CORDILLERA ECOLOGICAL CENTER

 

The Cordillera Ecological Centre, is an Echoing Green Foundation, New York City. USA winning project. The MISSION of CEC is “To Plant Gasoline Trees to Help Offset Carbon Dioxide Emission, particularly Pittosporum resineferum Petroleum tree, and nitrogen-fixing trees (NFTs) to fight poverty and environmental decay through social change.”

To do this, it raises and trains rural communities to plant petroleum trees and NFTs as it provides appropriate information that enables common people to implement and concretize culturally acceptable, ecologically sustainable, gender sensitive, and economically viable activities that promote equitable use, management, conservation and development of natural resources. CEC focuses on reducing CO2 emission, agroecology or nature farming, reducing soil erosion and conservation and indigenous knowledge because the three are interrelated and interdependent.
WHY IS CEC RELEVANT? Climate change is upon us and global warming is worsening basically due to increasing GHG like CO2, methane and sulphur dioxide. CEC believes that education and information are tools for knowledge and can empower marginalized and disenfranchised people to directly reduce the problem and be directly dependent on local natural resources to address the climate change issues. It adheres that empowerment is essential but is not the only means to achieve meaningful reforms. It also believes that, for a development agenda to be successful, especially a conservation or agricultural program, the rights and privileges of indigenous peoples should be recognized and protected without pre-conditions under recognized international, national, local and most important, traditional laws and statutes. As most local people are affected by climate change, biodiversity conservation and agriculturally-related programs, CEC opines that indigenous knowledge and traditional resource rights are important factors that should be considered because both immensely contribute to the formation of conventional and scientific know-how and environmental justice.
WHAT IT DOES? By providing proper education, skills and training, CEC helps in CARBON DIOXIDE SEQUESTRATION, , lessen soil erosion, O2 REPLENISHMENT, bridge the poverty gap and helps ensure biodiversity conservation and food security. CEC provides skills training and technical assistance, livelihood development, technological and educational support. To achieve its MISSION, CEC has two goals: educate as well as implement skills enhancement on appropriate conservation and use of Pittosporum resineferum tree and NFTs, agroecology and sustainable farming. It also promotes culturally acceptable tree technologies that help local peoples develop, manage, use, benefit from and conserve natural resources better, and; educate, inform, stimulate policy-advocacy and arouse public interest and debate among leaders, scientists, researchers, students, development workers and policy-makers.
Michael A.Bengwayan, the founder won a Fellowship on Social Entrepreneurship by the Echoing Green Foundation (EGF) of New York City and remains the only Filipino EGF Fellow so far. He received his post-doctoral education on Social Entrepreneurship at Rutgers University in New Jersey, USA. He continued as a Fellow of Reinhard Mohn in Non-Profit Media in Berlin, Germany . He finished his doctorate degree in environmental science as a European Commission Fellow at University College Dublin, Ireland, his Masters degree on development studies, as a , Ford Foundation Fellow and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) Fellow at Kalmar University in Sweden.

Community Seedbanks Create Tomorrow's Biodiversity Edens By Michael A. Bengwayan

 

Community Seedbanks Create Tomorrow's Biodiversity Edens

By Michael A. Bengwayan

Contrary to scientific perception that high-tech genebanks hold the future of flora in its vaults, tomorrow's plants for food and medicine are in jars in many obscure rural villages globally, awaiting their turn to be planted for humanity's needs.

Expensive genebanks especially those of international research agencies under the Rome-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and private profit-oriented companies hold most seeds of the world.

CGIAR members include 15 members namely: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, International Potato Center (CIP) in Peru, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, International Crops Research for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in India, International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia, Africa Rice Center in Benin, Biodiversity International in Italy, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Indonesia, International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Lebanon, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in the US, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Nigeria, World Agroforestry Center in Kenya, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Kenya, International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka, and; International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management, (ICLARM) in Malaysia.

The top ten giant private seed companies include Monsanto, Shell, DuPont, Syngenta, Groupe Limagrain, Bayer, Takii, Sakata, Land O Lakes, KWS AG, and DLF Trifolium.

As climate change worsens and threatens flora especially food crops of millions of people today and worse, the future, scientists are scrambling to collect and save today's seeds, many of which are nearing extinction.

Seeds in Farmers Hands

But this is easier said than done. Most farmers no longer want to share their seeds to the scientific community. Farmers' distrust and suspicion of scientists' motives remain fresh after years of biopiracy that saw thousands of traditional food varieties lost as genetically-tinkered varieties took over farms in Asia, Africa and South America.

When researchers usually from transnational companies take, use and profit from biological resources and traditional knowledge without permission, or exploit the cultures from less affluent countries or marginalised people, it is called biopiracy.

“It is not surprising,” Chief agriculturist Pandey Napradeyah of the Bharatiyah Agro- Industrial Foundation (BAIF), peoples' rural devevelopment group of scientists in India said, “for too long, local rice, other cereals, vegetables and spices were lost through the false promises of the Green Revolution, what did not disappear due to the onslaught of laboratory-bred varieties suffered fom the effects of dangerous chemicals,”he continued. The author visited the BAIF headquarters in Pune, Maharahstra.

Traditional crop biodiversity have, for centuries, been selected by farmers for the seeds' unique suitability to local growing conditions such that scientists claim they are more likely to adapt to changing climatic conditions.

The scientific community intends to put its hands on some of these, the Global Crop Diversity Trust recently approved millions of US dollars to fund the global seed collection effort.

Thousands of local and heirloom food crop varieties are in farmers' hands mostly treasured through home and community seedbanks.

Community- Based Seedbanking

Home and community-based seedbanks are community-level seed-saving initiatives that have existed in many countries around the world since farming was discovered by man. Broadly speaking, community seed banks are local, mostly informal institutions whose core function is that of collectively maintaining seeds for local use

Napradeyah elaborates, “they are usually part of farmers’ informal seed systems, in which the various stages of seed management—selection, conservation, exchange and improvement take place, the drivers underlying their establishment, evolution and sustainability vary considerably. ostly set up following a famine, drought or flood and the accompanying loss of local seed supplies”, he added.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization’s (UNFAO) Second Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture acknowledges the relevance of community seedbanks, saying “ these act as platforms of community-based management of agricultural biodiversity that can ensure effective implementation of farmers’ rights through the recognition of local knowledge of agricultural biodiversity, participation in decision-making concerning its conservation, benefit sharing and the existence of a supportive policy and seed regulatory framework.”

Historically, community seedbanks existed some 3,000-5,000 years ago. Biblical scholars studying the seven years of famine in Egypt during Joseph's time say “During the good years, the crops were excellent, and appear to have given more than double the harvest of a normal year. That would mean that even with Joseph's 20% tax, each farmer would have 160% of the grain from a normal year. If they sold all of their regular harvest, that still leaves 60% for them to do with as they please, including saving seeds for future planting in their homes and communities.”

This belies some in the scientific community who claim community seed banks first appeared towards the end of the 1980s, established with the support of international and national nongovernmental organizations.

Community Seed Banks by Ronnie Vernooy, Pitambar Shrestha and Bhuwon Sthapit say countries that pioneered various types of community seed banks include Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Zimbabwe.

In the Global North, a particular type of community seed bank emerged known as a seed-savers network. Such networks were first established in Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA before spreading to other countries. Over time, the number and diversity of seed banks have grown. In Nepal, for example, there are now more than 100 self-described community seed banks whose functions range from pure conservation to commercial seed production. In Brazil, community seed banks operate in various regions of the country.

Empowered Community Seedbanks, Microcenters of Biodiversity

In Bolivia, of the 4,500 potato varieties grown in South America, 1000 to 3,290 varieties are found in Bolivian farmers' hands. The great diversity of potatoes has survived eight millenia because of the life and culture of the Andean farmers and communities that grow the crop.

Ximena Cadima of the PROINPA Foundation, a farmers' organization said the diversity of Bolivian potatoes was and still is being conserved in situ under traditional farming systems in specific geographic areas known as “microcenters of biodiversity.”

Much of the diversity has been collected and conservved ex situ by PROINPA, integrating it with in situ, combining the knowledge generated by farmers' experiments with traditional knowledge of farming communities, Cadima revealed.

It has resulted to:

--Community empowerment as local farming families are able to appreciate the value and uniqueness of their agricultural biodiversity

--Increased awareness as more sensitive social environments are being created that are open to conservation of agricultural biodiversity

--Strenghtening of farming systems as traditional farming systems reintroduce native potato varieties in farms where the varieties were lost

--Create new markets as new initiatives link farmers to markets

In the Wello region of Ethiopia, a farmer- run initiative Ethno Organic Seed Action (EOSA) ensures seed supply system enabling food security through reliable access to planting materials.

Regissa Feyeessa, EOSA president said “ our community-based seedbanks for sorghum constitutes the sorghum bread basket of Ethiopia. It is hard to imagine drought and famine devastated our regions but over time, we developed a comprehensive approach that empowered farmers.”

“Community seed banks have been the key part of this strategy, “ she beamed, recalling EOSA's experiences.

In EOSA's community seedbanks, farmers maintain collection of germplasm. Each family contributes a share of seed which is used to establish a 'revolving seed fund” that involves a broad set of crops and varieties. The fund consists of a seed and grain reserve that is dynamically linked to farmers' fields.

Families can borrow seeds from the fund plant it in theier fields and return mit with interest at thend of each cropping season.

This reliable point of access to diverse crops and varieties decreasesv the vulnerability of the entire communnity to genetic erosion, pests and diseases and the increasingly extreme weather patterns brought about by climate change, Feyeessa explained.

The community seedbanks provide areas for farmers' experimentation,farmer-scientist collaboration and other activities aimed at increasing productivity of farmers without compromising local crop diversity.

Traditional Practices Endure

In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, home seed and community seedbanking is as old as time immemorial. The most popular traditional way of saving seeds is the su-ulan rice storage. Almost all farming homes in the Cordillera have a su-ulan, a structure where rice harvest for food and planting is stored and prevented from rat, pest, fungus or mold infestation through smoke emanating from a hearth. This is usually located over the hearth in the kitchen . The traditional su-ulan does not only preserve, store and protect rice harvests but also corn, rootcrops, and legumes.

The su-ulan system keeps the seeds dry thereby stymying seed respiration and transpiration and prevents moisture from settling on the seeds which usually is the cause of fungal and mold infestation. Tried, tested and proven for centuries, it is the most effective traditional and effective seed conservation so far for grains, cereals, legumes and spices in this part of the country.

This and many more indigenous biodiversity approaches of local peoples deserve attention. Surpringly, community seed banks have rarely been the subject of systematic scientific enquiry. It is time they are given a second look.

Agroforestry: Balancing Biodiversity and Land Conservation and Food Production By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan,

Agroforestry: Balancing Biodiversity and Land Conservation and Food Production
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan,

A Philippine environmental group Cordillera Ecological Center (CEC) walks its talk “Fight environmental decay and poverty equally with social change”.

It believes in the midst of climate upheaval, there is a need to ensure biodiversity conservation while addressing poverty effectively with radical social change paradigms because conventional methods such as those in agriculture have proven most often than not, inappropriate.

Saying many Western-introduced farming systems are taking a toll on Earth-- habitat loss, species extinction, genetic erosion, land degradation, chemical pollution and water loss,-- CEC is advocating for a return to the native.

‘Go agroforestry”, CEC says, referring to an indigenous natural knowledge, skill and practise (INKSP).

Something ASEAN agriculturists and conservationists agree with, considering the growing global concern on human, food and property losses due to worsening storms, earthquakes, wildfires, droughts, floods and volcanic eruptions, caused by climate change.

Philippines and other Asia-Pacific developing country representatives met recently are convinced there is one way to live with climate change’s impacts--focus on agroforestry, an ancient practice as a means of increasing food supply while ensuring land and biodiversity conservation.

A New Name for an Old Practice
Agroforestry is is a new name for an old practice. Historically, cultivating trees and agricultural crops in intimate combination with one another is an ancient practice that farmers have used throughout the world. It calls for the combined sustainable use of land to produce trees, food crops and livestock simultaneously with each supplementing each other in terms of fertilization, feed and forage production, crop protection.

This farming system is friendly to the land, water and other living things. The management system dates back to the time when humans transitioned from their one-dimensional hunter-gatherer subsistence and began to include agricultural practices as a means of survival.

A key component in agroforestry is in the maintenance of soil moisture, despite respites in rainfall, to provide growth of crops for human subsistence and animal forage.

Providing guidelines on the use of the discipline is the Indonesia-based World Agroforestry Centre Southeast Asia (ICRAF-SEA) and the Asian Association of Agricultural Colleges and Universities (AAACU).

ICRAF harnesses the benefits of trees for people and the environment through science, and farmers’ knowledge and practices, to ensure food security and environmental sustainability. AAACU is an organization of Asian universities offering college and graduate degrees in agroforestry.

Ranking officials met recently to assess progress of agroforestry in the region and how this environment-sustaining land use system can further be developed to promote food production.

Agroforestry and Climate Change
In Southeast Asia, ICRAF and AAACU are working to expand agroforestry strategies as means to increase resilience to climate change, natural disasters and other shocks.

They support governments, communities, NGOs and the private sector in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, and other ASEAN member states and neighbours..

Their work promotes agroforestry techniques that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions with farmers.

It includes land-use planning for low carbon dioxide emission and multiple environmental services like landscape restoration, livelihood improvement, and ecosystem services.

Agroforestry ensures that at least 50 to 60 percent of a farmland is devoted to trees preferably a mixture of fruit-bearing, non fruit-bearing and nitrogen-fixing trees. These provides for trees ready to sequester dangerous greenhouse gasses like CO2 and replenish oxygen supply and water supply thereby help in cooling the earth.

Carbon sequestration, the process by which carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and held in either a solid or liquid form. Scientifically speaking agroforestry is good because it increases carbon sequestration in the soil,

Agroforestry enhances natural climatic phenomena like oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle, and water cycle which have now become erratic due to adverse effects of climate change.

Ensuring Sustainable Food Supply
Trees are the basic component behind agroforestry and are seen as not only source of human food but also for livestock while making croplands fertilized and rich naturally as land is saved and water is conserved.

The Creator’s magic behind this is there are trees that naturally fertilize the soil with nitrogen, the most important element in food production. Called nitrogen fixing trees (eg. Calliandra calothyrsus, Ipil-ipilg or Lucaena lucaena, Flemingia macrophylla, Sesbania sesban), root nodules of these trees contain Rhizoctonia bacteria that are able to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere into available fertilizer for food crops thereby eliminating fertilizer costs by farmers.

Trees also store water during rainy season, one tree storing as much as 150 to 200 liters per year and release the water during summer to recharge brooks, rivers and springs needed for irrigating crops.

Trees keep the greenery, and the soil moisture is also maintained for food crops. For agriculture, soil moisture is the most important, next to rain, farmer care about how much soil moisture is collected during the rain.

Today, many farming systems include trees not only to sustain food crop production but also to feed their livestock. For instance, goats are raised with mulberry and Flemingia leaves, cattle and swine with Calliandra a Lucaena, rabbits wit Prosopis joliflora. Flemingia are used in alley cropping with corn, vegetables, spices as fertilizer. More than these, the trees serve as habitat for smaller wildlife, birds and insects, ensuring natural resource management.

Indigenous Agroforestry Systems
In the Philippines, the most notable indigenous agroforestry systems are the muyung or pinugo of the Ifugaos, the tayan of the Bontocs, the lakon or batangan of the Iappais or Western Bontocs and the lapats of the Tigguians and Isnegs of the Cordillera region.

These highlight cultivated trees with rice and agricultural crops in intimate combination with one another in ancient practices that farmers have used throughout the ages born out of a need to fulfill immediate basic human needs of food, medicine, fuel, fodder, shelter, protection etc.

Cordillera farmers also establish a complex and somewhat sophisticated type of “shifting cultivation” where in clearing the forest for agricultural use, they deliberately spare certain trees which by the end of the rice growing season provide partial canopy of new foliage to prevent excessive exposure of the soil to the sun. These were an indispensable farming system here and were either planted or preserved from the original forest to provide food, medicines,construction wood and cosmetics.

In Indonesia, it has been a long time traditional practice for farmers to plant an average of two dozen species of plants on plots larger than one-tenth of an hectare. For example, a farmer would coconut (Cocus nucifera) or Pawpaw (Carica papaya) with a lower layer of bananas or Citrus, a shrub layer of coffee or cacao, annuals of different stature such as maize and finally a spreading grown cover such as squash. Such an intimate mixture of various plants, each with a different structure, imitated the layered configuration of mixed tropical forests.

In Burma, it established teak tree (Tectona grandis) plantation by using a method called “Taungya” which later became the most efficient way of planting teak. The taungya system established teak forest plantations using available unemployed or landless laborers. In return for performing forestry tasks, the laborers are allowed to cultivate the land between the rows of tree seedlings to grow fruit trees, vegetables and spices as well as rootcrops.

ICRAF, AACU Targets
Today, ICRAF and AACU member countries have agreed to aggressively implement agroforestry practices after an ASEAN top agriculturists’ meeting at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos,

They agreed, among others, that their countries:
--offer and share agricultural courses, initiate research and development projects
--undertake collective research and training of extension workers and farmer leaders
--solve tree biodiversity problems in Malaysia and initiate agroforestry models for Thailand
--train agroforestry experts for Indonesia

Much still remains to be done to develop agroforestry as a model for biodiversity conservation in the face of climate change while maintaining agricultural productivity.

And considering Asia-Pacific countries’ skyrocketing population and fast-depleting natural resources, no better time than now, is agroforestry needed with urgency.
PHOTO--THE HABITAT ,TUBLAY, PHILIPPINES