Tag Archives: Boracay Island

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 

The Farm on a Cliff

29 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by in natural farming methods, Organic Farming

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terraced vegetable plots

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”

                               – Walt Disney

Dreaming and visualization are very much part of a farmer’s work. Around four months before this post, I was brought to a tiny piece of land on a rock cliff at the northwestern end of Boracay Island called Yapak. My good friend, who owned this, was looking at creating a sustainable organic garden to supply his family food requirements at home. While it sounded like a great plan, I had given my honest opinion and said this was close to impossible as a project. Boracay, for one, has very high rates for public water as it was coming from the mainland and pumped on an underwater pipe to the island. We were also planning to build on a rocky cliff, quite a challenge to any farmscaper with enough experience in designing farms.

greenhouse on a cliff

I had already made a farm near the beach, another carved out of forest and even some in bare land – this was to be the ultimate farmscaping challenge. My take on the whole thing was it’s next to impossible but certainly doable. I told my friend this can only work with one design, terraced vegetable beds and green houses for the plants. For the water, we

first harvest

would need a rain catching system with a large tank for the dry season in the summer months of the Philippines. It seemed like an incredible project and I actually forgot about the possibilities of this coming to life.

I found myself on the way to Boracay a little over a month later, in a van full of cargo that the owner had ordered. A waste shredding machine, a box full of African Nightcrawler worms, some pineapple suckers, some seedlings and liquid organic fertilizer we made at the farm. I was on my way to relocate to this island I considered my second home, it seemed like I was relocating a farm with me as well.

shredder and anaerobic composting beds

The worms found a comfortable home with lots of food coming from the nearby Material Recovery Facility. The shredder, the seedlings, the suckers and the fertilizer all went good use around the farm. The farm now had 10 vegetable beds, neatly lined along the cliff-side, and some had a greenhouse over it as well. This was mainly for the lettuce we were to produce here, a delicate crop that can only survive protected from heavy rainfall. We also constructed a rain catching system with enough water for a few months use. We had created a cool little farm on a sloping rocky hillside in Boracay Island.

organic lolo rossa

The rest of our open plots are grown to tomato, arugula, basil, spring onions, zucchini, cucumber, sugar beets and radish. We will soon put up a nursery which will have a nice collection of gourmet culinary herbs like sage, marjoram, oregano, thyme, rosemary and mint.

Three months after we had first talked about it, I was harvesting our first crop of arugula from the garden and had it for lunch. The first harvest, as farmers go, is always a time of celebration. It is usually offered to special guests and enjoyed by the family. There were none of them that day. Just me and a friend, munching on some fresh, crispy arugula leaves, sun-dried tomatoes, a tangy dijon vinagrette and some grated parmesan. It was a real cause for celebration, I suppose. When what seemed impossible is done, when what seemed realistic is surpassed and when nature conquers the odds and works its wonders just the same – it is truly a time to celebrate.

sunday harvest

Argonauta : New Home, New Beginning

02 Saturday Jul 2011

Posted by in travel and leisure

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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.

Boracay Lives!

10 Monday Jan 2011

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White Beach, Boracay 1985

I have always loved island life for some reason. Since the first time I set foot on Boracay Island in 1985, I was hooked to it. Back then, we would travel 8 hours from Iloilo to come to this little piece of paradise, where fishermen would sell their catch to you at daybreak, cook it in the back kitchen and eat it for breakfast. In Balabag, where I stayed, there was one bar back then, the Beachcomber, which served cold beer and played music till the batteries would last. Yes, the car batteries that were running the sound system. There was no electricity in those days and the only way to move around was to walk the beach, there were just no roads too.

I kept coming back. And back. And back. Finally deciding to live there in 2004. I found work in the island, even an office with a view of the famous White Beach. I also lived by the beach, on a house on a cliff in Bolabog Beach, today known as the kitesurfing capital of Asia. I left Boracay to move back to Negros in 2007 but it remains a second home for me to this day.

Bulabog Beach, Boracay

It has all changed now, the island is the Philippines’ premier tourist destination today. It has hotels and resorts for every niche in the market. Restaurants with world-class cuisine, fastfood outlets and yes,  Starbucks on the beach. It is rated as one of the world’s top 10 beach destinations, famous for its nightlife as well as its pristine white sand. Surprisingly, It is also a showcase in ecological solid waste management  today.

Boracay Sunset

Back in 2005, the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) gave a Two Million peso grant for a joint project with the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) which matched the grant with another Two Million Pesos. It’s goal was to address the solid waste management problem that Boracay was experiencing. A loose group of island businessmen and professionals, the BCCI embarked on this gigantic mission of initiating change in an island with 30,000 residents and over half a million visitors each year. In the hills behind the famous White Beach, the island had an open dump site  – its own version of Manila’s Smokey Mountain- that was the trash bin for all types of waste from the island. It was literally smoking as there was continuous burning of all types of garbage. There were a few scavengers as well, earning a living collecting plastic material and aluminum cans. It was an eyesore and a solid waste management nightmare. It was such a huge problem, nobody wanted to take the lead in looking for a solution. Nobody but BCCI and people who believed in their cause, that is.

White Beach, Boracay

In the summer of 2005, my island “gig” was managing a Mongolian barbecue restaurant within the D’Mall, the island’s main shopping area. It was an idea of a good friend of mine and I came in to manage the 20 seat restaurant as his partner. I only worked nights, which was perfect as it left me the whole day to enjoy the island life I had been living. It was huge success too, we had a grill on one of the alleys which smoked everyone passing by and smelling the various ingredients  we cooked. To my surprise, Mongolian barbecue actually traces its roots to the days of Genghis Khan. As nomad warriors, they would usually eat meat from animals they would slaughter each day, cooking them in their metal shields in a huge open fire pit where everyone would serve themselves. It was a great story I would tell to tourists who had never heard of this type of cuisine. It was fun work, had very little pressure and a great way to meet new people as well.

Working on White Beach 2005

I had previously worked with the BCCI as a freelance consultant, facilitating their strategic planning workshops and teambuilding sessions – skills i had learned as a corporate training executive. I was also closely working with their board, a group of idealistic people who were the island’s major stakeholders. Karen Villarica-Neff, their president then, sent me a message one night as I was tending to customers. We set a meeting for the next day and was asked, more like persuaded, to consider heading their solid waste management project for the next two years. It was quite a surprise to me, I knew absolutely nothing about solid waste management and had no qualifications in this field. But I had managerial and planning skills, was quite good with people and had the corporate experience they needed. I also needed a more stable job and here it was, being offered to me. Most of all, it looked like a great way to contribute something to this island I had grown to love as my second home.

Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry

“Boracay Lives” was the project I started to manage in April 2005. It’s aim was to initiate recycling, waste segregation at source and a more sustainable waste management for Boracay Island. It included building a Material Recovery Facility (actually something I had never heard of previously)  in the island, educating people on the benefits of proper waste management and creating a proper waste collection system. I soon moved into an office on White Beach itself, hired staff members and went about following a detailed list of activities according to a set timeline. We conducted seminars, met with government agencies, partnered with other organizations and always hoping to convince people to join our cause. In the meantime, I was also getting my own lessons in solid waste management. Mostly from the work we were doing and partly from my parents, both of whom had been involved in this field for a good number of years.

famous boracay sunset

It was a daunting challenge, to say the least. I had to present the project to various government officials, government agencies and civic organizations. We also had our share of disappointments with many government officials. But a lot of people were supportive and provided us the encouragement to keep on keeping on. The project found its champion in a barangay captain named Glenn Sacapano, who headed Barangay Balabag which covered most of White Beach. I had met this quiet and humble man in the many meetings we had and I somehow  placed my hope on him. According to the law we were trying to follow, the barangay chief was to be the point man. Our success was anchored on his own political will to institute change and implement the law – which he did effectively.  As we worked closely together, change slowly happened. The dump site was permanently closed, he passed an ordinance on waste segregation and implemented it himself. In the midst of controversy and criticism, our project constructed the first Material Recovery Facility in Boracay, built a composting facility for biodegradable waste, provided the first shredding machines and donated the first mini garbage truck to collect on White Beach itself. In the years that followed, government agencies and private organizations poured their resources into this little upstart project, expanding it and eventually creating a showcase for ecological solid waste management practices in the Philippines. People from all over the country continue to visit this facility today, learning what they can copy for their own cities and municipalities. In 2010, a select group of top local government officials from around the country gathered in Boracay for a National Solid Waste Management Summit, showcasing the Barangay Balabag experience and the system in place around the island today. Today, Barangay Balabag’s Material Recovery Facility produces and sells compost fertilizer, sells all the recyclables to wholesale buyers from Manila and operates a self sustainable waste management system which is supported by its own income from recyclable and biodegradable waste . It is supported by the Department of Tourism, the Boracay Foundation, the Aklan provincial government and the Municipality of Malay and many private corporations today.

segregated waste bins

I write this because I just got back from Boracay a few days ago. As I usually would, I spent New Year’s Eve with friends at the beach, partying island style. This year, I saw so many people I was very sure this was the most I had ever seen on the island. It was totally crowded on White Beach, I only managed to visit it a few times. Yet I was impressed with what I saw, the island was actually quite clean. There were posters everywhere reminding people about their waste, there were also uniformed personnel implementing ordinances. There is even a smoking, drinking and eating ban on the beach itself as an effort to rid the area of garbage. For a rapidly growing tourism destination, it is successfully coping with its waste management challenge while building on its past success. Today, Glenn Sacapano heads the Boracay Solid Waste Action Team – the island’s clean and green task force. He is still the quiet and assuming man he was, though now he is the champion of Boracay’s waste management initiative. And an excellent one as well.

In the final months of our project, towards the end of 2006, we decided to place a small plaque at their office for posterity. It was a simple memento for others to see in the years to come. Vaguely it reads, ” Barangay Balabag Material Recovery Facitlty, constructed in June 2006. A joint effort of the Pearl2 Project of the Canadian International Development Agency and the Boracay Chamber of Commerce and Industry.” Underneath was my name as Executive Director and the board members, most of whom truly deserve mention. Charles Y. Uy, Karen Villarica-Neff, Philippe Bartholomi, Peter Brugger, David Goldberg, Gigi Piit, John Munro and others I may not be able to recall. They know who they are. Boracay hardly remembers what these people did years ago, but I do. Back in the day, with our island in a crucial tipping point, these were the people who believed, who reached out for funds, who shared their resources and really worked hard for a cause they truly believed in. There is real power in having faith and pursuing one common purpose. What we believe, we can truly achieve. And as we had all believed back then, so we  see today…….Boracay Lives!

Boracay's famous White Beach