It all began with the need for shade. Biking up the mountains of central Cebu is no stroll in the park, as Gen. Tiburcio Fusilero will tell you. You will certainly look for shade.

And so Fusilero, with other bikers who frequented the route, started planting shade trees in Cantipla, barangay Tabunan in 1994. What began as a need eventually became a personal mission.

Today, Fusilero and his friends are founding members of the Kantipla Ecosystems Enhancement and Protection (Keep) Foundation. Keep is one of the first organizations under the Department of Environment and Natural Resource’s (DENR) Adopt-A-Mountain program that has promised to reforest, protect and rehabilitate the country’s forests.