Forest Foundation PH, AYEJ launch Kwentong Kalikasan docu series: There’s more to forests than just trees
TO put a human face on the issues affecting our forests, the Association of Young Environmental Journalists (AYEJ), in collaboration with Forest Foundation Philippines, launched Kwentong Kalikasan Documentary Episodes that aim to protect and conserve forests. Episode 1 focuses on how to protect and conserve forests and take care of our environment. Episode 2 promotes responsible travel and care for our forests with Viajero Outdoor Centre’s wide array of products, services, and pieces of training. Finally, Episode 3 tackles the forests home to indigenous communities and all sorts of livelihood mean.
The advocacy features stories and works of individuals and emerging advocates of forest conservation through a video series in the hopes of creating awareness and creatively documenting the positive impact of forest conservation work. It also aims to highlight the heroes and the champions behind forest conservation in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental.
For Episode 1, Thieza Verdejo, Deputy Director of Xavier Science Foundation chose the road less traveled. As a woman, it has never been easy. She was pressured with expectations to work in a corporate world but she eventually chose to concentrate on a career around the mountain ranges of Bukidnon.
Xavier Science Foundation is a 53-yearold foundation that works to support development programs and projects. The foundation is the initiator of innovative programs and forums for dialogue. It acts as a conduit of funds – its prime mission. It envisions Mindanao to be hunger-free and competitive.
According to Verdejo, the foundation finds it relevant to promote the ecosystem because many forests have been deluded. The country is faced with a lot of logging and deforestation that really destroyed our mountains because there are no more trees that hold on to the water that causes flooding.
Protecting the environment or conserving our environment is a shared responsibility. It's not just for the IPS alone, not just for the community downstream alone but for co-existence as human beings with nature/ environment.
“Nature shall continue doing its own thing. But for humanity who has that capacity to think and do things, it's us who should take responsibility. We should consider nature as our abode, as our home and we have to take care of it,” Verdejo stressed.
Episode 2 features Maria Reina Olavidez Bontuyan, a passionate mountaineer running a business advocating for sustainability. Bontuyan promotes responsible travel and cares for our forests with Viajero Outdoor Centers’ wide array of products, services, and pieces of training.
“While taking up Development Communication, I discovered mountaineering in my last year of college. I decided to shift into fulltime being a mountaineer. Since then, I never stopped climbing. For a month we would climb three to five times a month in the Bukidnon area. Eventually, that experience we will share with the next generation,” Bontuyan shared.
She equates her mountaineering experience to a spiritual journey.
“I was enveloped in the very rich foliage of forest with the sound of birds. It's like a solo reunion or solo retreat with my Lord. It was more spiritual for me,” she confessed.
After a couple of years of exploring mountains and going outdoor, Bontuyan felt the need for safe outdoor gear and equipment. She would go to Cebu or Manila and even outside of the country to purchase outdoor equipment. Then she thought of buying a couple of items and selling them in Cagayan de Oro. That's how she decided to build a business.
Today, the Mindanao-based retail store specializing in outdoor recreational or sports equipment, also conducts outdoor education training. While promoting, safe responsible travel, Bontuyan is also giving her full attention to forest conservation.
“There are many lessons in our 27 years journey but if I'm going to pick one, the valuable lesson is the need for a community, we can work together. We want to continue our advocacy and passion to share and be able to reach out to everybody. It's a calling that we can say never say no,” she said in her video interview.
In Episode 3, Archie Tulin who works as a research Management Officer of the Land Timber Forest Product Exchange Program Philippines, admits to developing his sense of environmentalism already in his college years. Now, as a development worker, striving to address the climate crisis, Archie proves that it is never too late to make an impact.
“Typhoon Yolanda really opened my eyes that climate change is here knocking on our doors. From then on, I made a pledge to myself to contribute to addressing the climate crisis. That's how I started my journey in development work,” Archie recalled.
“What keeps me moving and motivated for the past 8 years is the thought that even as a young person like me can do little things for the community that in the long run can make up positive impact for them, especially for the environment,” Tulin shared.
This episode tackles the ways people can help conserve the forests with the support and assistance of the Non-timber Forest Products - Exchange Programme Philippines (NTFP-EP). After all, forests are home to indigenous communities and all sorts of livelihood mean, making them more than just trees. Watch the three docus here: https:// fb.watch/eeljgalpfq/, https://fb.watch/ eelipsl4od/, and https://fb.watch/ EELG46IIJ6/.