Earth Day call: plant more trees to fight extreme heat

A member of Lunaw Dabaw explains to a mall-goer the importance of trees to the environment on Tuesday, 22 April 2025. MindaNews photo by IAN CARL ESPINOSA

DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 22 April) – Lunaw Dabaw, a group of plant enthusiasts here, on Tuesday, Earth Day, called on the public to plant more trees to help reduce the scorching heat being felt in parts of the country.

Lito Palao, Lunaw Dabaw president, blamed the cutting of trees as among the factors that contributed to the prevailing hot weather condition, which causes inconvenience and poses health hazards. Lunaw means green.

“[The extreme heat] can be attributed to more trees being cut, which results to high temperature,” Palao told MindaNews in Cebuano, citing the conversion of lush lands into residential subdivisions or commercial areas.

His group distributed free tree seedlings at SM City Davao from April 20 to 22 to encourage people to plant more trees.

Most of their giveaway seedlings are considered endangered, such as bagawak morado (Clerodendrum quadriloculare), guijo/guiho (Shorea guiso),  and katmon (Dillenia philippinensis). Other trees such as bani (Pongamia pinnata), kamansi (Artocarpus camansi) and balai lamok (Crateva religiosa) were also given to mall-goers for free, but by request.

“Some of these tree seedlings we’re distributing are non-existent in the wild,” Palao said.

He said that their group also cultivated an 11-hectare private property in Barangay Riverside, Calinan, which serves as one of their active sites where they planted various native trees over the past five to ten years.

Around 80 percent of the trees planted there are dipterocarps, which he emphasized are crucial for the survival of the Philippine eagle.

He, however, conceded that their 11-hectare planting site is not enough for the critically endangered raptors to nest and thrive, also citing the continued loss of forest land.

“If there’s no place for the eagles to nest, they will die,” he warned.

Palao also stressed the proper way of pruning the trees for them to survive, especially the cutting of important branches necessary for their growth.

He lamented that one of 18 molave trees pruned by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) – Community Environment and Natural Resources Office – Region XI near the Mintal Elementary School in September 2024 died due to wrong pruning.

The trees were pruned because they posed “hazards” to students and pedestrians.

“Dili man gud tanan rare nga mga kahoy mo-survive kung i-prune nimo, naa’y uban mamatay. Dapat man gud ang pruning, kabalo sila nga naa koy ibilin isa o duha ka sanga, naa’y fertilizer, para mahitabo gihapon ang photosynthesis, para ang puno mo-survive,” Palao said.

The DENR classified the molave tree as an endangered species in 2017.

Global Forest Watch, an open-source data bank for forest covers around the world, noted that as of 2020 , Davao City has 97.2 kilohectares (kha) of natural forest or 44 percent of the city’s land area. However, it lost 264 hectares (ha) of natural forest in 2023. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)