Last Month's Echoes:

Mount’neer Groups

Discuss UN’s ‘Year

of the Mountains’

WITH 2002 having been declared by the United Nations as "Year of the Mountains" and also the "Year of Eco-Tourism," representatives of mount- aineering groups gathered at Kamayan--EDSA last Feb- ruary 15 for the forum’s ses- sion on the subject.

Full Story

Kamayan Forum’s 12th Anniversary

Jubilee session focus: Coops,

other stakeholders in Environment

COOPERATIVES in the Philippines have become active in environment-related projects, faithful to the globally-recognized Seventh Principle of cooperativism For this reason, the focus of the 145th session of Kamayan para sa Kalikasan is on them and on other lesser-known players and stakeholders in environment conservation and sustainable development. Others include scouting organizations, and the small and medium-scale enterprises.

Full Story

OTHER SECTIONS:

EDITORIALS:

BOXED FEATURE:

'Kamayan' Forum Marks 12 Years

Welcome the Coops, All Players!

"Pahayag ng mga Manumundok"

FOOTER QUOTE:

"The next century needs the contributions of cooperatives for economizing the natural resources of the world and hence protecting the fundamental needs of coming generations!"

–Sven Book, "Cooperative Values in a Changing World," ICA 1992

.......

12 YEARS AGO, in one of the first sessions of Kamayan para sa Kalikasan forum, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. and then-Sen. Teofisto Guingona, Jr., were discussing the first Total Logging Ban bill with forum moderators Vic Milan and Ding Reyes, as the now-departed pioneer environmentalist Maximo M. “Junie” Kalaw Jr. looked on. Not in photo, but also active in that discussion, is then-Sen. Heherson T. Alvarez.

(CLEAR foto by H. NAVA)

EDITORIALS

‘Kamayan’ Forum Marks A Dozen Years

TWELVE YEARS of the monthly Kamayan para sa Kalikasan, without missing a beat, is really something! We must have done something right.

One of things we believe we did right was to take a proactive stance on certain issues when the opportunities to do so presented themselves. One such case was the river pollution issue raised by fisherfolk in the Lian and Nasugbu, Batangas, against alcohol distilleries operating along the Palico River.

At CLEAR’s initiative, the contending parties were brought together in one of our sessions, with the DENR secretary in attendance. In response to a challenge of the government to find a win-win solution, the distilleries, with the guidance of BIOTECH-UPLB, launched a program to test the efficiecy of distillery wastes (slop) as an organic fertilizer for sugarcane and other crops.

The liquid fertilizer program weas so successful that today the river pollution problem no longer exists; the farmers are saving the money they used to spend on chemical fertilizers; they are getting their organic fertilizers for free; and field documentation shows increases in their yield, ranging from 30 to 60 percent.

There are other stories to tell. But even if this were our only tangible achievement, we would be justified in claiming that we have made a difference. We hope to continue trying to make a difference for the environment. And we thank everyone who shares with us this hope, with their memberships, with their presence at our sessions, with their commitment to environmental protection and sustainable development.

We would not be here without the continued support of the Triple-V Group. Maraming salamat, Ginoong Vic-Vic Villavicencio.

Welcome the Cooperatives, All Players!

WE ARE overjoyed to acknowledge the headway gradually being made by efforts to invigorate the country’s thousands of cooperatives, mainly by imbuing them with the spirit of synergism which is the very soul of cooperativism and by drawing them into mainstream of self-reliant and sustainable development processes. Cooperatives have started planting their flag in evironmentalism. The forthcoming Sixth National Cooperative Summit, and all preparatory activities leading to it will give one and all an unmistakable and indelible proof for this, part of that "glimmer of hope."

We are also overjoyed to hear a leader from the Filipino business sector articulating a clear view about the sector’s concern in the current destructive overexploitation of our natural resources at a time we are yet unable to optimize their use for our own national industrialization. We had earlier thought all the rhetorics for globalized greed have rendered them resigned to the role of junior agents of giant "global" (read: foreign) enterprises that have been for decades bleeding our country of human and natural resources. These Filipino entrepreneurs, too, are welcome reinforcements to our ranks of green advocates.

Together with the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, academicians, health workers, community leaders, everybody, and of course with all the environment-focused organizations, we all comprise the formidable sleeping giant that can finally move to put an end to environmental destruction. Yes, we do make up a giant. But the giant in our potent power together can only be awakened and unleashed if we can all work closely together in a national synergy for environment and sustainable development. We can all do it the real cooperative way—with bayanihan synergy and self-reliance. And, really, we’ve started.
TOP

FORUM FOCUS

Kamayan Forum’s 12th Anniversary

Jubilee session focus: Cooperatives

and other stakeholders in Environment

Many coops have started specializing in environment-friendly and sustainable waste management systems, like recycling and composting. Metro-Manila Federation of Environment Multi-purpose Cooperatives led by Ms. Narda Camacho, alone, has at least 40 member-coops. The all-women cooperative in Moncada, Tarlac, started and grew as a credit coop but has also gone fullscale into compost fertilizer production and distribution.

The 7th Cooperative Principle promulgated in 1996 by the century-old International Cooperative Alliance mandates coops to involve themselves actively in community affairs, and environmental enterprises have become an oft-chosen way to do just that.

Moreover, this year’s Sixth Cooperative Summit, scheduled in Cagayan de Oro come November, resonates with the focus of both CLEAR and SALIKA, forum joint convenors since one year ago to support the efforts of Philippine networks for both the World Environment Day (in June) and the World Summit for Sustainable Development.

The slogan of WED-Philippines this 2002 is "Green Families and Green Communities," with the cooperatives challenged to play a vital role in the latter; and the WSSD in Johannesburg, South Africa this September will take on from the work started by the UN Conference on the Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Summit, ten years ago. Cooperatives that really live the principle of synergism are in the position to play a major role in our country’s attainment of sustainable development.

In terms of "Rio +10," the Cooperative 6th National Summit in November carries the theme "Empowering Communities Through Cooperatives: A Leading Edge for Global Peace and Sustainable Development." The Summit working paper foresees: "By the time of the coop summit…the air will be abuzz with the call for sustainable development as the Philippines is now facing an environmental crisis, which, if not properly addressed, will lead to an impending ecologically-based political, economic and social col-lapse." The paper adds: "Cooperativism means the pooling of resources together for social and economic empowerment, not to mention social transformation. And this might just tip the balance, as worsening crises spare nobody. A glimmer of hope flickers toward a new day."

TOP

FORUM ECHOES

Mountaineering Groups Discuss

UN’s ‘Year of the Mountains’

WITH 2002 having been declared by the United Nations as "Year of the Mountains" and also the "Year of Eco-Tourism," representatives of mountaineering groups gathered at Kamayan-EDSA last February 15 for the fo-rum’s session on the subject.

Ray Cuyugan of Sikap-Bundok and Manny Perez of Mountaineers for the Environment joined the forum moderators, along with special guest Luis V. Torres of the United Nations Information Centre and actor-environmentalist Roy Alvarez on the panel, while representatives of other mountaineering organizations formed the bulk of forum participants.

Mr. Torres informed the body that most of the wars now going on throughout the world are being fought on mountains, with mountain ecosystems being among the biggest war casualties. He said that while environment is the concern of all, efforts to conserve it appear to come in trickles. "While we have reason at times to lose hope after many cycles of talking and doing things, we cannot afford to give up," he said, adding a call for hastening of the time when these trickles will combine in torrents and create a massive tide of efforts.

Perez stressed the need to educate the youth on the effects of environment-destructive ways, and Cuyugan said lack of self-discipline and common sense has been behind the practice of some mountaineering groups who bring up lots of food when they climb but are apparently too weak to bring the empty containers down with them. He also noted the effect of rapid population growth on the mountain forests.

Other mountaineer group representatives were Eric Garcia of Banahaw Mountaineers, and Malou Ramirez of Laguna-based Malayang Mamumundok para sa Kalikasan. Ramirez revealed that her group had replaced their group’s Mountaineering Courses 1 & 2 with ecological training courses 1 & 2.

Vice Chair Roy Alvarez of the SanibLakas ng Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA) described the project he is coordinating for Mt. Banahaw. Dubbing himself as an "activist for dialogue," he said, "Unless people discover their identity and therefore their real relationship with nature, environmental destruction will continue." SALIKA’s Chair Marie R. Marciano, regular forum co-moderator, added that various ways have to be found to help protect the environment while many are still trying to find themselves. She compared mountains to "gentle giants" who are providing us all with water, air and food, but we have been ungrateful

Workers cooperative advocate Tony Cruzada added that "Solutions must be carried out in a way that educates, to enable the people to see the interlinking of all the problems, and therefore the interlinking of all efforts at solution."

Pinky Serafica of the SanibLakas program for Cooperative Education on Synergism (CES), said in being rooted in community and nature one does not have to be literally in some rural area or mountain, but just in being one with people in various "layers" of our personal concerns, with many opportunities to be created and optimized in advancing our environment advocacies in all our circles.

Candelario L. Verzosa Jr. of the Cooperative Development Authority added that we all have a lot to learn from indigenous communities on mountain conservation.

Engr. Faustino G. Mendoza Jr., newly-elected president of the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA), said: "Nationalist businessmen stand for better management of the resources of the people."

Dependence on foreign investments and trade, he explained, results in economic policies that waste our resources, like our minerals, flora and fauna, and sell these out such that when the time comes that Filipinos are able to fully pursue industrialization, we would no longer have these natural resources.

For synthesis, lead moderator Ding Reyes emphasized the need for dialogues among adversaries, and even among allies in the environment movement.

In the latter case, he said, all are enabled to help one another in unifying our thoughts, words and deeds in harmony with the living spirit of nature. We are enabled, likewise, to fully appreciate the synergy of all our diverse and loosely-coordinated actions that can be viewed and felt as a strong synergy of efforts, or "sanib-sikap," for the environment.

TOP

BOXED FEATURE

PAHAYAG NG MGA MAMUMUNDOK:

PAGGALANG AT MALASAKIT SA KALIKASAN

KAMI AY MGA MAMUMUNDOK, mga dumadayo o namamalagi sa mga kabundukan, na lumagda upang ipahayag ang aming matatag na paninindigan na ang tao, tulad ng mga hayop at halaman, ay bahagi -- isang anak -- ng Inang Kalikasan, at ang nararapat na asal ng Tao sa Kapaligiran ay paggalang, pagmamahal, at pangangalaga. Gagawin namin ang lahat ng nararapat na hakbangin at pag-iingat upang mapangalagaan ang kaligtasan at kapanatagan ng mga bundok at ng mga pamayanan ng buhay sa mga ito.

Ang paninindigang ito ay aming isasabuhay sa araw-araw. Gayundin, walang pagod naming ipaliliwanag at ipakikita ito sa maraming iba pang tao, laluna sa kapuwa namin mamumundok, at ang bawat isa sa amin ay manghihimok ng marami iba pang lalagda at makiiisa, sapagkat ang buhay ng Tao ay nakadugtong sa Kapaligiran, kung kaya't ang bawat isa ay may mahalagang maiaambag sa pangangalaga nito.

Sa ganitong paraan ay nagbubuo at nagpapalakas kami ng isang kilusang maka-kalikasan ng mga mamumundok, isang pagbubuklod na ang tanging haharapin ay mga usaping pangkapaligiran, at mag-bubunsod ng isang taunang kapulungan ng mga mamumundok para sa pangangalaga sa Kapaligiran.

(Sometime in 1995, Kamayan para sa Kalikasan focused on the question, “Is mountaineering environment-friendly?” with leaders of the country’s major mountaineering groups in attendance. That session gave life to a CLEAR-initiated project for an environment-oriented network of mountaineers which would unite by signing a common declaration. A series of meetings drafted and refined this text, and after some years, specifically in March 2000, the Mountaineers for the Environment (MofE) was born in an organizational assembly right here at Kamayan-EDSA after the forum session that month. It was mission accomplished for CLEAR.)

TOP

MAIN FEATURES

LAKBAY-COOP from Tagaytay City to Cagayan de Oro City

Strengthening Philippine Cooperative Movement

with International Linkages and Global Solidarity

Forging of International Cooperative Trade Agreements

(BIMP EAGA, JAPAN, et al)

Coop-Agri Manufacturing and Trading

and many more…

EMPOWERING COMMUNITIES THROUGH COOPERATIVES:

A Leading Edge For Global Peace and Sustainable Development

Hosted by:

KATIPNAN NG MGA KOOPERATIBANG PANSASAKYAN NG PILIPINAS (KKPPI)

COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY (CDA)

BANKOOP COOPERATIVE INSURANCE SYSTEM OF THE PHILIPPINES (CSP)

COOPERATIVE EDUCATION CENTER (CEDCI) COOPERATIVE LIFE MUTUAL BENEFIT SERVICE (CLIMBS)

COOPERATIVE TRADING CENTER (CTC) COOPERATIVE UNION OF THE PHILIPPINES (CUP)

FEDERATION OF FREE FARMERS COOPERATIVES, INC. (FFFCCI) NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF COOPERATIVES (NATCCO)

FEDERATION OF PEOPLE’S SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT COOPERATIVES (FPSDC) PHILIPPINE COOPERATIVE CENTER (PCC)

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT (NCM) NATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF SUGAR PRODUCERS COOPERATIVES (NCSPC)

NATIONAL FEDERATION OF COOPERATIVES OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITY (NFCPWD)

NATIONAL MARKET VENDORS CONFEDERATION OF COOPERATIVES (NAMVESCCO) PHILAC SERVICE COOPERATIVE

NORTHERN MINDANAO FEDERATION OF TRANSPORT SERVICE COOPERATIVES (NMFTSC)

PHILIPPINE FEDERATION OF CREDIT COOPERATIVES (PFCCO) PHILIPPINE FEDERATION OF WOMEN IN COOPERATIVES (PFWC)

NATIONAL COOPERATIVE SUMMIT SECRETARIAT

2nd Flr., PCC Bldg., 90 Balete Drive Ext. Quezon City

Tel No. (02) 7219001 Telefax (02) 4110610

website: www.coopsumit.org

e-mail: info@coopsummit.org

ore information, contact

TOP

THIS ON-LINE EDITION OF KAMAYAN PARA SA KALIKASAN JOURNAL IS PREPARED FOR SALIKA & CLEAR BY SanibLakas CyberServices


	*All are invited.* to the *Kamayan para sa Kalikasan Environmental Forum* held regularly, since March 1990, on the 3rd Friday every month, 10:30am-1:30pm at the Kamayan Restaurant along EDSA, Mandaluyong City. It is convened jointly by the Communicators’ League for Environmental Action and Restoration (CLEAR) and Sanib-Lakas ng Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA), fully sponsored by *Kamayan*.