, we can truly achieve. Even making a certified organic farm in a barren tropical island in the middle of the Sulu Sea. Nature can put on an awesome show, we just need to be creative enough to give it a unique venue.

aman spa

Argonauta : New Home, New Beginning

02 Saturday Jul 2011

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boracay sunset and paraw sailboat

“I have wandered all my life, and I have traveled; the difference between the two is this – we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.”
                                                                                          – Hilaire Belloc

I came full circle last month again, leaving my beloved Farmville in Negros to move back to Boracay Island once more. It was a quick decision made in the most difficult circumstances. The farm website I had built was gaining ground on the net, we were getting more requests for training and consultancy services. There were inquiries from Japan about exporting organic bananas, Malaysians were inviting us to Kota Kinabalu for meetings. Yet, I was totally focused on one thing – coming back to Boracay. Having lived there for three years till 2007, I had always missed my friends , the people who had become my family in the years I was there. Now there were new projects to be done and new opportunities to explore once more. This was to be a new beginning for me, the next chapter of my colorful and exciting life. And Argonauta was to be my new home.

argonauta boracay

Argonauta ( www.argonauta-boracay.com ) is a quaint boutique hotel perched atop the rocky hills of Hagdan in Barangay  Yapak, on the northwestern end of Boracay Island. Built in 2008 and finished in 2010, it has 20 different rooms, apartments and villas – all having a magnificent view of the Tablas Strait and Punta Bunga beach below. Quite a distance from the world-famous White Beach, it was a side of the island I was least familiar with. Yet, it offered me the best of both worlds I have come to love – tranquility, which I had appreciated in over 4 years living at our farm and bustling Boracay nearby, a place I had grown to love as my second home. Still to be formally launched and opened, this was to be my home and also my work place. I am now consultant for the hotel, marketing it to local tour operators and getting it known on the internet.

boracay sunset color show

Argonauta has luxurious surroundings and room settings for individuals, couples, families and big groups. Located in a gated community, it has all the amenities guests can ask for. It has a small cafe/restaurant that can cater t0 your needs, a large roof deck for small parties and gatherings, a mini-bar and a swimming pool. Soon to be certified by TUV Rhineland, a German guarantee body, it combines in its premises the German brand of quality with the world-famous Filipino hospitality to create a distinct brand of service that is personalized to all types of needs.  It is set to be launched soon as a quality brand in the growing number of  hotels in Boracay.

ocean view from argonauta villa

Home, as they say, is where the heart is. And if this is so, the heart shall always know if it is in the right place at the right time. This is what my heart tells me, I am happily  home once again.