How to save the worldA global journey into making our lives better…

When the first humans arrived in the Philippines thousands of years ago they found a group of 7,000 islands remarkably rich in natural resources. The seas where inhabited by the globe’s most diverse communities, providing an abundant source of food throughout the year. The land was covered almost entirely by rain forest that provided them with food, building materials and seemingly everlasting supplies of clear, fresh drinking water.

Few countries in the world were originally more thoroughly covered by rainforest than the Philippines: Brazil has extensive savannah and brush, Indonesia has many dry islands, Kenya and Tanzania have only small patches of rainforest…

Because the sea around the Philippines is very deep, no path were open for wildlife to cross during ice ages, when the sea levels were lower. This resulted in a country that has more unique species acre for acre than anywhere else in the world. More than 510 species of mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians exist nowhere else in the world. As a point of comparison, Brazil, often referred to as the “storehouse of biodiversity”, has only 50% more unique species whilst being 28 times larger.

The Philippines are home of the Philippine Eagle: heaviest second-largest eagle in the world, and definitely one of the rarest, most powerful bird on the planet.

Amongst other critically endangered species one can quote the Cebu flowerpecker, the Tamaraw (Mindoro’s dwarf water buffalo), the Philippines flying lemur (actually not a lemur, it is so distantly related to anything else that biologist have created a whole Order just for them), the kapa-kapa (popular for horticulturist, also named Medinilla Magnifica, it has become exceedingly rare in the wild), the Philippines Eagle-owl, the visayan spotted deer, and many, many others.

At the end of more than 300 years of Spanish colonial rule (1898), old-growth rain forest still covered about 70% of the country, with most of the high lands untouched. In a 1992 survey, old-growth forest cover had declined to a shocking 8%, which represent the most rapid and severe loss of old-growth forest in the world. This destruction is the primary reason for the Philippines ranking as having the most severely endangered mammal and bird fauna in the world. The degradation and loss of forests is also the reason behind increasing floods and droughts, massive erosion, coral-reef siltation and death, and ground-water depletion. Even in an economic point of view, the cutting of the forest cannot be justified, since tourism alone brings in more revenue than wood, but tourism decreases as the wildlife is going away (in the end, no one would pay to see a bit of dry land covered in grass or beaches washed with soil erosion).

Getting into the reasons behind this waste would be far too long for a blogpost and is not the subject of this blog. One could just quote individual greed, corruption, lack of true leadership, ignorance and extreme poorness of some part of the population as the main factors (plus I think the weight of hundreds of years of colonisation).

Thankfully, solutions exists (see our string of article on reforestation). Even better, mentalities are changing quickly, and some local solutions have already been put in place with noticeable results. I would like to talk here of two cases which came to my attention.

How local communities can help: a case study

The Haribon foundation is one of the very few conservation group that had remained active and vocal under the rule of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. In 1990, the Haribon foundation initiated a program in the communities surrounding mount Isarog to help poor farmers in the area develop an understanding of the ecology of the forest, of environmental economics and park management. Local people were taught how to write proposals for funding, how to use their constitutional rights and had some form of legal training.

The program started to bear fruits two years later. A proposal from the community resulted in a grant to reforest many of the grassy areas on the mountain slopes that had once been a rain forest. The reforestation would provide fuel wood to lessen impact on the remaining old-growth forest, would help control erosion and flooding, and would eventually provide a source of building materials. A grant from the Foundation for the Philippine Environment established an “alternative livelihoods project” that allowed former loggers and slash-and-burn farmers to switch to less destructive means of living. Intensive vegetable farming, livestock raising, and small crafts flourished as a result. The community also established a group of forest guards to control illegal logging in the rain forest.
In January and February of 1994 the issue of illegal logging came to a boiling point. On one part of the mountain easily reached by road, people from outside the local communities were being paid by a Naga City businessman to cut rain forest trees. Army personnel were paid to accompany the loggers. Community leaders agreed that a large community action was needed. One afternoon, after a small truck had gone up the mountain to pick up some lumber, groups from all of the communities met to set up a barricade. When the truck came down the road and stopped at the barricade, nearly 100 people were present. When they were told that they were acting illegally and that the lumber and truck were being confiscated, the army guards reacted angrily, firing their automatic weapons over the heads of the people, who quickly scattered. The truck pushed past the barricade, and headed into town.
Among the people at the barricade were several with two-way radios who described the scene to a radio station in Naga City. The next day, news of the encounter was made public, and the names of the owner of the truck, the person purchasing the lumber, and the officer in charge of the army garrison figured prominently. The commander of the local garrison offered an official apology; the other offenders denied direct knowledge of illegal activities, but promised to stop buying timber from people on the mountain. Although no one was arrested or fined, the truck never returned to the mountain.

Beneficial impact of ecosystem preservation: case study

Apo is a tiny island, less than a square kilometre, which has recently pulled itself out of a seemingly desperate economic and human decline. What began as a small fishery management experiment in the 1980s has grown into a twenty-fold increase in local fish population, secured future fish stocks, and growing businesses.

Apo’s small population (about 500 -700 residents) main source of income and livelyhood has been provided by the sea for centuries. But in recent years, destructive fishing practices (including dynamite and arsenic) had severely damaged the island’s coral reefs which provide critical fish habitat. And as the magnificent reefs were being converted to lifeless rubble, local fishermen had to go further to catch anything, which decreased the profitability of their activity. The disappearance of the reefs also drove tourism away (there was nothing left to see).

But Apo’s fortunes began to change when a marine biologist from nearby Negros Oriental, Dr. Angel Alcala, introduced the concept of community-based marine reserves to the Apo community. The concept was simple: leave 15% of the 104 hectare surrounding coral reef off-limits to fishing.
By 1982, the “no take” zone was in place and accepted by the community. Within a few years, fish abundance and diversity within the “no take” showed improvement, and restoration of coral cover became apparent. Fisheries in the adjacent reef areas improved, as fish populations migrated outwards from the reserve zone. Ultimately, the fish biomass increased from approximately eight tons per square kilometer to about 155 tons per square kilometre.

The ripple effect of the success of this small community-based marine reserve continues to expand. Local fishermen have become aware of the negative impact of destructive fishing practices, and more likely to participate in stewardship of the resource. The local tourism industry has rebounded by attracting divers to the blossoming marine reserve, with locals guiding divers through protected areas and catering to tourist needs. A number of small businesses have found their footing providing souvenirs, food and accommodation to the tourists, and the mood of the population has become more optimistic and self-assured.

While these businesses are modest in scale, they provide a big impact to an island with a small population. The success of the small marine reserve has likely touched the entire community.

Perhaps the greatest success of Apo’s community-based marine reserve has been the inspiration it has provided to neighboring communities facing similar fisheries resource depletion. Today there are over 500 small reserves in the Visayas island group, with many small communities looking to mirror Apo’s success. And while only 1% of the world’s oceans are currently set aside as marine reserves, the concept is gaining attention worldwide as a realistic and manageable solution to building sustainable fisheries for all.

The Philippines is a country full of not very well known natural wonder, and there is much more to see than this post can cover. Click on the image below to learn more about the riches of the Philippine Rainforest

Do you know of any other initiatives taken in the Philippines to save the rainforest? Do you know of some places so badly affected by deforestation that it has become a virtual desert? Please let our readers know and put a comment below…

Tags: biodiversity, philippines, poverty, rainforest