Innovations for protecting ridge and reef: a CSR strategy and practice

This paper will describe and analyze the innovations adopted by a Filipino businessman and his family corporation in order to protect the forest and rehabilitate coral and marine life. The first innovation involved the engagement of villagers in forest protection via fire prevention. Known as social cultivators, villagers were given cropland in strategic locations around the company’s plantation. This approach gave the villagers a stake in preventing forest fires, the scourge of tropical forests during the dry season. After the implementation of this approach, forest fires dramatically decreased in the area. The second innovation entailed the development of underwater nurseries to grow corals which were later transplanted in damaged areas to rehabilitate marine and coral life. This innovation contributed to the reappearance of marine species in the marine protected area where the corporation runs a beach resort. The significance of these innovations will be discussed in terms of their contribution to the triple bottom-line of this corporation or to the People, Planet and Profits conceptual framework.