BAGUIO CITY – Up here in Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) with at hundreds of feet above sea level, its breath-taking topography and rugged terrain is a wonder to take on for those daring to accept walking ragged foot trails that lead from mountains to hills, valleys and rivers and from oblivion to bright spots.
Focused on exploration, these adventurous souls on hiking boots and backpacks often embark on pilgrimage to the hills and mountains of CAR to seek out living organisms hidden only in places in CAR mountains where few other species can live.
Some are rare that only a few groupings are discovered, specimens that have adapted only to the CAR’s unique environment.
Take for example the Benguet pine tree, scientifically known as Pinus Kesiya, the tree pine species dominantly growing in CAR, or the Benguet cloud rat, scientifically identified as “Phloeomys pallidus,” that can weigh from 1.5 to 2.6 kilograms and known to inhabit mostly Mount Pulag in Benguet.
Many believe CAR pine forest stands began during the Bronze age, but this is pure speculation. Because for other environmentalists, nature lovers, environment-caring tourists, the Benguet pine tree to them, is comparable to a precious sapling when people invented the Alphabet, when Babylon was the center of the Middle East, when Stonehenge was erected, when the Chinese wear learning to spin silk and when Asian nomads began to settle to other lands in Asia.
These environment-caring people have always been fascinated by the living ecosystem that holds life. Earlier science divided the physical world into what is described as plant, animal and mineral kingdoms; Twenty-first century science is discovering the profound interconnection of these things.
These avocational scientists scramble gingerly along CAR’s ridges and gullies, foot trails and embankments trying to understand our interdependence with environment, seeking bits of knowledge from a generation of dendrochronologists who have earlier studied the CAR terrain and as wilderness educator, in awe of the capacity of CAR wilderness to withstand extreme conditions.
Gerald Kidomis, from La Trinidad, who, when he has time off from his trucking business, often packs a few things into his rucksack and heads off to the mountains, leaving behind his truck and computer and stepping into forests in Benguet.
So does Lambin Subillo, who stays at Sablan municipality. Whenever he finished work on making beautifully-crafted wooden doors, he would find time to enter the forest canopy in Sablan, spread a cloth on the ground, lie on his back and just notice the swaying of the trees until these lull him to good slumber.
So, too, does Julio Guedang, a pure-blooded Cordilleran who always makes it a point to do pilgrimage to the mountains, explaining the intimate connection between spirit and place in the mountains is hard to grasp for post computer technological society. But there is an inescapable link between people’s lives and the natural environment.
Kidomis, Subillo and Guedang have something in common. And that is love for the living forest. The trio portray the evolution of environmentalism ethics as a movement from simple utilitarianism to a belief that it’s right to protect and wrong to abuse nature, or certain of its components, from the standpoint of human interest.
This change of attitude invests the argument for conservation with a moral dimension that is absent from the most basic type of utilitarianism.
While concerns about deteriorating relationship between dwellers in CAR and their environment date back for many years, the political response to it was late arriving, thus the reason why CAR has this problem of nature degradation.
CAR is among the last frontiers in the Philippines where 13 major watersheds originate, supplying water and hydroelectricity to other regions. But its watersheds face deterioration due to forest loss driven mainly by agricultural expansion and illegal logging, according to Global Forest Watch.
Take the situations of CAR provinces, for example. In 2020, the province of Abra had 307 kilo hectares (KHA) of natural forest, extending over 77 per cent of its land area. In 2024, it lost 388 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 93 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Benguet possessed 200 kilo hectares (KHA) of natural forest. In 2024, it lost 132 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 59.8 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2020, Kalinga had 206 KHA of natural forest extending over 71 per cent of its land area. In 2024, it lost 569 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 292 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2020, Ifugao had 155 KHA of natural forest, extending over 62 per cent of its land area. In 2024, it lost 503 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 213 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In 2020, Mountain Province had 174 KHA of natural forest, extending over 82 per cent of its land area. In 2024, it lost 291 hectares of natural forest, equivalent to 149 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
In 202, Apayao had 346KHA of natural forest, extending over 88 per cent of its land area. In 2024, it lost 1.70 KHA of natural forest, equivalent to 931 kilotons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Indigenous people in CAR have this culture of linking closely where they live to what they are rooted in. It is called “habitus,” particularly one that is drawn, at least in part, from the rhythm of the land around them. And that their habitat ceases to be a living partner in the pursuit of common wholeness if they disregard this.
An elder from Samoki, Bontoc, Mountain Province by the name of Ama Ongyod once said to Daily Laborer, “When you lose touch with environment, you become alienated from it and the environment seems indifferent, hostile.”
But with the habit of knowing your environment, it turns the scene into scenery, and a quest for transcendent experience. You have that sense of being formed in a community participating in a tradition that allows all to act unconsciously with ease and delight out of a deep sense of what is natural. We are, in short, a people of habit with common customs, place and shared meaning.”
If aboriginal people have that sense of camaraderie with the environment, can it rub and somehow stick as a trait for the general population?
Performance of Local Government Units LGUs) on part of discussion about environmental governance is equally important as the performance of residents. In this regard, there is the need to understand and measure environmental citizenship, or the obligation that individuals have for acting responsibly towards an environment they are part of, according to environmental experts.
A good environmental citizen understands and acts accordingly. It is for this reason that in CAR, many private persons who espouse and practice environmental citizenship have set up eco parks within their private properties and serving as major tourist destinations.
Much can be achieved if, on the other hand, the LGUs, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) should sustain the self-interest behavior of these individuals instead of making it difficult for them to establish their eco-parks.
They should fully support such initiatives instead of making it difficult for these would-be echo park entrepreneurs to operate. Environmental citizens make a commitment to the common good, knowing that their private actions have public implications, environmental experts explained.
To be an environmental citizen, one has the responsibility of living sustainably so others may also live well. Sadly, this is not the general case in the city of Baguio where others do not give a hoot or damn about garbage segregation, recycling nor do the majority recognize the rights and responsibilities of being an environmental citizen that can transcend boundaries according to local sanitation experts.
Part of the challenge with encouraging environmental citizenship is to assure individuals that there are choices available to them by which they can make positive contributions and that individual action in the face of what might seem like collective indifference is still worth an investment. Although this is easily said than done.
It is logical to think that most government offices involved in making and implementing environmental policy are being pointed out as the ones who are making it difficult for ecological park entrepreneurs to set up their plans. But previous reports have surfaced of such problems occurring.
In the end, the institutionalization of environmental questions in public debate is very good for it is an extension of the political apparatus that deals with environmental laws and regulations imperative to related action.
Environmental politics then serves to include the delicate interplay between policy, power and environment as it examines how organizations, government and business steer the complex challenges of environmental sustainability.
With arguments over economic growth, resource management and social justice at its core, environmental politics shapes policies and actions that influence the health of ecosystems and why LGUS should be in the forefront of encouraging environmental citizenship.
