Dream forests

It has been two years since Ondoy struck the country. My cleaning woman, who lost her house and all her belongings during Ondoy, said that she and her neighbors will spend the second anniversary of the event planting trees at a reforestation site in Laguna. She now lives in a relocation site in Montalban, Rizal.

“Do you feel safer now?” I asked her.

She still gets nervous when she hears the rain, she answered. She explained that while she no longer lives beside a river, the relocation site is located below a subdivision being carved out of a mountain. From her new home, she can see the boulders that look like they could roll down upon them in case of heavy rain.

By virtue of Proclamation No. 233 issued on August 10, 2011, September 26, 2011 has been declared as “Save Sierra Madre Day” by President Noynoy Aquino. The proclamation states that most of the flooding during Ondoy “can be attributed to the continuous deforestation of the Sierra Madre Mountains.”  It also declares that “there is a need for more awareness and participation for the rehabilitation, reforestation, protection and conservation of the Sierra Madre Mountains.” I appreciate the proclamation and hope that President Aquino’s administration will follow up with acts showing that it meant what it said.

Sierra Madre, which means “mother range” in English, is the longest mountain range in Luzon. Montalban, also known as Rodriguez, Rizal is part of it. My cleaning woman reports that apart from the earthmoving being done for the construction of a subdivision, there is also quarrying in the area. She thinks that people engaged in charcoal making are responsible for continued deforestation near her new home. She disapproves of the practice but is not convinced that arresting them is the answer. “How else will they earn a living?” she asks me. 

In my ideal world, people would be paid just wages to plant and to take care of native trees in deforested and denuded areas. Persons who belong to forest-dependent communities would be hired by local government units who would be in charge of preserving the forests in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. All our forests will be managed with the knowledge that they are watersheds and that whatever happens there will affect everything downstream, including our coasts. With this awareness, forests will be given more value than the price multiplied by the number of board feet of timber that can be harvested from them. 

Because native species are used in reforestation, biodiversity will be restored. Our endemic and indigenous plants and animals will get their habitats back.  New medicines can be developed from species discovered in our forests. If they form part of an indigenous people’s traditional knowledge, the group will be properly compensated for it.

Because everyone knows the vital role that forests play in our lives, we will be more picky about the activities that we allow there. Mining and logging proposals will be carefully scrutinized. Projects that compromise the source of our clean air and water will be rejected. Because our forests are restored, ecotourism will flourish. Our tourism officials will have real basis to deny that 40% of male tourists are in the country for sex tourism.

Typhoons will continue to visit us.  And we will be able to sleep more soundly with the thought that the soil in our mountains is not eroded and will not come cascading down with the rains.

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