An Aeta’s Advice on Relief and Reforestation
Yesterday at a meeting of FPE, the Foundation for Philippine Environment, Lan Mercado of Oxfam GB gave us a briefing on the damage wrought on the Philippines by typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng. She said that around 4 million people have been displaced by Ondoy, and another 2 million by Pepeng, mainly due to landslides.
More than three weeks after Ondoy, most of the response is still at the stage of “relief.” The next stage of “early recovery” is only true of MetroManila. And she reminded us that in previous years, the more destructive typhoons, like Milenyo, have come in December.
Still, she said that the need for immediate relief and early recovery will pass, though more slowly than before. But will government and people learn the lessons and integrate hazard mapping and disaster risk reduction in development planning? And beyond the rhetoric, what decisive measures will be taken for climate change adaptation and climate change mitigation?
Both FPE and a sister organization PTFCF, the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation, are into long-term, or at least medium-term, programs of biodiversity conservation and reforestation. We have no funds or capabilities to respond to the more immediate needs of rescue, relief, and rehabilitation. But we asked our staff to check on the situation of our partner communities, many of them indigenous people, to guide us on what response we can give within our mandate.
Just before we ended our meeting, I got a phone call from Carling Domulot, president of LAKAS, the Aeta organization that is a partner of ELF, the Education for Life Foundation, and FPE. “I am going to Quezon City tomorrow, “he informed me. “Can we meet?”
Tonight, I managed a quick meeting with Carling before he took the night bus back to Zambales.
Fortunately, the LAKAS community which he leads is settled on higher ground, and the flood waters did not reach their houses. But their six-hectare farmlands are in the lower plains, and all their crops have been destroyed. A few months back, he had asked ELF for some funds to buy rice. Their community had accommodated their fellow Aetas displaced by an earlier flood, and allowed them to plant root crops and vegetables in their field. But while waiting for their crops to grow, they needed some food to tide them over. Most of them used to earn 150 pesos working as day laborers in other people’s fields, but the flood had deprived them of this daily income.
Before they could harvest their crops, these were wiped out by the flood.
The local government and other agencies, public and private, have brought relief goods to the displaced communities. These are welcome, of course. But Carling also worries about the possible long-term impact on the Aetas. He recalls what happened after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. The displaced Aeta communities were the target of massive relief assistance, so much so that competing relief organizations added to the divisions among the Aetas.
“After many years, we have recovered our sense of self-reliance and unity,” he said. “Our responsibility as leaders is to make sure that we do not back slide to a culture of dependence, even though we do need assistance.”
One solution is to advice well-meaning organizations not to use the term “relief,” but to use the framework of “food for work.” Whatever food or money is given should be in exchange for asking the displaced Aetas to clean up their surroundings, plant trees, and when possible, plant food crops.
Reforestation is almost a “motherhood” response to preventing future floods and landslides, and essential to climate change mitigation. Both FPE and PTFCF are looking into supporting reforestation of the watershed areas and the mountains closest to MetroManila as a strategic intervention.
But Carling has some cautionary advice on reforestation.
“Over the past 18 years, since we settled in our present homes after Mt. Pinatubo erupted, I have seen many reforestation projects,” he said. “But how many of those trees are still alive? Why are most of our mountains still without forests?”
Many people and much funds can be mobilized for massive “tree planting” activities. Carling observes that the problem is how to take care of the trees for at least five years, to insure that they will continue to live and grow. He thinks it is better to assign each household a definite area and number of trees to take care of. But they would need support while waiting for the trees e.g. fruit trees to offer them possible income.
“We need to combine the long-term goal of renewing the forest, and the need to address our short-term requirements for food and some extra income,” Carling says. The solution he sees is to fund these households to plant vegetables and other food crops in between the growing trees. The crops will give them food and some income from selling whatever surplus remains.
He adds that in Zambales, during the dry season, there are forest fires. Even their 40-plus hectare community-based reforestation project has suffered, despite their clearing fire breaks. He says, “If we practice contour farming for our root crops and vegetables, the spaces between the growing trees will be kept clear, and there will be little left to feed a forest fire.”
Of course he promotes the use of organic fertilizer and pest control. For many years, they also used chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but a few years back, LAKAS shifted to sustainable agricultural practices. “Our fellow Aetas did not immediately follow our example and advice,” he comments with a smile. “They were convinced only after they observed that we could harvest repeatedly, and earned more. I realized also that most of them are leaders in their own communities and would not simply follow the advice of a fellow Aeta leader.”
He has been talking with the local government and with other organizations about his ideas on combining food production and reforestation. “But most of them tell me that they have to focus first on relief assistance,” he says. “They ask us to wait till later. But even though we have not been displaced, our main source of food and livelihood has been destroyed. We need to do something about this, and combine it with the need to plant trees.”
As he left to catch the night bus, I told him I will ask around if in the midst of the relief efforts, there are resources and organizations that are prepared to assist the kind of program he has described.
