Presidential Decree (PD) 705 or the Forestry Reform Code of the Philippines as amended and other related laws, rules and regulations provides the importance of preserving and protecting established watersheds and forest reservations that must be preserved and protected for the benefit of future generations of Filipinos. The allow allows the proper use of forest products without compromising the state of the environment because it paves the way for the coexistence of people and their surroundings.
Development is actually inevitable because of growing communities but such should be done in a calibrated manner to avoid inflicting serious damages that may compromise the state of the environment which strikes the needed balance between man and nature.
In the Cordillera, the watersheds and forests serve as the headwaters of major river systems discharging abundant water supply for various uses to the lowland communities. Our ancestors aggressively fought for the protection of our land and our forests from the interests of multinational companies during the martial law years. Armed struggle was their main cause of action that resulted to the loss of thousands of innocent lives but they were successful in thwarting what could be damaging to the state of our environment which were the commercial logging and the construction of a series of dams detrimental to the lives of people living in lowland communities. The armed struggle was one of the reasons why they also fought for the federal form of government and the put up of the autonomous region which was favored by our previous national leaders.
The reason why we are clamoring for self-determination is we know and understand how to coexist with nature for us to be able to sustain the preservation and protection of our environment. Our love for our environment is embodied on the way our ancestors fought for the protection of our land and our forest where such passion must be present among present day Cordillerans.
Ironically, we seem not to value the efforts of our ancestors in passing on to us a good state of our forests because we are the ones that are slowly ruining our mountains for the sake of establishing sustainable sources of livelihood. Understandably, food is a basic need of the people to survive but it should not go to the extent of destroying the God-given resources and compromise the future of our siblings.
The rate of destruction of our forests has become evident aggravated by the prevalence of climate change in the global scene that is why we must be awakened to the reality that we are actually risking the lives of our children’s children on the way we tolerate the ongoing massive destruction of our environment.
If we ask the young kids on what they want, they quickly reply that they want to enjoy life in a good environment which should serve as our motivation and inspiration for us to strive to protect and not to destroy our remaining forests. The pace of destruction of our forests has almost tripled through the years. Unfortunately, it seems that we are not concerned on the effects of our actions which are worsened by the clear indications that climate change is within our midst. Because of the unpredictable weather patterns, stronger typhoons, prolonged drought among others. Many innocent lives have been lost due to the occurrence of landslides and soil erosion that buried various communities inside and outside the region. Floodings had also been enormous in low lying communities. Earthquakes happen from time to time. But it seems that these natural and some man-made calamities are not sufficient to teach us our lessons the hard way.
It is high time that we have to go back to the basics in life. We should not forget that we are being threatened by disasters if we continue to deliberately ignore the signs that something is wrong with our surroundings.
Let us start refocusing our activities towards a better future for us and for our children. Let us start re-shaping our own communities. Individually and collectively, let us heed the challenge to save Mother Earth from being ravaged. Let us not allow our children to live in a hell-lie situation. Let us not allow them to blame us for being irresponsible on the way we do things.
Our primary objective now is to take the lead in slowly bringing back the better state of our environment. We cannot actually do it overnight but we can realize its benefits through the years for as long as we do things right. Let us plant more trees, raise more plants in our neighborhood, reduce our carbon emissions in our homes, refrain from burning our water, observe proper disposal of both liquid and solid waste, among others for us to be part of the solution instead of being part of the serious problem that is confronting humanity.