Start at home: Simple steps toward a greener Philippines

Here’s how you can help plant more trees and provide livelihood for local farmers without leaving your homes

MANILA, Philippines — Approximately 52,000 trees are lost every day in the Philippines due to factors such as illegal logging, slash-and-burn agriculture and land conversion. This is a major challenge that affects not only the environment and wildlife, but also the livelihoods of local communities.

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed by environmental issues and their impact on our world and think that there is nothing we can do. But that’s not true! There are ways we can help combat climate change and even support farmers’ livelihood—even small ways can make a big impact.

One way to start is with GForest. It allows you to plant real trees from the comfort of your home, while being part of a movement that's creating positive change in communities all around the Philippines.

A greener future with GForest 

GForest is GCash’s climate tech solution, an interactive platform that empowers users to contribute to sustainability through their daily use of GCash and its various features.

For every virtual tree planted in GForest, GCash, as a key funding partner, ensures that a real tree is planted on the user's behalf through its collaboration with local and international organizations.

These partners include the WWF, Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., Friends of HOPE Inc., Silliman University, ABS-CBN Foundation Inc., and the Philippine Coffee Board Inc. These NGOs, alongside trained foresters and farmers, are responsible for planting and maintenance of the seedlings to ensure their survivability. 

Since its launch in 2019, GForest has grown significantly, with over 19 million registered users who have helped to plant more than 2.8 million actual trees. These trees cover 11,600 hectares of land and include a variety of agro-forest, fruit-bearing, mangrove and timber species. 

Through a science-based planting approach, GCash, with its partners, ensure that the trees are planted where they are most needed, aiding local ecosystems and communities in areas such as Benguet, Bulacan, Cavite, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Palawan, Quezon City and Soccsksargen.

How GForest works

Using GForest and planting real trees from the comfort of your own home is easy as following these five simple steps:

1. Click on “GForest” in your GCash Dashboard

2. Earn green energy points by completing everyday transactions such as cashing in their digital e-wallet, sending money, paying bills, or even registering up to 20,000 steps per day. Tap the green bubbles to collect and use them to plant digital trees.

3. You can also check your energy points history to see how many points you’ve earned from every transaction.

4. Once you have enough points, you can plant a tree from the GForest marketplace.

5. Certificates are awarded for every digital tree planted. Once the trees are planted in actual sites, these certificates are stamped as proof.

With GForest, tree planting is made easy; earn energy points with every GCash transaction and eventually turn them into real trees. It encourages users to take small, meaningful actions that collectively make an impactful difference for both the environment and local farming communities.

Download the GCash app today to start.

Editor’s Note: This press release is sponsored by GCash. It is published by the Advertising Content Team that is independent from our Editorial Newsroom.