MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Forest Foundation Philippines and Impact Hub Manila launched the Social Entrepreneurship Engagement and Development Program (SEED Program) for forest conservation.
The SEED Program is a year-long incubation program that offers a holistic approach to scouting, selecting, supporting and scaling social entrepreneurship while advocating for forest conservation in the country.
It aims to connect innovative startup entrepreneurs with community-based forest-dependent organizations to create synergy by facilitating knowledge and technology transfer.
Atty. Jose Andres Canivel, Executive Director of Forest Foundation, remarked, “We’ve been working on forest conservation issues for more than 15 years but we’ve had modest gains. We’ve suffered from the lack of sustainability of projects.” He added, “We start with good ideas but sustainability is always a challenge. We believe that social enterprises is the missing link in terms of ensuring sustainability and impact.”
Dennis Rosales, Project Officer of Forest Foundation, noted, “In any initiatives, it is important to strike a balance between forest conservation and livelihoods.”
Ces Rondario, CEO of Impact Hub Manila, shared, “With the steady rise of the social entrepreneurship sector in the Philippines, the role of intermediaries is now more apparent than ever.” She furthered, “After three years of operations, we have come to the conclusion that a lot of the efforts exhausted in the past years, with the example of the many competitions and programs staged throughout the years, it is clear that there has to be more than just giving away grant money. What is critical to any social entrepreneur’s path to success is a well-executed incubation and accelerator support program – one that will have a defined structure for each social enterprise, a strong pool of mentors, a network of peers, customers and potential investors.”
The SEED Program will spark eco-innovation within the social entrepreneurs by awarding a grand prize of continuous incubation support from Forest Foundation and Impact Hub Manila, hoping to ignite the Filipino inventive entrepreneurial spirit. This will feature free one-on-one coaching and consultancy, access to working space, and several opportunities in the global network of industry leaders and business pioneers.
To learn more about the SEED Program, visit www.impacthub.ph/seed .
About Forest Foundation Philippines:
Forest Foundation Philippines is a non-profit organization that provides grants to organizations that empower people to protect the forests.
About Impact Hub:
Impact Hub is the world’s largest network focused on building entrepreneurial communities for impact at scale.
