AVANT GARDENER
Typhoon Carina wreaking havoc over parts of Luzon these past few days, drives home the point that our current infrastructure is not storm-proof and that flooding will continue to get worse as the climate crisis intensifies.
Thriving forest cover is one of the most effective ways to prevent flooding. Plant roots help the soil absorb water that would have otherwise caused erosion.
Forests don’t grow overnight, but if we start now, there’s always hope.
Last July 22, Raf Dionisio, co-founder of Make A Difference (MAD) Travel and Circle Hostel, posted an entry on Facebook that went viral. It was before and after a photo of a mountainside in San Felipe, Zambales, where MAD Travel hosts eco-tours in cooperation with the resident Aetas, who own the ancestral domain which spans 4,000 hectares.
The before photo was taken in 2017, while the after photo was taken in mid-July this year. “The work started as early as 2015,” Raf said. He had just started MAD Travel and was looking for ecotourism opportunities. He was introduced to the local Indigenous Peoples Municipal Representative (IPMR), who guided him to Sitio Yangil and Sitio Banawen, both of who he works with to this day. “It was a four-hour walk under the sun… It was beautiful but it was hot…. It was so hot that after the walk, I had to take a nap to cool down before walking back.”
A few months later, Dionisio met John Perrine, founder of Hineleban Foundation in Bukidnon, who had successfully worked with the Talaandig tribe to reforest their ancestral domain and develop a social enterprise. Dionisio asked if he could train under Hineleban so he could do the same thing in Zambales. “It’s my first time to see a solution that can end poverty for the environment.”
Perrine agreed. “He said, ‘I’ll help you but you must bring the Aetas here because you can’t do it alone. It’s their land. You need them if it’s going to work.’”
They were able to raise funds to send two chieftains, the IMPR officer, and a pastor who was a community leader in reforestation to Bukidnon to train, meet members of the Talaandig community, and experience for themselves what could be achieved.
In 2016, MAD Travel launched its Tribes and Treks Tours, where guests would hike to the tribe, interact with the community, and spend time potting seeds for the reforestation project. The seeds came from all over: some were donated, others were saved after the fruit was eaten.
The trees were planted on the mountainside in 2017. The operation was headed by chieftain Erece dela Cruz and funded by the money earned from the tours. 20,000 trees were planted between 2017 and 2018. “And then we forgot about it. We just kept on doing the tours until Covid.”
When Dionisio visited the area again in 2021, the change he saw was huge. What was once brown patches of dried shrub and bare land was now covered with lush greenery.
This isn’t just a regular tree-planting project. Some like narra, tibig (Ficus nota), lauan (Shorea negrosensis), yakal, and agoho are native rainforest species designed to help sequester carbon and keep water in, while others are agroforestry species such as bamboo, cashew, calamansi, sampaloc, and jackfruit that can offer residents a source of income.
“We’re planting things that we see have opportunities in the market, whether they can sell it themselves or we can help them sell it… the cashew is a good example of that because we’re able to help them sell cashew here, but they also sold a lot on their own there…..”
The plan is to continue with the reforestation efforts and working with the community. A key project would be making herbal teas that can be served during the ecotours and sold in different markets.
All these efforts would not have been successful without the help of government and private partners. Dionisio mentioned working with the local and provincial government, the Tourism Promotions Board, Cooperative Development Authority, DENR, DA, NCIT, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, “For The Future, Bioten, and Nadine [Lustre].”
The agroforestry trees have begun to bear fruit. Dionisio has heard comments from the community such as, “This is the first rainy season we’re not hungry” and “pinag-aawayan yung kassuy namin sa bayan (People in town fight over our cashews).”
Dioniso has since been flooded with questions from similar-minded citizens on how to volunteer or start their own reforestation efforts. Interested parties can email him at [email protected] or visit www.madtravel.org.
He predicts that because of the worsening climate crisis, tree planting will stop being an advocacy and become a necessity. “I think if we’re able to introduce agroforestry at the fringes or the bottom part of our reforestation programs, we will be able to create pockets of food security around the country.”