The Philippines is known for its vast biodiversity as a megadiverse country.

On a per-
unit-area basis, it boasts the most diversified life forms on earth. Its biodiversity, which includes
a diverse range of flora and fauna, provides supplies for human survival, fosters economic
development, and provides environmental services for every Filipinos. Forests are one of the
Philippines' most precious natural resources. Due to its richness and importance to people our
forest face continuing destruction. This is the reason why our collective effort in restoring our
forest is important in cementing and securing our future. One of this action is through tree
planting – one of the basic yet meaningful step to revive our dying resources.

Planting trees has numerous advantages. As the world progresses and the environment
becomes more polluted, the only way to help human recognize the basics and reconnect with
nature is to raise awareness about tree planting. Trees are a vital source of life on the planet.
We would not have had such a lovely environment to live in if the trees had not been there.
However, as the world becomes more urbanized, large-scale deforestation has occurred,
affecting us all. As a result, it is critical to comprehend the advantages of tree planting and by
just doing it at home can create a great impact on our community.

Camarines Norte State College as one of the tertiary education institutions in the Bicol
region is committed in maintaining the environment's integrity and resources of the institution
through continuous quality and environmental management system improvement. For the past
few days, we were tasked to do home-based tree planting activity individually as part of our role
as student. For me to finish the activity, I need to find a good type of tree which is suitable and
can adapt on the environment we have at home. I decided to plant the tropical almond tree
(Terminalia catappa), also known as "Talisay" in the Philippines, it is a huge tropical tree
belonging to the Combretaceae (leadwood tree) family that grows primarily in tropical Asia.

During the conduct of the activity, I was able to realize the importance of taking small
steps in protecting and preserving our nature. Tree planting is only one of many steps we can
do to take care our environment. This made me understand that if people truly cared about the
environment, they would do so on a regular basis. Planting the tree made me feel awful for not
doing so more often. I knew I wanted to do more than doing useless stuff on my life, when I got
this assignment; I wanted to make a difference.

Moreover, I’ve also learned unknowingly, that I been helping the Philippine Forest to
prosper by simply using the GCash app through its feature GForest, this feature gives users the
power to help rebuild the Philippine forests, one tree at a time by collecting green energy in
GForest switching it to green activities and reducing our carbon footprint. I already accumulated
15,322g of green energy to be able to plant a Bungalon Tree and Coconut Tree. This effort
helps me to create greater impacts on our environment, by just staying at home and through the
use of mobile application and smart phones.
 All in all, my experience on doing home-based tree planting is incredibly amazing and
life changing. Participating in this kind of activity we should always remember that we human
are the protector of our mother earth, it is our collective responsibility to protect it at all cost
because at the end of the day, mother nature doesn’t need human, humans needs nature to
nurture and all of that really matters.