Eco-heritage preservation

The Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site in Jerusalem’s old city was visited by Pope Benedict XVI, whose photograph taken at his pilgrimage to Palestine for peace and saving the earth showed the Holy Father placing a note in the crack on the wall. With the growing impact of climate change, the world hangs in the balance as man’s natural resources and environment are depleted and damaged, and mankind’s survival is increasingly threatened in the process.

At the World Ocean Conference in Indonesia, the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change, Secretary Heherson Alvarez, presented the Philippine position seeking a unified ASEAN action plan on improving the preparedness and resilience of the coastal communities to the impact of climate change with deeper and early emission cuts. Alvarez pointed out that because half of the Filipino population live in coastal areas threatened by the melting of the polar ice caps and the rising of sea levels, the Philippine government is pushing for “timely and adequate measures in accordance with the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, equity and justice of the Conventions on Climate Change.”

Concluding this significant gathering in Menado, is a green dialogue initiative among heads of government of the members of the Coral Triangle group of countries where President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has signed the Leaders Summit Declaration towards the preservation of marine reserves. Seventy-five percent of all the species in the world is part of the underwater heritage of the Coral Triangle that covers 6.5 million square kilometers with aqua-scientists identifying as 600 reef-building kinds of coral, the home to 3,000 species of fishes. The Coral Triangle is an interdependent world heritage site that must be safeguarded with common and integrated approaches with cooperative management and monitoring plans for the seascape.

This week’s combined actions of spiritual and political leaders auspiciously converge and point to a growing interest in all sectors to take cognizance of our wealth in bio-cultural diversity of our tangible and intangible heritage. UNESCO has given the rationale for expanding knowledge and recognition of this precious asset of heritage, our ancestral roots and our identity. It is our duty to preserve it for transmission to future generations. Our identity is the result of our past and our environment in the same way as we inherit the genes of our parents; we are also made up of “genes” of our cultural and natural environment. If we do not know where we come from, it is difficult to know where we are going. The loss of our heritage would be like amnesia: the loss of the past and our bearings. Certain sites, witnesses to the past, have had an impact on history. Others have been fashioned by it. These sites are not eternal: some are in real danger, many are already lost. The threats are numerous: they are called ignorance, pollution, war, uncontrolled urbanism, poverty, irresponsibility and abusive tourism, to mention but a few. Intangible heritage is a nation’s particularly fragile practices and representations encompassing oral traditions and expressions, including languages, artifacts, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe, and traditional craftsmanship. “Safeguarding” means measures aimed at ensuring the viability of the intangible cultural heritage, including the identification, documentation, research, preservation, protection, promotion, enhancement, transmission, particularly through formal and non-formal education; as well as the revitalization of the various aspects of such heritage.

UNESCO has been in the frontline through its convention for the proclamation and protection of natural heritage sites and the intangible heritage of mankind. This month of May, UNESCO under the stewardship of Director General Koitchiro Matsuura is observing the Dialogue Day of Cultural Diversity and Development. Appropriately, President Arroyo has directed the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) with the Heritage Conservation Society to promote Heritage Month celebration twinned with ocean month commemoration.

In the Philippines, a very important instrument to save our heritage from disappearing and irreversible damage while insuring its preservation and sustainable development is sponsored by Senator Edgardo Angara with a counterpart measure in the House of Representatives that will certainly be signed by the President. Relevantly, activities all over the country are animated through a Heritage Festival calendar of events. This will be particularly manifested in Baler, Aurora from May 19-24 where an NCCA-ITI team of artists provides cultural care-giving linked to mountaineering, bird-watching, sail paintings, murals, creation of photo and video studies and an arts camp on musical theater to evolve the Baler zarzuela to capture the rich panorama of the habitat, heritage and history of the town celebrating its 400th Foundation with a year-long menu of inter-agency programs led by NCCA under the leadership of Dr. Vilma Labrador and Cecile Guidote-Alvarez with community projects that will surely project Baler as a magnet for eco-heritage and arts-based tourism.

Let us appreciate and generate pride among our youth for our oral masterpieces of HudHud and Darangen Epics and our declared heritage sites namely: the Cordillera Rice Terraces, the Palawan Subterranean River, the Tubbataha Coral Reefs, Vigan and the 4 colonial churches located in Intramuros, Ilocos and Iloilo.