When Ma. Rosario Ramirez, AVP for corporate affairs of Ford Group Philippines (FGP), visited San Juan, Batangas in 2006 to help release a number of pawikan (sea turtles), she expressed a “mix of emotions, though, at the very basic, there was this sense of happiness of having helped somehow,” she said then.

What Ramirez took part of was the Pawikan: Pauwiin sa Karagatan, San Juan community’s effort to save the endangered sea turtle, especially those hatched or caught in the community’s shores, which received a financial grant from Ford Motor Company’s (FMC) Ford Conservation and Environmental Grants (Ford Ecogrants), which encourages people to initiate or join schemes that help their local environment, heritage, and natural resources by offering a total prize money reaching $1 million in over 60 participating countries. Taking off from the Henry Ford Conservation Awards, which originated in Great Britain in 1983, the program has since its beginnings received over 25,000 project applications, involving over 120,000 people and organizations from various countries in Europe, Central and South America, Caribbean, Asia, and the Middle East.

In the Philippines, Ford Ecogrants was launched only in 2000, but it has already received over 500 applications, providing funding reaching over P18 million to over 60 projects to date, so that the company is on its way to “creating and innovating sustainable solutions which dramatically lower environmental impacts.”

"Caring for the environment is a long-term commitment rooted in FMC's heritage. We believe that responding and acting on urgent environmental and social issues is vital to our achieving long-term business success," Rick Baker, FGP president, says. Thus, as “an organization, FGP has been consistent in its commitment to contribute to environmental preservation and conservation.”

Ford Ecogrants is open to all types of conservation efforts initiated either by individuals or groups, either new or ongoing. Projects to be funded should fall under any of the following categories: natural environment (protecting flora, fauna and/or their respective habitats), heritage (conservation of man-made aspects of national or Asian heritage), conservation engineering (efforts that aim to reduce consumption of natural resources and/or pollution), and child and youth (endeavors involving young people not over 18 years old).

“We are very excited to open… new partnerships with various organizations to pursue initiatives on preserving what the Philippines is rich of. It’s a continuous commitment that we carry on for the country, for the environment, and for the people,” Baker says.

Since witnessing the release to the seas of the pawikan, Ramirez has also already witnessed other Ford Ecogrants beneficiaries, including
The Orchidarium and Butterfly Pavilion, Philippine Flora Conservation, a project of the Clean and Green Foundation that aims to have a genuine repository and showcase area of endangered and rare Philippine flora; and the efforts to preserve the oral traditions of Benguet in the Ifugao Province, care of Team Tomonah, among others. And for her, the effort is more than a CSR for good corporate image. “If the CSR is only put in place to gain ‘good image,’ then, it will not be self-sustaining,” Ramirez ends. – With notes from L.C. Corpuz

For more information, call (6349) 5415174; email mramir28@ford.com, malyn.molina@ogilvy.com, or mia.bacarro@ogilvy.com; or visit ford.com.ph.