Thor's Thunder A Reminder by Michael A. Bengwayan

Thor's Thunder  A reminder
By Michael A. Bengwayan

A few seconds before dead of the night, it came. Lightnings on the east followed by rolling thunder like God playing bowling. The sky trembled, the world moved and pandemonium started to break loose. the typhoon's shafts of lightning and roars of thunder have come. The stormy season is here. And will be for a long time.  

I looked out, nay peered, is most likely. Cold pulses of air stab through the thick blanket of humidity that lays on this region like a wet feather mattress. Even on the northwest side of this mountain I can see moist air being lifted by sinking cold air that forces the the dank atmosphere skyward. The battle between these two atmospheres creates static and I can feel the hair standing up on my arm as if I’d just seen a ghost. There will be a thunderstorm today no doubt; but there are unanswered questions. Where? When? How bad?
King Kong , the king of Longlong, my five year old German Shepherd is nervous, and hides in my office. My cat Cooper stands on the deck with his nose in the air. It seems he senses danger. It took me years to learn the recipe for a strong storm but dogs recognize the necessary ingredients long before humans know what is going on.
I wander out onto our deck and look northwest. The sky is dark and angry. PAGASA National Weather Service has issued a storm watch for the Cordillera country but I  often laugh at how the weather forecasters  issue warnings. It is as if they expect a storm to respect a political boundary; this is human nonsense at its greatest proportion. The dark clouds have long spiral tails that hang down. What I really am witnessing is all of the warm moisture being lifted into the clouds. The speed of the cloud movement, from west to east, is astounding. The clouds are no longer separate. The delineation from one condensed mass of moisture to another has been smudged into a carpet of black and gray.

I watch mashed black clouds with menacing tails rush east. The skies open up. Rain falls like there is no tomorrow. I am reminded of the the typhoons tornadoes that struck an area half a mile from me called Kibungan village almost exactly a year ago. They stayed on the ground for forty miles; F-4′s that blew away the past, present, and future of hundreds of people. A wide swath of destruction that will be evident for a generation was formed in moments; homes lost, lives dashed, dreams sent to the middle of the China Sea. Hopefully not today, not this time. Lightning careens down and cracks open the earth. Thunder pounds this part of the planet with the force of ancient Gods. Winds force the heavy rain horizontally. Our house lights flicker and then they are gone. The only thing we can do is watch, listen, and take the storm into our hearts and minds. Absorbing a bad storm lessens the fright. Fear has no place here. We sit quietly. The storm pounds on and on.

.

It is almost July.. This changing of weather this time of year, from cool to warm to cool, is normal. There have been many storms like this. Perhaps thousands in my lifetime that I have endured. And each time I wonder what is in store. When the atmosphere feels dangerous we all stand alert.

I think back to my childhood. When I was very young and frightened by a storm my older sister would get in my bed at night when the thunder and lightning storms raged on and tell me that God was bowling. That used to make me laugh. I pictured a giant bowling alley, with ginormous pins, and gargantuan bowling balls being cast about making loud crashing noises. The image of God bowling was hilarious!

This series of storms has ebbs and flows. Cold fronts seem to come in waves, like the sea rolling to shore. With each wave there is another line of thunder boomers. The sky goes from gray to black to gray. The sound in the sky goes from quiet to loud to quiet. And even though the clock tells me it is still the afternoon the view out our windows is dark. Each bolt of lightning produces a strobe-like flash.

Since the days of my childhood I have counted the time between a flash of lighting and the sound of thunder. I count slowly, about once per second. Sound travels at 1126 feet per second. A count of five means the storm is roughly a mile away. A count of fifteen means it is roughly three miles away. This is something I learned from my grandfather. He was a soldier and knew the dangers of an electrical storm. Counting through these storms is valuable. I can tell how far away storms are after they have passed and I can tell the distance of storms as they approach. Like waves crashing to shore they keep coming.
I look outside. The wind blows and the white underneath side of the leaves on the trees is exposed. This contrasts sharply against the darkness of the day. It is dramatic but familiar. I remind myself that I’ve been here before when not in the safety of a house. Being caught in a lightning storm near a river or lake is dangerous. Especially in an aluminum boat.  You can’t be too careful when it comes to lightning. A bolt of lightning can be a billion volts at 200000 amperes. It can turn a human into charcoal. Not a pleasant thought.
Even being inside can be dangerous.

Light at the end of the storm tunnel.

And without notice the storm stops. Lightning can be seen to the east. The thunder is many counts behind the lightning. The heavy rain dies. The dark skies turn blue. But the winds stay blustery.
Even God has to cool down after a rowdy bowling match.

Fun, teaching go hand in hand in lessons about environment

Michael A. Bengwayan

Not all staid stuff: Learning about the environment need not be just about reading books. Trips to the jungle can foster understanding of nature, even among younger children, but such trips should also be fun. Picture: www.mayuc.com

Michael Bengwayan

BRUNEI is blessed with its untouched forests, clear pristine rivers, open valleys and bountiful biodiversity. It is a beauty to behold and a paradise for environmental teachers.

It is also a learning laboratory for pupils who can have fun and appreciate nature and its importance to humans and the world.

As an environmentalist in the Philippines for many years, I have planned and carried out several educational environmental trips with elemenatry, secondary pupils and college students.

It is important that in planning an environmental educational activity, it should be fun. Students should be able to learn. And finally, students should be able to correlate their learning to life's realities.

Here are some pointers for teachers in planning and implementing a fruitful environmental trip.

Set a goal or objective

There must be an educational objective. It must be SMART: meaning it is Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.

An example can be: To increase environmental awareness of Grade 5 and 6 pupils by introducing them to the beauty of Brunei by visiting the Ulu Temburong National Park on October 15.

Get the permission of your school head before you plan the activity.

Note down the pupils' expectations

The children's expectations are important. Make a list of what they expect to see, know, learn. Know their wishes. Based on these information needs, you can logically and sequentially plan the activities.

Later on after the educational trip, check whether these expectations have been met or the pupils questions answered.

Orient your staff

Since you will work with some staff or co-teachers who will assist you, make sure they know the objectives of the activity. They should also have a common understanding of the activities goal and objectives. They should at least be knowledgeable in environmental issues, and trained in first aid and disaster management.

Allow them to make the trip fun and enjoyable for the pupils. Identify their roles and tasks individually. If a docor or nurse can volunteer to participate, include her or him.

Make your budget

Identify and list the things that will be needed and how much these will cost. These should include transportation, meals/food, first aid kits and medicine, water, flashlights, rope for rapelling, matchboxes, pocket knives and jungle bolos, insect repellants, pupils notebooks and pens, camera, cell phones, compass.

Identify Your itinerary and how long you will be in said place

If the children are visiting several sites, be sure they will not stay too long in one place or else they will not have enough time for other places. Spread out your time in each place equally or dependent on the significance of the place or the things they want to see or learn.



Orient the pupils a day before the trip

Before the trip, the pupils should be informed beforehand where they will go, when, what they will see, learn, observe and write and do, how should they ensure safety and why are they going to these places.

Make your letters to each individual parents and make sure you have their permission allowing their children to join the activity.

Group students in pairs to be buddies and explain that for the whole duration of the trip each buddy is responsible for his or her partner.

Tell the pupils what to bring and what not to bring, what to wear, what to do and what not to do. If there are rules and regulations in the nature parks that they will go to, get those rules and read it to the students and let them understand it.

Inform proper authorities where you are going, when you will go and when you and the children are expected to be back. Check the weather bulletin and make sure the day is clear and no untoward weather disturbance will happen.

When you're ready, go and have fun. But remember to remind your pupils that in a forest, they should:

Take nothing but pictures

Leave nothing but footprints

Kill nothing but time

The writer has worked on environmental issues for many years in the Philippines, educating and training children and students on ecological concerns. Read about his environmental education group at www.geocities.com/pinetreemacik/macik

The Brunei Times

Michael Bengwayan

Carbon trading: Saving forests and communities Michael Bengwayan

Carbon trading: Saving forests and communities

Michael A Bengwayan
BALI

BY ALL indications after all the rhetoric from the international environmental meet here, carbon trading is now looking more and more as the “winningest option” to save forests and communities.

Carbon trading deals involving tree growing in developing countries will provide greater benefits than just improving the environment. It could sharply reduce poverty among the rural poor and provide businesses with an inexpensive way to offset their carbon emissions.

A report entitled Forest carbon and Local Livelihoods: Assessment and Policy Recommendations argues that the use of forests to reduce carbon emissions is financially viable, and brings considerable benefits to people in rural communities.

The research counters the view that most carbon-trading deals between industry and tree growers in developing countries will have negative environmental and social consequences.

Carbon trading allows industries in developed countries to off-set their emissions of carbon dioxide by investing in reforestation and clean energy projects in developing countries.

The report, prepared by the Centre for International Forestry Research (Cifor) and Forests Trends, are seeking major changes to the carbon trading rules under the Kyoto Protocol.

Both authorities say that community-friendly forest carbon projects are unlikely to take root without proactive changes in the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism rules, and in the approaches that developing countries and project designers are taking.

The report seeks action in four main areas.

Make all types of forestry and agroforestry projects with significant benefits for local communities eligible for the Clean Development Mechanism (as long as they also meet rigorous requirements for carbon benefits). For example, draft rules omit forest rehabilitation as an approved activity despite its enormous social benefits and significant carbon-sequestration potential.

Reduce risks for local communities. The rules should require assessments of the social impact of projects to ascertain how local people have benefited or been harmed. National governments will need to protect and formalise land tenure rights of communities, or carbon deals will be riddled with conflict, increasing their financial risk for investors.

Reduce the cost of managing community projects. Private businesses and NGOs can act as intermediaries to combine the carbon offsets produced by multiple farmers or communities and sell them jointly to buyers. For example, in Mexico, a local environmental organisation helped to organise 400 small-scale farmers in 20 communities to sequester carbon by planting trees around their crop fields. With the NGO acting as the intermediary, the farmers sold carbon credits equal to 17,000 tonnes of carbon to the International Federation of Automobiles for between US$10 ($14.5) and $12 per tonne of carbon. The CDM rules should make community-based forestry projects eligible for the low-cost “fast-track” approval process.

Reduce risks and costs for investors. The report notes that there are new players in the carbon-trading field who can simplify deal making and reduce the costs of organising and marketing community tree-growing projects. For example, industry buyers are now able to purchase carbon offsets from investors who have portfolios of projects, which spreads risk. The independent, non-profit Face Foundation has developed a portfolio of five projects in five countries, affecting 135,000 hectares that sequester 21 million tonnes of carbon.

The report estimates that many community-based projects could sell carbon credits for $US 15 to $US 25 per tonne of sequestered carbon. This could mean a potential private financial flow of $US300 million per year to some of the world’s poorest people — more than the current annual flows of official overseas aid for forestry development in poor countries.

The writer is based in Manila covering environment and community development issues.

The Brunei Times

Indigenous Peoples' Traditional Ricfe Varieties Making a Comeback

Indigenous People's Traditional Rice Varieties Making A Comeback

By Michael A. Bengwayan

Traditional rice varieties once grown and nurtured by indigenous peoples are making a comeback because of the importance of their genes that are necessary in breeding rice for the future.

This was made known when this author, director of the Cordillera Ecological Center (PINE TREE) was invited to speak at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which has spearheaded world research in rice technology since the early 1950s.

For sometime, there was a growing fear that hybrid rice will altogether eliminate traditional rice varieties. Today, current conditions prove that traditional rice varieties are here to stay and are necessary for rice evolution.

IRRI has started giving back to farmers and communities small packets of traditional rice varieties that will be planted and serve as planting materials. Technological assistance is likewise provided by IRRI for those who wish to plant once again traditional rice varieties.

“IRRI has now realized that traditional rice varieties need to be put back into farmers’ fields. IRRI is doing just that—giving back traditional rice varieties it has kept for so many years in its high tech seedbank, the environmental group PINE TREE bared.

Outstanding characteristics of traditional rice varieties, like resistance to pests and diseases and high yielding capability, are genetically engineered with other characteristics of other rice varieties to serve as building blocks for new rice varieties.

PINE TREE is working with United Nations Development Program Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF) in the Philippines to protect indigenous peoples traditional rice varieities.

In Karao, Bokod, Benguet, farmers with assistance from PINE TREE has saved and continue to sustain the use of seven traditional rice varieties by establishing a rice seedbank shared by community people. seedbank. The seven traditional varieties now being conserved by the Karao farmers are found nowhere else in the Philipines.

PINE TREE is linking with IRRI to get traditional rice seeds especially upland un-irrigated varieties and bring these back to farmers’ fields because these are vital for food security and in providing future genetic material.

For many years, hybrid rice was promoted in the Philippines especially by the government believing it was the an answer to the growing population. But while it improved production, it required expensive chemical inputs that endangered not only humans but also altered the ecosystem adversely. Today, the country is the leading rice importer in Asia and it has lost 90 per cent of all its traditional rice varieties, he said.

The Philippine government insisted on pushing for hybrid rice even with its past dismal failure, especially so because the Department of Philippine Agriculture signed an agreement with IRRI to a US$216 million project for the production of subsidized hybrid and certified seeds, he added.

This happened even though the World Bank concluded that the Philippines hybrid rice program had not produced “much net social benefit’, adding that “conventional rice varieties were more socially profitable than hybrids”?

The reality, PINE TREE says that food giant corporations Philippine corrupt officials and food corporations stand to gain illicitly from all these.

The main beneficiary of the various hybrid rice schemes, for instance, is SL Agritech, owned by Filipino Chinese businessman Henry Lim. In 2006, SL Agritech supplied 65 per cent of the hybrid rice seeds purchased through the country’s hybrid rice programme earning the company more than US$ 4 million. It also was a time when the Philippine government official of the Department of Agriculture JocJoc (Oh what a joke indeed to Filipino farmers!) Bolante romped away with millions of pesos worth of fertilizers intended to support the program, PINE TREE explained.

While traditional rice varieties were forgotten in the past decades, they are the “heart and soul of rice”, PINE TREE avers.

They require little fertilizer and no chemical inputs, now blamed for the degeneration of farmlands in many parts of the world. Traditional rice varieties are more nutrient-rich, tastier and friendlier to the soil. It allows farmers protect to protect their soil and ecosystem and have control of the seeds that their forefathers have reared for centuries.

PINE TREE is encouraging farmers to keep their own seeds and bank these to prevent the seeds from being pirated by big multinational groups.

Seedsaving or banking is the best protection that indigenous peoples have against biopiracy, PINE TREE said.

The indigenous peoples in the Cordillera region own some of the best sustainable and indigenous practices in agriculture and forest conservation.

For instance, the IPs from mountain Province practice sustainable farming by using “lumeng” (mixture of decomposed rice straw with pig manure) and wild sunflower (Tithanium diversifolium) stalks as basal manure and green manure before planting traditional rice varieties.

They also incorporate the brown-green nitrogen fixing algae Azolla which fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere and delivers this for rice use as nitrogen fertilizer.

In forest conservation, the indigenous peoples of Sagada, Besao, Bauko and Tadian practice the “lakon” forest system which enables forests to be conserved and protected.

In Ifugao, the IPs there practice the “muyung” and “pinugo” agroforestry systems that incorporate timber with fruits trees, rice, crops and livestock to ensure ecological balance.

But as modernization creeps in, some of these IP indigenous knowledge are starting to crumble. It may not be long before these are forgotten, unless immediate measures are taken up to popularize these with the new generation.

PINE TREE Seedbanking for Food Security

Philippine Indigenous NGO Seedbanking For Food Security

Dr. Michael A. Bengwayan, 2010

Early this year, the World Bank came out with an official announcement that there will be serious food shortages in at least 60 developing countries and that it will lead to social unrest.

The warning is the latest indication that worldwide, food security is being threatened and that there is an urgent need to address the causes behind, one of which is continuous erosion as well as loss of genetic material for crops.

Globally, food crops are being lost and worse, being owned and controlled by few corporations. This has to stop and no better answer can communities be more involved than in seedbanking for their own future.

In support to the global seedbanking movement, the Cordillera Ecological Center more known as PINE TREE which operates in the Cordillera region that is made up of several indigenous peoples particularly the Igorots, has established four community seedbanking sites in the Philippines for food security. The first is located in Karao, Bokod, province of Benguet where some 12 indigenous rice varieties have been saved and are now being grown by the indigenous peoples known as Ibalois and Kalanhuyas.

The second is in Lusod, Kabayan, also in Benguet where 29 endemic sweet potato varieties are now being grown for many uses by the Kalanguya and Ibaloi tribes.

The third seedbank is in Caponga and Central Tublay, Tublay also in Bengut where Ibaloi indigenous women-farmers now own and use seven bean varieties.

The projects were supported by the United Nations Global Environmental Facility (UNDP-GEF).

PINE TREE observed five principles or “laws” of genetic conservation as its foundation in the implementation of its community-based seedbanking (CSB).

First, agricultural diversity can only be safeguarded through the use of diverse strategies. No one strategy could hope to preserve and protect what it took so many human cultures, farming systems and environments so long to produce. Different conservation systems can complement each other and provide insurance against the inadequacies or shortcomings of any one method.

Second, what agricultural diversity is saved depends on who is consulted. How much is saved depends on how many people are involved. Farmers, gardeners, fishing people, medicine makers, religious leaders, carpenters-all have different interests that foreign scientists could never hope to fully appreciate. All segments of a community need to be involved to insure that the total needs of a community are met. The more involvement, the greater the potential to conserve.

Third, agricultural diversity will not be saved unless it is used. The value of diversity is in its use. Only use can diversity be appreciated enough to be saved. And only in use can it continue to evolve, thus retaining its value.

Fourth, agricultural diversity cannot be saved without saving the farm community. Conversely, the farm community cannot be saved without saving diversity. Diversity, like music or a dialect, is a part of the community that produce it. It cannot exist for long without that community and the circumstances that gave rise to it. Saving farmers is a prerequisite of saving diversity. Conversely, communities must save their agricultural diversity in order to retain their own options for development and self-reliance. Someone else’s seeds imply someone else’s needs.

And fifth, the need for diversity is never-ending. Therefore, our efforts to preserve this diversity can never cease. Because extinction is forever, conservation must be forever. No technology can relieve us of our responsibility to preserve agricultural diversity for ourselves and all future generations. Thus, we must continue to utilize diverse conservation strategies, involve as many people in the process as possible, see that diversity is actively used and insure the survival of the farm community-for as long as we want agricultural diversity to exist.

Safeguarding Diversity

There are several ways in which community strategy can support institutional strategies in seedbanking.

One, during seed surveys and collection, community seedbanking strategies can support socio-ecological surveys of the community land area based upon consultations with farmers, food prepares, medicine-makers, wood cutters and gatherers, herders fisher-folk and artisans involving teams of plant-users in survey and monitoring exercises covering locally and globally imported species.

During storage, communities can organize a series of community-based collection expeditions covering a range of crops throughout the entire growing season.

During rejuvenation, farmers can maintain small plots for endangered cultivars and/or samples are split with one complete set sent to a national seed bank and a matching set cleaned, dried, and stored under cool/dry conditions within the community and monitored by local people knowledgeable about the species.

In documentation, field collection sheets are copied and filed and labels are prepared. Information is kept in most useful local language using locally-understood land descriptions and personal names for the benefit of further investigation and rejuvenation.

In seed evaluation, community seed collectors discuss characteristics of each sample with the local user at the time of collection. Immediate usefulness and long-term value are documented.

Evaluation information is shared with community users and samples may be adopted directly or adapted by community members to improve production.

Tags: Philippines genetics agriculture Ibaloi Kalanhuyas food security

August, Die She Must

I leave August with a sigh of pity. It must have been that I lost doors of opportunity. or did not bother to open some. But September is in and I have concluded I had enough of thinking. Yes, I have done some chores, this and that. In my garden, most specifically but it does not give me full satisfaction. Between the things I love and the things I want to do lies a chasm. I have yet to cross over and put a bridge on both. Yet I constantly prod myself to do things which have not yet been done. Starting this month, I start once more.

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