Human Race Must Embrace Eco-spirituality to Save World's Biodiversity By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Human Race Must Embrace Eco-spirituality to Save World's Biodiversity

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan   Business Mirror

As  planet Earth stumbles to the brink of ecological collapse,  from irreversible climate change impact caused by man, survival of species, including Homo sapiens,  is a vital issue.  How can flora and fauna, thousands of species  of which are now either threatened or endangered, be sustained?

How can economic growth like food production be sustained in a world now exceeding its carrying capacity without sacrificing remaining biodiversity habitats? How can we tame our energy-intensive appetite for luxury without effecting negative trade-offs in our ecosystems? How  can we rein-in an economy based on greed totally detached from the web of life? Are we doing enough of our inter-generational responsibility to ensure that those yet unborn, may be able to benefit from today’s biodiversity?

The time of Descartes and  Newton in the 17^th and 18^th centuries ushered in a “modern devotion”, a movement that went full steam ahead towards domination of nature and exploitation of its  apparent unlimited riches.

But  all of a sudden, at the turn of the 20^th century, we are facing the grave ecological consequences of this domineering and disenchanting approach to the physical and natural world.

Development for What and For Whom?

All through 500 years until the dawn of this 21^st century humans toiled, scarcely slowing down, bogged by the consciousness of  progress and development. Yet, the dusk of the last century also brought in a reenchantment of reality-- awareness of the limits of growth, the dwindling natural resources and the place of nature in man's search for sustainability.

The economic models of growth were based on industries that although brought high standard of living for the Western nations, has entailed treating the world as an object of endless manipulation, alienating humans from their surroundings.

Today, the global cost for a high standard of living is enormous and hard to sustain. Worse,  we have trespassed, raped and looted the resources meant for the unborn generations.

With thousands of floral and faunal species entering the Red Handbook of endangered, threatened and extinct species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature  (IUCN), there are signs that the historical stage of carefree over-development is coming to an end.

Man's march to progress, now spells more doom than boom.  Adverse climate change impacts mean environmental bills are coming. We are paying the price.

As our economic and environmental limits become more obvious, we are obliged to shift into a new framework and approach of thought in development.

Making Room for God

We need a  to live  not only in a new paradigm, view and live our world as a cosmos of organic system whose parts, both human and non-human, form an intricate network of interdependent components but more importantly put  eco-spirituality in our approach to development wrote Charles Cummings,  a monk of Holy Trinity Abbey,  in Huntsville, Utah, USA.

 Cummings,  who holds a degree in formative spirituality from Duquesne University says  in his book “Eco-Spirituality” there  must be  a spiritual dimension to our  ecological approach because the universe is  a deliberate result of a Creator with creative capacity and inexhaustible imagination.

The indigenous  and tribal peoples  of the world understood the relationship with the Earth much better, because of spirituality which allowed them to physically sustain it. This is often manifested in their ways of life, and expressed through their rituals and prayers.

The spirituality can be sensed  in the way they respect their surroundings as they  live in peace and wonder  at the natural world around them, something rarely valued  by modern man's economic images of progress.

“God created heaven and earth”, Cummings quoted Genesis 1:1 of the Bible. But we misread our mandate, he says, misunderstanding the Genesis  when it said “subdue and master Earth. We believed we have dominion, can control and exert power,  and to dominate. Dominance led to devastation, he wrote.

We must reflect a divine image, to mirror God's own way, as faithful caretakers of God's garden which is this world, he said.

Caretakers  Not Stewards

“Humanity does possess the unchallenged right to use the goods of the Earth but use has become abuse. The proper role of humans on earth is that of caretaker. The caretaker model incorporates the best features of stewardship model and adds the quality of faithful, respecting loving care,” Cummings explained.

The stewardship model  defines that humans are agents or trustees of God charged with the safekeeeping of the Earth's resources for the benefit of all. In Luke 12:42, Jesus praised the trustworthy steward who gave their allowance of food at the proper time but pointed out the danger of a steward growing careless or being concerned only for his own welfare, a likely reference of today's reality.

Stewards are responsible for maintaining the integrity  of the earth and will have to give an account to God of how we have used or abused our position. “Draw me up an account of your stewardship” says the master in a parable of Jesus in Luke16:2. 

Cummings says to give a spiritual dimension to stewardship, we need to include the soul in caring for planet Earth. The stewardship model does no go far enough and it is ambivalent as there are honest and dishonest stewards.

“The caretaker model never exploits, never acts like a tyrant, he is not the owner but then guardian, God is the owner, maker.”To him belongs the sea and the land,” Cummings quoted Psalms 95:4. “The caretaker's task is to nurture, heal and restore fostering the life and harmony everywhere, “ Cummings wrote.

A State of Disconnection

It is not difficult to analyze that the root cause of our ecological crisis is the absence of our connection to conscious awareness to life and all that gives life. Reverence is the foundational principle behind eco-spirituality. Everything that gives life must be treated as sacred.

This of course moves against the current irreverence of today's society. A society that allows trees to be massacred to put up malls and parking spaces, dumping of garbage in the seas and rivers and tolerates animals to be slain for their tusks, fins or bileducts.

These societies have lost their reverence  toward life, are irreverent toward the Earth. The hectic pace most people maintain in our post industrial culture is inimical to the spirit of  reverence. Hasty living has no time to pause, no time to ponder the beautiful, haste is blind to everything except the deadline it is rushing to meet. Whatever gets in its way is likely to be run over with no regret.  Haste is intrinsically irreverent.

 The challenge  now is to  bring in spirituality in our relation with Earth, develop a values-based development structure, that is not concerned solely with our material well-being, but embraces  reverence and love for the rich biodiversity of the Earth.

The human race must explore and work out ways that humanity can be served in its deepest sense, where Earth's resources we use are not just commodities to be consumed, but part of the living fabric of a sacred Earth.

This  may seem idealistic and impractical to most, but only a few decades ago organic farming, a practice of our ancestors, which respects the well-being of the soil,  insects, microorganisms, cleanliness of water,  diversity of heirloom, was considered uneconomic and idealistic. Now it is recognized and accepted as the only environmentally approach to sustainable farming

Humans must reconnect with a way of life that respects and includes the soul as well as the land, water, landscape and every living and non living thing like the air, sun, moon and the forces of nature. Through spiritual values that respect both the individual and the environment, we will be able to comprehend God’s gifts and how central they are to the world we will leave to our children and grandchildren.

We are left with no choice, eco-spirituality will eventually usher new ways that  support the idea that the best business environment is the environment.

But  ours is the first move, to love, care and treat nature with reverence

PHL Forestry Model Weds IK with Science to Bring Back Forests, Wildlife, Prevent Landslides

PHL Forestry Model Weds IK with Science to Bring Back Forests, Wildlife, Prevent Landslides

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Tublay, Philippines--A reforestation model here transforms ravaged land into forests, wildlife habitat and nature school, an answer to the problem of yearly massive landslides in the country and elsewhere in other mountainous regions in Asia.

Countries like the Philippines, Nepal, and China suffer hundreds of deaths and lose millions of dollars worth of properties yearly due to landslides mostly man- caused like deforestation.

Situated in this landslide-prone municipality of Benguet in a once-eroded five hectare area, the model called the "Habitat", showcases a pine tree (Pinus kesiya/insularis) woodlot, nitrogen-fixing tree-based soil and  water conservation system, native tree and shrub buffer zone that feeds a spring to support 25 families, an Arabica coffee-pineapple agroforestry, and mixed stands of cacao, lanzones, pomelo, santol, mango, lemon and rambutan,

Wildlife casually observed to have returned to the area are civet cat, fruit bats, quail, monitor lizard, several snakes , a good number of bird species, wild honey bees, butterflies and a lot more insectlife including a harmless scorpion.

Perched on a mountaintop with a slope of more than 18 percent slope, it is protected by some 3,000 pine trees, and about three dozen species of native trees, shrubs, bamboo and grass species.

Description of The Habitat Model

The Habitat is a modified version of the indigenous agroforestry system of the Ifugaos called muyung or lakon following some scientific principles in permaculture and agroforestry. Instead of dipterocarps, pine trees are planted in the woodlot on top of the mountain.

This serves to protect the whole mountain in times of heavy rain by absorbing much of the rainfall, rather than the water cascading down the slopes, normally eroding topsoil and causing landslides.

Three thousand pine trees , now more than 30 years old cover the Habitat. The trees also cushion the impact of rainfall, preventing top soil erosion, with the tree branches, twigs and needles absorbing the torrential raindrops and letting these drop softly to the ground. The water absorbed gets into the ground water raising the water table which feeds the spring that supplies water all year-round.

Excess water is absorbed by the trees, each mature tree absorbing as much as 200 liters by its water roots, which the tree releases during summer to recharge brooks and springs.

Below the woodlot is a belt of native stick-like shrub called Mescanthus chinensis called locally as rono with deep penetrating roots. These serve as a buffer zone to prevent water , not absorbed by the woodlot and topsoil, from eroding to the lower slopes of the mountain. Rono is harvested rampantly by vegetable bean and pea growers as trellis, making it an endangered species under the IUCN Red

Handbook.

Five meters below the Mescanthus chinensis buffer belt is a cross canal or swale is dug at a depth of one foot to capture flowing water not stopped by the woodlot and rono line and drains to a creek. For every ten meters of the canal is a check dam made from branches and soil trap two feet deep to capture soil and prevent it from being washed away.

Cross canals or swales can be dug after every twenty meters of a mountain slope. As many as 20 check dams and soil traps may be dug in a one hectare sloping land.

Below the cross canals, hedges of Flemingia macropylla are planted to reinforce soil conservation efforts. F. macrophylla have long, tough tenacious roots that penetrate the soil even 20 feet below, making them effective soil binders.

At the Habitat, natural gullies were staked with bamboo poles as soil traps and planted with trees. The trapped nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium-nutritious top soil accumulated and fertilized the trees allowing fast tree growth.

Some 30 to 40 meters from the woodlot is the agroforestry area planted with 2,000 Arabica coffee trees shaded by nitrogen- fixing trees Callianra calothyrsus and Alnus japonica, both introduced species.

These trees fertilize the coffee by making atmospheric nitrogen available in the soil as nitrate through nitrification process performed by the Rhizoctonia bacteria found in the root nodules of the trees.

Interspersed in the Habitat are giant ferns, Ficus nota, Ficus pseudopalma , Ficus ulmifolia, Pittosporum resineferum, and wild fruits "dagwey", and "bignay" including some wild berries and passion fruits.

Nature and Forest Survival School

The Habitat has served to train environmentalists and tree growers through the past years. It accommodated students, and pupils, teaching them the importance and uses of trees and plants. It taught wild food, medicinal plants and forest survival practices. It is managed by the Cordillera Ecological Center where it trains foresters and rural development workers.

George Facsoy who worked with the Laos government ministry of forestry honed his skills at the Habitat, so did Jose Bandiwan, an apiculturist in New Zealand.

"I first learned about bees at the Habitat, the trees and wild plants they forage on. We planted hundreds of Calliandra trees upon discovering bees love the flowers. By doing so, we prevented the death of thousands of bees because these did not have to forage nectar on vegetables laced with dangerous chemicals," Jose explained to a group of visitors at the Habitat.

Jose also experimented successfully in the growing of native trees using asexual methods at the Habitat. "We popularized nitrogen fixing trees at the Habitat, making use of Calliandra calothyrsus, Flemingia macrophylla and Rensonii not only because of their ability to fertilize but also because of their capability to stop erosion and landslides," forester George divulged to a group of forestry trainees.

"It is here where we discovered the best to plant to prevent erosion is Flemingia macrophylla," he bared. Flemingia macrophylla is woody leguminous shrub with multipurpose for crop improvement, fodder, dyes and for various therapeutic purposes. Its use and importance as effective erosion control and bio-engineering material has never been tried before and discovered only by the Cordillera Ecological Center after several trials at the Habitat.

Putting the Model to Work

In 2012, the Cordillera Ecological Center (CEC) was invited to put its model to work by a daunting challenge—stop the sinking and erosion of a mine devastated community in Mankayan, Benguet where the mining company Lepanto Mining Corp. Inc. Is located.

Using its experience in establishing the Habitat, immediately CEC and its partner A Tree A Day with some 200 volunteers went to work for four years. The eroded area, about 50 hectares was successfully rehabilitated, the sinking stopped, erosion and landslides were arrested. Most importantly, a forest was established and turned over to the local high school, In 2015, the community adopted the forest as its communal forest and took over the responsibility in caring and protecting it.

CEC replicated its work in the eroded bald mountains in Marilog, Davao del Sur working with Matigsalog Lumads, and other towns in Benguet like Bokod Tuba and Kabayan.

Every year, CEC raises thousands of trees and with the help of volunteers, replant ravaged mountains every rainy season.

A Healing and Transforming Forest

From its lowly purpose to showcase the relevance of trees, the Habitat is evolving as a haven for nature learners, bird watchers, people seeking healing from nature, those escaping the stress of city life and people wishing to commune with God.

"I love the silence, the wild beauty of trees blending naturally with the grass, praying here removes my stress and makes me feel closer to God", Pablo Mencio, an accountant of an EPZA-based multinational firm said.

Children are the frequent visitors, sometimes they come in droves. Norma Besmi, a teacher from a government school let her pupils ran and frolic under the pine trees freely."These children barely have a chance to play under trees, some like those living in the city have never seen a forest. We hope to come next time and camp, " she said.

But Richard Botengan, former administrator of the Cordillera Ecological Center frowns at the idea of opening the Habitat to the public."Too many people will disturb the balance", he said. "The birds, insects and other small wildlife will be disturbed by the noise of people, the trails will harden from too much walking, some plants, important in many ways, are trampled on", he quipped.

This led to the decision to open the Habitat only from November to April every year to allow plants to grow wildly, insects to pollinate freely, for migratory birds to rest without being disturbed, and for nature to take its course.

Perhaps a statement from a visiting sick woman summed up why some people want to see this forest."I wanted to see the trees but I ended up seeing myself, for how can we truly see ourselves if we live apart and not a part of the trees and plants around us, I thank God for opening my eyes, we have been living apart from nature".

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Treekeeper