New Filipino law would require students to plant at least 10 trees before they can graduate

A new Filipino law would require all graduating high school and college students to plant at least 10 trees before they can graduate.

The law, which has been passed by the country’s lower parliamentary House of Represensatives, formalises a tradition of planting trees upon graduation.

The proponents of the law say the legislation could result in as many as 525 billion trees planted in a generation if it is properly adhered to. It has not yet been considered by the Senate (the upper parliamentary chamber), which must approve it before it can be signed into law by the President.

"With over 12 million students graduating from elementary and nearly five million students graduating from high school and almost 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative, if properly implemented, will ensure that at least 175 million new trees would be planted each year,” MADGALO representative Gay Alejano wrote on the bill’s explanatory note.

“In the course of one generation, no less than 525 billion can be planted under this initiative”.

He added that even with the survival rate of only 10 percent, it would mean an additional 525 million trees would be available “for the youth to enjoy when they assume the mantle of leadership in the future.”

Priority would be given to forest lands, mangrove and protected areas, ancestral domains, civil and military reservations, urban areas, inactive and abandoned mine sites, according to CNN.

Consideration would also be given to the type of trees to make sure they are appropriate to the location, climate and topography of the area as well as preference given to planting indigenous species.

The Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education will be the government bodies making sure the scheme is implemented.

The move follows other recent environmental initiatives in the Philippines such as using banana leaves instead of single-use plastic in supermarkets.