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Cordillera confab takes up biodiversity

BAGUIO CITY (Apr. 27) — “Pushing the Margins: Finding the Common Ground for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development Action”, was the theme of the Cordillera Regional Consultative Group Meeting held at the Maryknoll Ecological Sanctuary last April 18-21.

The said region-wide consultation was sponsored by the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE), with Save the Abra River Movement (STARM) as host.

The consultation gathered representatives from the various Cordillera provinces and sectors such as the peasants, workers, indigenous people, churches, academe, youth, etc. Current environmental issues and efforts were shared by the participants in their area to aid FPE in its program and direction-setting.

UP Baguio Associate Professor Celia Austria gave a briefing on “The Sate of Cordillera Biodiversity”. She warned that we are now in the middle of a biodiversity crisis. Some 50% of our plants and animals found only in the Philippines are under grave threat from mining, energy projects, intensive agriculture and aquaculture and land use conversion.

Jill K. Cariño of Cordillera Peoples Alliance (CPA) agreed with Austria’s presentation. In her lecture on “Threats to Cordillera Biodiversity”, she identified three major threats: development aggression and extractive industries; entry of “modern” agricultural technologies; and militarization.

According to Cariño, development aggression is the imposition of destructive and extractive industries, such as large-scale mining operations. Mining is direct threat to biological diversity. It has led to environmental destruction significantly reducing the food supply in indigenous communities. It has led to polluted and destroyed agricultural farms and dried up water sources, rice fields and gardens.

The second major threat Cariño said, is the entry of “modern” technologies. According to Cariño, among these are large energy projects like big dams. As of now, there are 15 dams to be constructed in the Cordillera, Cariño said. When built in fertile lands, it will lead to serious biodiversity loss.

Cariño identifies the third major threat to Cordillera biodiversity as militarization. Development aggression is usually coupled with military operations, which have prevented peasants from tending their rice fields or swidden farms, hunting or fishing for fear of their lives.

Cariño also emphasized that indigenous peoples have their own initiatives to conserve biodiversity through community seed banking; seed exchange; planting traditional varieties and use to compost fertilizers; and traditional pest management.

The provincial and sectoral representatives later visited the infamous Benguet Corporation open-pit mines in Itogon, Benguet. # Rizzle Dianne M. Mateo and Reymund Valentin/MMSU Intern for NORDIS

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