Globalization Eroding Cordillera Peoples Steadfast Watch Over Environment Michael A. Bengwayan High in the mountains comfortably nestled upon the lofty heights of the Cordillera mountain ranges, tribes hold the key to information that can unlock a model of conservation. For them it is not about trees, animals, and plants; it is a way of life. It is a life that provides a playing and training ground for their children, and as they nurture the land, they are nurtured by it. It is their wealth. The indigenous Igorot (a collective name for the tribes of the Cordillera) practice the development and management of centuries-old forests, rice land, home gardens, watersheds where forest denizens and rivers and springs abound. But these are becoming a thing of the past. Like most anyone else on earth, globalization is slowly but surely creeping into the traditions of the Igorots, endangering its food security, bond with the land and resources and laying to waste what has been protected for centuries. Mining, commercial agriculture, pesticides and chemicals, destructive farming practices, logging and anything tied with cold cash are greed are laying havoc over the land. For instance, the age old tayans here, knowns as lakon in western Mountain Province as well as the muyung and pinugos — woodlots of the Ifugaos are on their way to fading out. The indigenous technology used in he tfamed Banaue rice terraces, and many more indigenous knowhow, are equally threatened. The terraces, dates back some 2,000 years ago. Conservation is not new to the Igorot families of the Philippines, especially the Ifugaos. A system of blood ties, collective responsibility, heredity, litigation, and indemnity provides the bond that keeps the people together. However, many laws have been passed that undermine the life, caretakership, and knowledge of the Igorot as a whole, through disinheriting them: first through Spanish colonization, then American, and in modern times, the Filipino government. Two thousand years ago, the Ifugao carved out, by hand, terraces creating farms from the mountain sides, until this day, a practice that has become a part of their daily lives. They do not consider themselves as owners of the land, but as caretakers. As caretakers they have a social responsibility for the muyung (woodlots) thatare above the rice terraces. If someone wants access to the resources, he or she has to ask permission; when permission is granted, the person who has benefited from the resources contributes toward the environmental balance of the muyung by clearing an area of weeds before leaving. The exchange is one of obligation and responsibility, not money for the use of this man-made landscape of alternating woodlots and rice paddies. This reciprocity is extended to other aspects of the lives of the Ifugao. In the National Schools Maintenance Week, May 2006, Ifugao parents all contributed their time and resources in the repair of their schools. Roofs were painted, footpaths fixed, ceiling boards replaced, furniture repainted, gardens were cleaned, broken windows replaced, and other damages fixed. Muyung/Pinugos Muyungs are noteworthy features of Ifugao families. Muyungs are woodlots that are privately owned by way of inheritance, although there are also communally owned muyungs. Most often, it is the youngest daughter who inherits the muyung. This practice is believed best because the older members of the family are present to help in the conservation of the muyung until the youngest is of age and can decide what she will do to manage the muyung. And so the customary laws were set by the elders a long time ago that in case the daughter does not marry, she will have a place to get her timber, fuel, and other house needs. Muyungs are seldom sold, except in dire financial need. xample of a Muyung – Indigenous Ifugao natural resource management The Ifugao families know that with the development, preservation, and management of a muyung comes water to irrigate rice fields and vegetable plots, food for the table, timber for shelter, medicine for the sick, firewood for cooking, and natural resources for customary and cultural practices. The famed Banaue rice terraces are dependent on the muyungs for irrigation. Below all muyungs are rice terraces known as kaingin or habal — swidden farms, which are temporary plots of land that are maintained by cutting back and burning off the vegetative cover. This system allows water from the muyung springs and brooks to irrigate rice fields and prevents topsoil erosion. Cutting or harvesting of the trees is done strictly on a selective basis, as widescale cutting is not allowed. The elders of families and clans are the ones who are authorized to choose and mark the trees that can be cut. Men do the cutting, but children help cut branches of fallen trees, from which they clean off the twigs to bring home as firewood. Planting is done by all family or clan members. Family members, including children, regularly weed and prune their muyungs as a part of the regular upkeep, but most of the work is done by the women. Violations of customary laws, and related regulations call for strict penalties and fines. Today, some parts of the muyungs are being turned into small areas for vegetable production because many families are in need ofcash. Many fruit tress are also being integrated to provide family income. In recent years the mining industry has threatened the local environment and the traditional ways. Exacting might over right, the mining contractors, an interfaith stance calls out: “That Creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21) [ And the earth We have spread it forth; and made in it firm mountains and caused to grow in it of every suitable thing. And We have made in it means of subsistence for you and for him for whom you are not the suppliers.] (Al Hijr 15:19–20) “(Land is) a gift from Magbabaya to a people he has put in a place in order to develop and guard Creation. As a divine gift, it could not be owned by anyone for one cannot own that which gives life.” (Dibabawon Tribe) The UNDP considers the agricultural technology of the Ifugao as a fine model that should be replicated elsewhere, and no local conservation initiative could afford to ignore it. However, just as many of the features are not apparent to the unaware observer, so too is the system of belief, that gave birth to the Ifugao conservation practices. michaelbengwayan1.jpg Michael A. Bengwayan is director of the Cordillera Ecological Center (PINE TREE).

 

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

 

ALNUS AGROFORESTRY

Alnus Tree-Based Agroforestry Saves Land, Food, Biodiversity

By Michael A. Bengwayan

Alnus japonica or Japanese alder tree, when used as agroforest dominant tree saves soil, food crops and biodiversity.

Alnus is a non leguminous nitrogen fixing tree species. a deciduous or semi-deciduous tree with a straight trunk, up to 30 m in height and 60 cm (rarely to 2 m) in diameter; twigs ribbed,

glabrescent; bark dark grey, often with yellowish patches and slightly raised lenticels. Leaves are alternate, elliptical, ovate to oblong, yellow-brown scales; petiole strong.

It is native to northeast Asia—Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Russia, and China.

Studies suggest the stems, bark and leaves have antioxidant, hepatoprotective, cytotoxic, anticancer, antiatherosclerotic, antiviral, anti-trypanosomal, antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic properties.

Alder Gets to the Philippines

Alnus japonica was introduced in the Philippines during the Second World War particularly in Baguio City by the Japanese.

Alder is now common on higher altitude. The climatic conditions of the Cordillera favors the tree. it grows well in full light but will also tolerate shade. At lower altitudes, it occurs in moist sites, such as near rivers, but it will colonize in rocky sites exposed by landslides or land abandoned after cultivation. It occurs naturally in both pure and mixed stands and is common in streambeds, near streams, in ravines and in drier forests. It is found naturally in moist, cool,

subtropical monsoon climates with a dry season of 4-8 months; it also grows in humid, cool or subtropical mountain areas in tropical zones with high rainfall.

.

Alnus prefers moist and well-draied soils, including loam and loamy sand gravel, sand and clay. It does not require high soil fertility but prefers permeable soils. Grows well on soils with high water content but not on waterlogged soils.

Restoring Poor Lands

Alnus restores soil fertiliity through nitrogen fixation that takes place through a symbiotic relationship between Alnus with nitrogen-fixing actinomycetes of the genus Frankia and is therefore able to improve degraded lands .

Symbiotic Frankia are located in specialised structures, or nodules, along the root system of the host plants. The root nodules are analogous to those induced by Rhizobium in legumes, and they provide an environment, where Frankia can grow and prosper, while providing the host-plant with fixed nitrogen.

Unlike the Rhizobium-legume symbiosis, where most of the host plants belong to a single large family, Frankia can form root nodules in symbiosis with actinorhizal plants distributed among eight families consisting of over 200 species of angiosperms.

The value of alder tree was recognized by the tribal farmers long back and more than 80 yrs old trees can be seen in the area.

Agricultural crops, together with alder trees forms a very remunerative agro-forestry system and the ability of the tree to develop and retain soil fertility has been fully utilized by the tribal

farmers of of the Cordilleras.

Soil conservation

Soil erosion due to high rainfall and hilly topography is very high in most of the Cordillera provinces. There is great need to check the rate of soil erosion. In this regard, the deep root system of alnus gives some stability to slopes that tend to slip and erode. Its seeds have been broadcast to stabilize landslides area effectively used to reforest abandoned kaingin land areas.

Because it grows as a pioneer in degraded habitats with low fertility soils, alnus can also be planted to improve the stability of slopes liable to erosion and landslides, and for forest reclamation.

Considerable quantities of nutrients are recycled through the litter of Alnus sp. Leaf and twig litter of Alnus may produce 3-6 t/ha litter annually, containing N 3.4-3.7 gm, P 0.08-0.1 gm, K 0.6-0.7 gm and Ca 0.2 gm per 100 gm dry matter.

Intercropping

Cordi farmers can grow paddy rice in Alder based agroforestry system. The high rate of regrowth of Alder helps in supplying

good quantity of biomass for nutrient enrichment the soil. It is a good crop for intercropping. In some of horticulture crops coffee, , this is grown as shade crop. On terraced slopes, the species is commonly pollarded for poles and inter planted with crops like maize, beans, chili and pumpkin.

Other Benefits

The foliage is of low to moderate value as fodder for ruminants. It has a low calorific value of 18,230 kJ/kg. It dries easily, burns well and is an important source of firewood and charcoal. In the Philippines, kraft pulping of wood of Alnus sp gives a pulp yield of 47.6%, and bleaching improves the brightness to 76%. It is suitable for the manufacture of high-quality paper.

The Real Earth-Keepers.....

The Real Earth-Keepers.....

...By Michael A. Bengwayan....



Some ten years ago, my last child Fran taking up Biology said “I have need of skeletized leaves for my molecular biology class”, Having that in mind, I trudged to the garden and poured over the leaves carpeting the ground. carefully brushing aside the brown and yellow litter, iI saw several leaves without their tissues, their venation magically left, beautifully carved out from what used to be chlorophyll-packed and organized epidermis, lignin, mesophyll and vascular tissues.



I texted Frances back that the nature’s gifts were just there waiting. but I didn’t see her enter the garden gate that day. or the following day. it was her sister Abigail, having heard of the same need uttered, who went to choose several deveined beauties.



I had no feeling of urgency to help…it was a simple thing to do…but which gives a boundless joy of discovery. I looked at my compost pile, wondering, knowing and aware of what caused the venation. I am quite adept about it, having taught the knowledge to countless farmers many years.



The venation is caused by century bugs…to be more precise, woodlice or woodlouses. These are nature’s primary decomposers. we have three common woodlice stamping the Cordillera forests and soils in the Philippines; first we have the sowbug, by far the most common woodlouse underneath the wood. It has a smooth texture and has a wide flat oval like shape. when disturbed it tends to freeze before moving off. this sowbug is usually brown to black in colour and is spotted with yellow or white.



Then you have the second most common woodbug, the common rough woodlouse . The most obvious difference with this woodlouse is the textured surface and colouration. This species is a dark flat-gray with a bumpy, tubercle covered back. Looking a little closer you’ll notice that it has three distinct lobes at the front of the head instead of two that you’d find on the sowbug.



And most likely that you’ll discover is the common pill-bug. you can separate the pill-bug from the sowbugs and woodlice by the fact that it curls up into a perfect ball when threatened. The colouration is somewhat similar to the sowbug in that it is slate gray with some mottled yellow markings. however, when unrolled it has a smoother, rounded look to it and lacks the prominent tails that make it different from the sowbug.



I have thousands, perhaps millions of these bugs in my garden. they’re friends. our friends, farmers’ friends, life’s friends. So I patiently on Sunday scraped-off humus to show to my eight year old grandson Seth Chadlos .I wanted him to see and even understand that those crawling bugs fleeing for their lives when touched, are harmless friends.



It was a quality time spent with him.



We looked under pieces of wood and stones on the ground. We discovered all sorts of bugs and watched them scurry from the newly exposed surface for the safety and moisture of the dark underside of the wood and other debris. It was quite fascinating to watch these crowds of “bugs” hurrying for cover. a few rolled up into balls in an attempt to protect themselves. since they’re mostly detritus eaters, feeding on dead leaves and decaying material (and sometimes each other) means that they’re not really harming garden plants. they’re definitely very cool creatures.



Bugs… Chadlos was not minding them a bit, he appeared awe-struck, poking at them with a stick. grayish marvel monsters, raking up dead leaves and spitting on their meal to soften it with chemistry. little-noticed mass of grounded beauty, whether created by science or God. most likely by God to be explained by science.



Will these be obliterated too by man’s stupid notions? Most likely. I wanted to stay longer in the garden to get some answers. but squinting at the last woodlouse scurrying for dear life from Chadlos’ threatening stick, I knew our time in the garden was up. I promised myself a run. It was becoming hot, a perfect time to break a sweat.



Hoisting Chadlos with my left arm as he struggled and bawled for more time to scrutinize the bugs, I closed the garden gate. We will visit the century bugs some other day again. for me to seek my own answers.



And to let Chadlos seek his.

TIPS IN TREE PLANTING

TIPS IN TREE PLANTING

1. DO A RECONNAISSANCE OF PROSPECTIVE PLANTING AREA

2. CLEAN ALL BRUSHES AND GRASS, DO A BRUSHING

3. MEASURE DISTANCES AND STAKE

4. DIG HOLES

5. PREPARE AND HAUL PLANTING TOOLS

6. HAUL SEEDLINGS TO PLANTING SITE

7. PREPARE RAINCOATS, BOOTS ,HATS AND FIRST AID KITS

8. BRING FOOD, DRINKING WATER AND CELLPHONES

9 . CHECK WEATHER FORECAST

10, ALWAYS HAVE A VEHICLE WITH YOU

WE HAVE SENT OUR PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT

WE HAVE SENT OUR PETITION TO THE PRESIDENT
STOP THE CUTTING OF PINE TREES IN BAGUIO 25,705 have signed.
.Michael A. Bengwayan, Ph.D. . started this petition to PRESIDENT, Philippines President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and 2 others

Dear President,
Recently 49 big pine trees, some aging 70 to 80 years old, were cut by MOLDEX CORPORATION along Marcos highway, Baguio city.
Four pine trees provide oxygen for one person as much as 45 lbs of oxygen a year. One pine tree absorbs as much as 40 t0 45 lbs of dangerous CO2 annually and cleanse the air of smog. One mature pine tree absorbs as much as 150 liters of water which it releases to recharge groundwater, Pine trees prevent landslides and erosion, regulate urban island heat phenomenon and lessen wind speed by 15 percent.
PINE TREES ARE HERITAGE TREES OF BAGUIO, without pine trees there will be NO CITY OF PINES IN THE PHILIPPINES
SIR, PLS STOP ALL TREE CUTTING IN BAGUIO ,ONLY YOU CAN DO IT.

26,000 Signatures Urge Duterte To Save Philippine Pine Tree –

26,000 Signatures Urge Duterte To Save Philippine Pine Tree – OpEd
May 27, 2019 Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan 0 Comments
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Some 25,707 signatures in a petition is urging Philippine Pres. Rodrigo Duterte to save the Philippine pine tree (Pinus insularis) in the city of Baguio, dubbed as the “city of pines”.
The petition, penned by this writer bwho is also head of the environmental group Cordillera Ecological Center, raises the alarm on the wanton and unjustified killing of pine trees to accommodate hotels and business establishments. The city is the country’s summer capital, visited by millions of tourists yearly because of its cool climate brought about by the pine trees.
“Four pine trees provide oxygen for one person as much as 45 lbs of oxygen a year. One pine tree absorbs as much as 40 t0 45 lbs of dangerous CO2 annually and cleanse the air of smog. One mature pine tree absorbs as much as 150 liters of water which it releases to recharge groundwater, Pine trees prevent landslides and erosion, regulate urban island heat phenomenon and lessen wind speed by 15 percent,” the petition stressed.
Pine trees are heritage trees of the country, without pine trees there will be no city mof pines, “ it added.
Pinus insularis, ever proud and conquering, is symbol of the Cordillera peoples. Whether blanketed in lush cloaks of vibrant green or stripped naked with only their bare trunks remaining, they reveal their beauty throughout the warmest, wettest or rainiest seasons. Their knowledge of time, history and events is timeless and though science, technology and capitalism seem to have combined to end their reign, they continue to remain.
On the surface, what most people see is the economic side of pine trees—lumber for housing, furniture and buildings. Very few are aware of the ecological, social, medical and cultural contributions of pine trees.

What Do the Pine Trees Do?

As food, pine trees seem unimportant to humans except for birds, insects and a few animals. While some pine tree species’ have seeds big enough to eat, Pinus kesiya’s seeds are, although edible, too small to really satisfy human hunger. Only the Lebanese pine, Korean and Pinon pine have seeds big enough to be harvested for food.

But the trees are more important for something else. There are four direct and uncontested facts that the pine trees do for the Philippine environment. First, the trees help directly contribute to oxygen supply to the environment for humans to breathe, directly affecting local and regional air quality by altering the urban atmospheric environment.

Humans breathe only oxygen which comprises 21 percent of our atmosphere. But oxygen in many parts of the world is being depleted due to pollution wherein dangerous methane, sulphur and nitrous oxides and CO2 and smog are increasing in the air. Trees supply about 70 percent of our oxygen supply.
Second, they provide water, absorbing as much as 150 liters per mature tree each year which they release slowly to recharge brooks, springs, rivers and ponds. Three of the nation’s biggest mega-dams, San Roque, Ambuklao and Binga generating a combined 1,200 megawatts of hydroelectric power—get their water from pine forests of Benguet and Mountain Province.

Third, the pine trees prevent soil erosion and landslides in the region, serving as the main soil cover thereby protecting soil loss. The Cordillera region losses some 100,000 tons of topsoil every year, without the pine trees soil loss would be worse affecting adversely agriculture, settlements, properties and lives.

Fourth, pine trees lower temperature. When Baguio had more pine trees, the city was cooler; it deserved to be called the “City of Pines”. Today, the city is not only warm, congested and dirty but also dubbed by World Bank as having one of the cities in the world with the “dirtiest air” as thousands of trees were allowed by the city government to be cut to give way to commercial and residential buildings, roads, tourism and hotels.(On the surface, what most people see is the economic side of pine trees—lumber for housing, furniture and buildings. Very few are aware of the ecological, social, medical and cultural contributions of pine trees.

Oxygen Supply and CO2 Absorption

One mature pine tree, ten years and above, releases 45 lbs of oxygen a year. At least four trees can supply the oxygen requirement of one human each year.
As pine trees release oxygen, they absorb CO2, a dangerous greenhouse gas. Each mature pine tree absorbs 45 lbs of CO2, following physics’ Boyle’s law of “what element is lost is equally replaced by another element”.

The oxygen released by the millions of pine trees affect air by reducing temperature, remove smog and air pollutants, CO2, methane, sulphur and nitrous oxides thereby regulating microclimatic effects like cooling.

Pine Trees Lower Temperature

Clumps of pine trees and all trees for that matter reduce mid-day temperature from a minimum of 0.2 degrees C to 1.3 degrees C some 1.5 meters to 2.4 meters above ground.
Below individual and small fragments of pine trees over grass, mid-day air temperatures can be reduced to as low as 0.7C to 1.3C degrees cooler than in any open area.

When pine trees respire, they emit oxygen which do not only reduce air temperature, but also absorb radiation and store heat. They also reduce relative humidity, turbulence, and surface albedo of concrete. These changes in local meteorology alter pollution concentrations in urban areas.

Removal of Air Pollutants

Even though pine trees leaves are needle-type, they function as normally as a broadleaf. The needles through their stomata, remove deadly gaseous air pollution primarily by uptake.
Once inside the leaf, gases diffuse into intercellular spaces and may be absorbed by water films to form acids or react with inner-leaf surfaces. The trees also remove pollution by intercepting airborne particles. Most particles like CO2 are absorbed into the tree, and eventually stored in the soil by the roots.

Some particles that are intercepted are retained on the plant surface. These are resuspended to the atmosphere, washed off by rain, or dropped to the ground with leaf and twig falls. Consequently, vegetation is only a temporary retention site for many atmospheric particles.

Reducing Urban Island Phenomenon and Temperature on Buildings
Urban Island phenomenon is the heat transferred from cities via highway and roads to outlying communities. Pine tree reduce this, as well as lessen building energy use by lowering temperatures and shading buildings during the summer, and blocking winds during rainy season. When building energy use is lowered, pollutant emissions from power plants are also lowered.

The cumulative and interactive effects of trees on meteorology, pollution removal, and power plant emissions determine the overall impact of trees on air pollution.

Energy and Medical Relevance

Pine trees are the most popular among all conifers in the world, the most widespread, most varied and most valuable trees of their order. The biggest family of conifers goes by their name, the Pinaceae.

Pine trees are called pine trees basically because it contains the rare and highly expensive Alpha e-pinene chemical content that the tree treasures. E-pinene contains an important hydro-carbon alkane, the chemical used for lighting and cooking in high altitudes and also ingredient for pharmaceuticals and chemical necessities.

The chemical is contained in the resin of the pine tree which explains why pine wood is highly flammable. The indigenous Cordillera tribes make use of resin-rich pine wood as flint or for starting fires called locally “saleng”.

Pine Trees and the Joy of Christmas

There was a time when pine trees were favorite trees cut for Christmas trees. Today, cutting a pine tree is a crime. But pine trees still exude mixed joy on Christmas especially to children. Thousands travel every Christmas to Baguio City and other places in the Cordillera region just to see pine trees.

To any young child who sees a small young pine tree, if anything, he/she is fascinated with joy to reach out and touch the vigorous plant– fantastically rich in its detail, with its thick and sappy shoots bristling, bright new needles, embossed with male and female parts of splendidly original and suggestive design– inviting kids to dapple them.

The trees’ genus Pinus is the pine proper, limited to 100 or so species all over the world, with certain clear and obvious characteristics, of which the easiest to see and remember is the relatively long evergreen needles.

The pine needles and cones are the ones that easily lure people on Christmas time. Pinus kesiya has three needles for each fascicle. The yearly growth of each shoot of a pine needle takes the form of a ‘candle’, which is a defiance of gravity.
The needles are boiled as tea and drank to cure upper respiratory tract ailments. Medical experts recommend to asthma victims to walk under pine trees in the morning because the trees release terpenes which help cleanse the lungs.

Thanking the Pine Trees

To give thanks to the pine trees for their ecological, social, cultural, economic and aesthetic benefits, the environmental group Cordillera Ecological Center conducts yearly the Pine Tree Festival. Already on its fourth year, educational, cultural, music and arts activities by representatives from Baguio city, Benguet, Mountain Province, Abra, Kalinga and Apayao. It attracts thousands of tourists.Most importantly, it advocates and leads numerous tree planting activities.

Next time you find yourself walking underneath pine stands, woods or forests, look up. Not many people embrace this view high above our limited ground floor. An awakening and soul-changing world is gifted by a simple tilt of the head as you see the sky through a beautifully complicated and tangled web of pine trees.

https://www.eurasiareview.com/27052019-26000-signatures-urge-duterte-to-save-philippine-pine-tree-oped/?fbclid=IwAR3FTJYiBNrcbS1WB5LPbZHFxknUJtjnbCpI24IdIw4j_H0cB_UVID4mO7c#.XOuSNhoYg6U.facebook

Our Eco-warriors

Sunflowers, Bees Collateral Victims in Effort for Clean Safe Food

Sunflowers, Bees Collateral Victims in Effort for Clean Safe Food

By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Baguio City, Philippines---Fifty Christmas seasons ago, much of this city and the Cordillera provinces' woodlands, valleys, glens and landscapes were beautifully carpeted with golden wild sunflowers (Tithonia diversifolia) Wild bees abounded, pollinating wild and domesticated flowers, ensuring genetic evolution.

Today, the sunflowers are sparse, the fields ugly, pockmarked by human touch as thousands of the plants are cut and killed intentionally two months before every Christmas season. Considered by apiculturists as the best sources of nectar for wild and domesticated bees alike in this part of the country, the plants are being killed resulting to the loss of billions of bees, the world's best pollinators.

A quote often ascribed to Albert Einstein but without no known proof says, "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live" highlighting how vital bees are to the survival of of plant and animal species on the planet, including humans.

Use of Sunflowers as Fertilizer, an Indigenous Know-how

The wild sunflowers, native to Mexico, are being cut in the Cordillera region to be used either as green manure or composting material for the production of organically-grown vegetables.

Unwittingly, farmers intending to satisfy consumers' growing demand for organically-grown safe and nutritious vegetables cut thousands of the plants from September to November and compost these as organic fertilizer. This allows them to make a killing in the market when they harvest their crops near Christmas and New Year, the seasons when vegetables are in their peak demand.

Locally called “marapait”, the wild sunflowers use as rich fertilizer can be traced to the indigenous knowledge of the natives of Mountain Province. For hundreds of years, they have used the plant as basal fertilizer, incorporating these in rice paddies together with pig manure and composted rice straw. Many farms in Mountain Province grow sunflower hedges as sole source of nitrogen fertilizer. Sunflower biomass decomposes rapidly after application to the soil.

The use is not without scientific basis. Then Philippine Department of Agriculture have found that sunflower leaves have high nitrogen content (2.9 percent oven dry weight) and that a ton of fresh sunflower can yield as much as 60 kg of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is the most basic fertilizer element needed by crops.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) say wild sunflower leaf biomass is high in nutrients, averaging about 3.5% nitrogen, 0.37% potassium and 4.1% phosphorus on a dry matter basis. This means the high nitrogen content is good for green plants.

Wild sunflower is a robust herbaceous and bushy perennial that grows up to 3 to 4 meters tall. Branches are stout, with hollow stems. The plant produces large flower heads with bright yellow to golden petals.

How Are Bees Affected Adversely?

The manner and process how honey is made is one of God's wonders science can't duplicate.

Worker bees, after hibernating on the rainy and stormy months of June to September, start foraging for nectar and pollen on October. It is also on these months that sunflowers bloom with overflowing nectar. Nectar is the sugary liquid found in flowers. Worker bees using their long, tube-shaped tongues sip the nectar from the flowers and store this in their crop. While sloshing inside the bees' crop, the nectar mixes with enzymes that transform its chemical composition making it more suitable for long-term storage.

Apiculturist Nelson Palispis who trains farmers in this province explained in one of his trainings, “When a workerbee returns to the hive, it passes the nectar to another bee by regurgitating the liquid into the other bee's mouth. This regurgitation process is repeated until the partially digested nectar is finally deposited into a honeycomb”.

It does not end there. “Once in the comb, the nectar, still a viscous liquid, is fanned by the bees using their wings to speed up the process of evaporating any water. When most of the water has evaporated from the honeycomb, the bees seal the comb with a secretion of liquid from their abdomen, which eventually hardens into beeswax. Away from air and water, the honey is stored indefinitely, providing bees with the perfect food source for cold and rainy months, “Nelson elaborated.

Unfortunately, just as the bees time their nectar foraging from September to December, these are also the months when hundreds of farmers engaged in organic vegetable growing, cut thousands of sunflower plants to death, harvesting these be composted as fertilizer. As a consequence, the bees are deprived of plants rich in nectar. The bees are forced to forage on other plants mostly vegetables sprayed with deadly insecticides resulting to the death of millions of bees.

New Zealand-based apiculturist and former chief beekeeper of Saint Louis University's Beekeeping program here Jose Bandiwan lamented “Benguet is the country's worst user of dangerous pesticides, this uncontrolled chemical abuse is killing everything—bees, birds, beneficial insects, the soil, water—it is practically a biocide.”

“With the wild sunflowers, bees have a chance on foraging on non-poisoned sources of nectar, but when you kill the sunflowers the bees are forced to forage on vegetable flowers laced with chemicals, killing thousands of bees everyday,” he deplored.

Worldwide, the Malaysia-based Pesticide Action Network(PAN) says billions of bees are being wiped out due to pesticides yearly, and honey tests reveal worldwide contamination by bee-killing pesticides. It warns of ecological Armageddon if the dramatic fall of inset numbers don't abate.

Nelson is one of the fortunate beekeepers in the province, his bee colonies are situated in the village of Anchukey more than 1,500 masl opposite Mount Pulag, far from farms and surrounded by thousands of sunflower plants.

A Need for A Mutualistic Understanding

Jose believes it is senseless depriving bees of priceless sunflower nectar and people from appreciating the beauty of sunflowers. He likewise avers beekeepers and organic vegetable growers to benefit alike from sunflowers and bees. “Apiculturists and organic vegetable growers must agree on a timetable that allows bees to forage nectar before the sunflower plants are harvested to be composted, most likely the months of September and October. Organic vegetable growers can cut the sunflower plants after those months,” he proposed.

“Organic vegetable growers can also harvest plants that have finished blooming. On one hand, farmers and beekeepers must not merely depend on the resources without sweat, they must plant more sunflowers,” he added.

The idea led the government of New Zealand to support a Project Marapait in Benguet aimed at increasing bees for pollination at the same time intensifying planting of sunflowers. The project, implemented by the Cordillera Ecological Center has put a shot in the arm to beekeeping in the province.

Today, the sunflower plants may be less than before, the bees foraging may be fewer but Nelson says there is light ahead of the tunnel. “Nature has a way of healing we hardly understand if we don’t do our part. Planting those that give life is not nature’s sole responsibility, we must do our share, “he quipped.

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Treekeeper

WE MUST MAKE EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN ECOLOGICALLY-ORIENTED

WE MUST MAKE EDUCATION FOR CHILDREN ECOLOGICALLY-ORIENTED

Children (and adults, too) need to learn the principles of ecology (how life works in community), and they need to see the connections between human beings and the rest of Nature. The urgent timeframe of global climate change means that any learning that doesn't contribute to these understandings could be considered part of the problem. Indeed, the environmental crisis can be attributed in part to the inability of human beings to come up with sustainable ways of living together.
Here are some ways to "ecologicalize" teaching:

• Education programs sometimes include icebreakers, warm-up activities, initiative tasks, cooperative games, or physical adventure elements. Helping people work together better will always be a good thing, and creating a sense of community is essential for being eco-friendly. But how can we integrate environmental learning into these activities without drastically changing program elements and while still contributing to group dynamics and character building? It's not easy, but it's simple: We just need to stretch what we do to include mention of and learning about the rest of our natural "place" and community.
• Ecologicalizing education means looking for principles of ecology and connections with the rest of Nature in as many of our learning activities as possible.
• Follow up to any learning task that demands group work or cooperation can lead to discussion of the behaviour of fish in schools or birds in flocks. How did participants communicate to each other? Why? How do the strategies they came up with to meet their challenge compare with fish or birds dealing with a challenge such as a predator?
• A group activity that demands cooperation can lead to participants discussing the similarities between humans and other social animals. For example, you can help your students learn how wolf behaviour can act as a metaphor for effective group functioning, character development and leadership.
• That so many roles need filling to keep a classroom working well exemplifies the connectedness of the living web — what happens to the "web" within the physical and emotional space of the classroom if one participant falls down on the job? And how does this compare with losing one species or degrading one aspect of an ecosystem? Let's talk about these things with students.
• If your education programming already includes lots of hands-on Nature connecting, you can highlight and reinforce ecological understandings by pointing out or asking for evidence of Nature's gifts or ecosystem services in action. This could be an ambulatory activity (one you do while walking between classes or travelling to different venues), or an ongoing project throughout the year.
• Nature abides by rules. Games work well and reflect Nature if they combine rules with cooperation and some "friendly competition" (in the sense that every individual is doing his or her best). Beware of overstressing competition — the goal, it seems, of our culture. Ecology relies on mutualism (living things relying on each other), and life is all about synergistic symbiosis. In Nature, "the fittest" is the one who fits into its ecosystem best. This is a lesson our students desperately need to learn.
  

How We Stopped A Landslide from Further Destroying a Forest.

How We Stopped A Landslide from Further Destroying a Forest.

Soil erosion and landslide prevention is one of the things we do besides tree-planting. We're pretty good at it. Here, my team Cordillera Ecological Center and A Tree A Day (ATAD) worked hard at Longlong Forest to prevent a landslide from happening using bio-engIneering techniques..

https://web.facebook.com/ipsum.novus/media_set?set=a.716781085030749&type=3

Asian Indigenous Peoples' Intellectual Property Rights on Biodiversity Endangered By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan Eurasia Review

Asian Indigenous Peoples' Intellectual Property Rights on Biodiversity Endangered
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan Eurasia Review December 11, 2018

London---Indigenous and tribal peoples of Asia, are facing complex threats to their survival as distinct peoples. Not only are they confronted with dispossession of their lands and resources, and physical persecution, but they are also faced with the appropriation of their collective knowledge on plants, trees, animals, insects and even land and waters, developed through the ages.

This is according to a book by this author titled 'The Intellectual and Cultural Property Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Asia' written for the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) based here in London, now available at Amazon.

Minority Rights Group International is an international human rights organisation founded with the objective of working to secure rights for ethnic, national, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples around the world with international headquarters in London.

The book says traditional knowledge on food, crops and medicinal plants is being taken by multinational companies, while traditional songs and designs are being commercialized for the tourism industry. The issue of indigenous cultural property rights is becoming more and more urgent for indigenous peoples.

Even with the United Nations' adoption of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, there is minimum standard for the protection of indigenous peoples rights, the book asserts. This is because unfortunate international instruments are adversely impacting on indigenous peoples cultural rights. For instance, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), and the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement (TRIPS), put both indigenous peoples and developing nations at a disadvantage by imposing an intellectual property rights regime that does not take into account the diversity of cultures.

Also, Article 8j of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), gives minimal recognition of indigenous peoples rights. It does not protect indigenous peoples from the drive by multinational companies to patent plant and animal materials — resources that are generally found in the biodiverse territories of indigenous peoples — for their potential medicinal and agricultural value, without the knowledge or consent of the peoples who have protected and nurtured such resources, the book covering 22 Asian countries said.

Salak Dima Personifies Asian IPs' Suffering
“When the trees are gone, the deer forever lost and the forests are just memories, we will weep. Not for the land that is bare and dead. But for us, our children and their children. When there are no more tears to fall, we will weep with our own blood.”

This is what Agta IP leader Salak Dima said to the author deep in the Palanan Wilderness Area of Sierra Madre, the biggest tropical rainforest of the Philippines at 200,000n hectares in personifying what wordsmiths call “the last forest guardians.

The Agtas are one of Asia's indigenous peoples marginalized by incoming settlers. Indigenous and tribal peoples see themselves as distinct from the mainstream. They speak their own languages, are largely self-sufficient, and their economies are tightly bound to their intimate relationship with their land. Their culture is different from that of the mainstream, inherited from their forebears and adapted to their current situation.

They take only from the Earth what they need, nurturing and caring for resources as a way of life. They have often lived on their lands for thousands of years.

It is difficult to generalize about Asia's indigenous and tribal peoples. They encompass a huge variety of peoples, living very different ways of life in a great variety of environments. One thing that they do have in common is the oppression and marginalization they experience. Often they suffer direct
violence, for example in Papua New Guinea, in Burma/Myanmar and in the Chittagong Hills of Bangladesh. They also suffer from development efforts by their own governments and by multinationals, through the takeover of their lands and resources.

In most parts of Asia where indigenous peoples land rights are recognized, the government retains the power to overrule these rights in the economic interest of the state. The intellectual and cultural property rights (ICPR) of indigenous peoples are under threat. These include their beliefs, knowledge (agricultural, technical, medicinal, ecological movable and immovable cultural properties), the book reveals.

Asian Indigenous Peoples’ Struggle To Protect ICPR of Biodiversity
The struggle of Asian indigenous peoples to protect intellectual and cultural rights ranges in form from resisting subjugation, territorial takeover, resources exploitation, the destruction of traditions, and infringement on customs and lifestyles, to fighting inhumane treatment, abuse and deprivation of human rights.

In South East Asia much of the struggle is over land and resources, as mining, timber and oil and agricultural corporations encroach upon indigenous peoples lands in search for profit.
Indigenous peoples are becoming victims of forced resettlement, pollution, diseases, militarization, starvation, social and cultural destruction, and the ruin of traditional ways of life.

Asian indigenous peoples close connection to the land makes them particularly vulnerable to ecological damage. Extractive activities threaten patterns of subsistence, living conditions and cultural practices.

In some cases governments deny indigenous peoples civil and political rights in order to prevent them from resisting the incursions. Some states face challenges in reconciling international human rights commitments to indigenous peoples with the requirements of foreign direct investment.

Against the odds, indigenous peoples have had some successes. Divide and rule tactics intended to break down their opposition have failed. Often, there are clear connections between resource extraction, human rights abuses and militarization. In some countries, governments have attempted to stifle the growing resistance of their indigenous populations.

From the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia to Papua New Guinea, there is a burgeoning indigenous movement against both governments and resource-depleting companies. This movement has brought together concerns about human rights and the environment. It is rural-based, grassroots-initiated and multiracial.

The indigenous opposition remains vibrant and effective. In Bangladesh, the struggle of the Jummas, the original inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is primarily to do with rights to land and resources. Many Jummas are losing their lands; they have been forcibly evicted by government military forces. The Jummas are also being displaced because of the discovery and development of a gasfield.

The gas reserve development has affected traditional food sources like homegardens and age-old community forests, threatening the extinction of many traditional food crops.

In Nepal, the indigenous people of Nepal are campaigning against the widespread plunder of germplasm (i.e. plant cells) and indigenous knowledge. Already, many plant resources have been lost, without recognition or recompense.

In Sri Lanka the Wanniyala-Aetto (forest beings), the Sri Lankan indigenous people, are being uprooted from their forest dwellings, shot at, detained, placed in reservations and sold as slaves or prostitutes. Their trees are being cut, logged and traditional foodlots being razed. The Wanniyala-Aetto women, in particular, bear the brunt of this inhuman treatment.

In the Philippines, many NGOs are working for indigenous peoples intellectual and cultural property rights in the Philippines and, seemingly, their efforts have paid off, with the passing of Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) in 1997. But the body set up to implement IPRA, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), cannot stop creeping mining, logging and commercial agriculture destroying wide tracts of forests.

In Indonesia,the most significant result of indigenous peoples struggle for recognition of their rights is the government's granting of decentralized power. It gave adat-based (traditional-based) villages powers beyond the standard notions of indigenous rights in international legal discourse. This allows the natives to take care of their forests and homegardens.

But millions of hectares of indigenous peoples lands are be destroyed and planted with oil palm destroying thousands of plant and animal species.

In Malaysia, encroachment into ancestral lands and intimidation are two of the many problems facing Malaysian indigenous peoples. There is no pause in the exploitation of their resources and appropriation of indigenous territories.

In Thailand, the Chao-Chaos, a mixed grouping of indigenous tribes in northern Thailand numbering almost a million, were granted a peoples Constitution which allowed them to participate in the democratic process in the country. They are led by the Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal peoples of Thailand (AITT). Together with the Northern Farmers Network, AITT is pressing for the adoption of a community Forest Bill, which will give indigenous peoples recognition of their right to their traditional resources and management practices.

In Cambodia, positive developments with regard to indigenous peoples struggle for land rights and the protection of their forests and natural resources is happening. Local activists and NGOs headed the campaign for a new law that gave provision for land tenure for indigenous people. Those who now have ownership and control of their lands are enjoying their rights to their resources, such as in the tapping of resin and development of inland fisheries.

But in Vietnam. the government is oppressive towards its indigenous population and does not allow advocacy activities. The government's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Department for Sedentary Farming announced a campaign to wipe out traditional nomadic life and swidden farming of its indigenous population.

The government is attempting to eradicate traditional shifting agriculture, which is the lifeline of most highland indigenous peoples including the Banar, Ehde, Jarai, Koho and Mnong tribes, thousands of whom were imprisoned after calling for independence in February 2001.
This is causing genetic erosion of hunreds of traditional food crops including upland rice, rootcrops, legumes, tubers and leafy crops.

Laos has a similar policy as that of Vietnam, which aims to eradicate all traditional forms of agriculture by its indigenous peoples. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Hmong are being removed from their ancestral lands and relocated to areas which are not suitable for their lifestyle an cultural practices.

It is perhaps only in Burma/Myanmar, out of all the states in Asia, that the indigenous peoples form a majority. But under its military rule, politIcal detentions, harassment, militarization, military offensives, forced labour in labour camps and an educational crisis are widespread. Women face rape, marriage to military men and are trafficked by the military as slaves, labourers and prostitutes.

International Efforts to Fight Threat on IPs' ICPR
Indigenous people view the world they live in as an integrated whole. Their beliefs, knowledge, arts and other forms of cultural expression have been handed down through the generations. Their many stories, songs, dances, paintings and other forms of expression are therefore important aspects of indigenous cultural knowledge, power and identity form their heritage.

Heritage includes all expressions of the relationship between the people, their land and the other living beings and spirits which share the land, and is the basis for maintaining social, economic and diplomatic relationships — through sharing — with other peoples.

All of the aspects of heritage are interrelated and cannot be separated from the traditional Territory of the people concerned. What tangible and intangible items constitute the heritage of a particular indigenous people must be decided by the people themselves.

The guardians of an indigenous peoples cultural and intellectual property are determined by the customs, laws and practices of the community, and can be individuals, a clan or the people as a whole

Due to the active lobbying by indigenous peoples representatives in various international meetings, there is a growing appreciation by international agencies of the complexity of indigenous peoples discourse.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has begun discussions on the issue of indigenous peoples intellectual and cultural property rights, although many indigenous peoples are not entirely happy with the process. The UN has also undertaken a study on the heritage of indigenous peoples and put forward several recommendations but these remain recommendations only.

Most of the discussions at the international level on the issue remain elitist — only a very few indigenous individuals are able to participate and information regarding the discussions or outcomes is not extensively disseminated. There is a gap between the international debate and the local realities
Most indigenous communities are faced with life-threatening issues that keep them from actively engaging in international policy advocacy work, and yet many of the issues that indigenous peoples face on the ground are brought about by the implementation of policies crafted at the international level.

Asian indigenous peoples are now often able to wage their local struggles on a global front by working closely with international allies. A transnational movement of environmentalists, human rights workers, lawyers and indigenous organizations is emerging to defend indigenous rights.

Sunflowers, Bees Collateral Victims in Effort for Clean Safe Food By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Sunflowers, Bees Collateral Victims in Effort for Clean Safe Food
By Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan

Baguio City, Philippines---Fifty Christmas seasons ago, much of this city and the Cordillera provinces' woodlands, valleys, glens and landscapes were beautifully carpeted with golden wild sunflowers (Tithonia diversifolia) Wild bees abounded, pollinating wild and domesticated flowers, ensuring genetic evolution.

Today, the sunflowers are sparse, the fields ugly, pockmarked by human touch as thousands of the plants are cut and killed intentionally two months before every Christmas season. Considered by apiculturists as the best sources of nectar for wild and domesticated bees alike in this part of the country, the plants are being killed resulting to the loss of billions of bees, the world's best pollinators.

A quote often ascribed to Albert Einstein but without no known proof says, "If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live" highlighting how vital bees are to the survival of of plant and animal species on the planet, including humans.

Use of Sunflowers as Fertilizer, an Indigenous Know-how
The wild sunflowers, native to Mexico, are being cut in the Cordillera region to be used either as green manure or composting material for the production of organically-grown vegetables.
Unwittingly, farmers intending to satisfy consumers' growing demand for organically-grown safe and nutritious vegetables cut thousands of the plants from September to November and compost these as organic fertilizer. This allows them to make a killing in the market when they harvest their crops near Christmas and New Year, the seasons when vegetables are in their peak demand.

Locally called “marapait”, the wild sunflowers use as rich fertilizer can be traced to the indigenous knowledge of the natives of Mountain Province. For hundreds of years, they have used the plant as basal fertilizer, incorporating these in rice paddies together with pig manure and composted rice straw. Many farms in Mountain Province grow sunflower hedges as sole source of nitrogen fertilizer. Sunflower biomass decomposes rapidly after application to the soil.

The use is not without scientific basis. Then Philippine Department of Agriculture have found that sunflower leaves have high nitrogen content (2.9 percent oven dry weight) and that a ton of fresh sunflower can yield as much as 60 kg of nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen is the most basic fertilizer element needed by crops.

The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (UNFAO) and the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) say wild sunflower leaf biomass is high in nutrients, averaging about 3.5% nitrogen, 0.37% potassium and 4.1% phosphorus on a dry matter basis. This means the high nitrogen content is good for green plants.

Wild sunflower is a robust herbaceous and bushy perennial that grows up to 3 to 4 meters tall. Branches are stout, with hollow stems. The plant produces large flower heads with bright yellow to golden petals.

How Are Bees Affected Adversely?
The manner and process how honey is made is one of God's wonders science can't duplicate. Worker bees, after hibernating on the rainy and stormy months of June to September, start foraging for nectar and pollen on October. It is also on these months that sunflowers bloom with overflowing nectar. Nectar is the sugary liquid found in flowers. Worker bees using their long, tube-shaped tongues sip the nectar from the flowers and store this in their crop. While sloshing inside the bees' crop, the nectar mixes with enzymes that transform its chemical composition making it more suitable for long-term storage.

Apiculturist Nelson Palispis who trains farmers in this province explained in one of his trainings, “When a workerbee returns to the hive, it passes the nectar to another bee by regurgitating the liquid into the other bee's mouth. This regurgitation process is repeated until the partially digested nectar is finally deposited into a honeycomb”.

It does not end there. “Once in the comb, the nectar, still a viscous liquid, is fanned by the bees using their wings to speed up the process of evaporating any water. When most of the water has evaporated from the honeycomb, the bees seal the comb with a secretion of liquid from their abdomen, which eventually hardens into beeswax. Away from air and water, the honey is stored indefinitely, providing bees with the perfect food source for cold and rainy months, “Nelson elaborated.

Unfortunately, just as the bees time their nectar foraging from September to December, these are also the months when hundreds of farmers engaged in organic vegetable growing, cut thousands of sunflower plants to death, harvesting these be composted as fertilizer. As a consequence, the bees are deprived of plants rich in nectar. The bees are forced to forage on other plants mostly vegetables sprayed with deadly insecticides resulting to the death of millions of bees.

New Zealand-based apiculturist and former chief beekeeper of Saint Louis University's Beekeeping program here Jose Bandiwan lamented “Benguet is the country's worst user of dangerous pesticides, this uncontrolled chemical abuse is killing everything—bees, birds, beneficial insects, the soil, water—it is practically a biocide.”

“With the wild sunflowers, bees have a chance on foraging on non-poisoned sources of nectar, but when you kill the sunflowers the bees are forced to forage on vegetable flowers laced with chemicals, killing thousands of bees everyday,” he deplored.

Worldwide, the Malaysia-based Pesticide Action Network(PAN) says billions of bees are being wiped out due to pesticides yearly, and honey tests reveal worldwide contamination by bee-killing pesticides. It warns of ecological Armageddon if the dramatic fall of inset numbers don't abate.
Nelson is one of the fortunate beekeepers in the province, his bee colonies are situated in the village of Anchukey more than 1,500 masl opposite Mount Pulag, far from farms and surrounded by thousands of sunflower plants.

A Need for A Mutualistic Understanding
Jose believes it is senseless depriving bees of priceless sunflower nectar and people from appreciating the beauty of sunflowers. He likewise avers beekeepers and organic vegetable growers to benefit alike from sunflowers and bees. “Apiculturists and organic vegetable growers must agree on a timetable that allows bees to forage nectar before the sunflower plants are harvested to be composted, most likely the months of September and October. Organic vegetable growers can cut the sunflower plants after those months,” he proposed.

“Organic vegetable growers can also harvest plants that have finished blooming. On one hand, farmers and beekeepers must not merely depend on the resources without sweat, they must plant more sunflowers,” he added.

The idea led the government of New Zealand to support a Project Marapait in Benguet aimed at increasing bees for pollination at the same time intensifying planting of sunflowers. The project, implemented by the Cordillera Ecological Center has put a shot in the arm to beekeeping in the province.

Today, the sunflower plants may be less than before, the bees foraging may be fewer but Nelson says there is light ahead of the tunnel. “Nature has a way of healing we hardly understand if we don’t do our part. Planting those that give life is not nature’s sole responsibility, we must do our share, “he quipped