By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
It's official. The Philippines broke the record for the number of trees planted in one day when it embarked on what is dubbed “Treevolution: Greening MindaNow” in the troubled island of Mindanao in the country's Muslim south last year.
Guinness World Records announced in a statement Tuesday that Mindanao has the “most trees planted simultaneously in multiple locations” during the Sept. 26 one-day tree planting.
According to the GWR website, a total of 2,294,629 trees were planted by 122,186 participants in 29 locations during the one-day event organized by the Mindanao Development Authority and the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
“This record-breaking event saw the planting of rubber, cacao, coffee, timber and mahogany trees, as well as a range of fruit trees and other species indigenous to the Philippines,” Guinness said.
Setting aside their fears, both Muslims and Christians in Mindanao - an area wracked by armed conflict from Muslim rebels and communist insurgents - joined the event.
It beat the previous record of 1.9 million held by India.
Local officials, policemen, soldiers and Moro rebels temporarily laid down their arms to plant thousands of trees in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and other parts of the island.
A team from Guinness arrived in Zamboanga to document and validate the entry.
The "Treevolution" initiative supported the Philippines greening program that targets 1.5 million hectares reforested by 2016.
Due to the stringent verification process of the Guinness committee, only 2,294,629 of the 4 million trees planted were officially tallied, exceeding the previous record of India by more than 300,000 trees.
The 4 million seedlings planted will add 1 percent to Mindanao’s target forest cover by 2016. The trees, once fully mature, will supply oxygen to around 16 million people daily, or 75 percent of the total Mindanao population.
