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Kamayan para sa Kalikasan
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Forum
Discusses Tough Challenge EFFORTS at rescuing the world’s natural environment suitable for human habitation are now defining a graph line that slopes upward, but all the patterns of human des- truction on the planet are also drawing another graph line, one sloping up at a much taller angle. It is almost impossible that the lines would ever meet in the future. But 'almost' is quite different from actually im- possible, went the forum consensus last April. |
Kamayan
Forum Topic for May: ‘Green Communities’
Communities’
linkup bodies
to
emerge and ‘Act Local!’
As Rio+10 World Summiteers are set to ‘Think Global’ WHILE governments and civil society organizations of various countries are preparing to “think and talk global” during the World Summit on Sustainable Development or WSSD this coming Sep- tember in South Africa, the commemoration of World Environ- ment Day in the Philippines early in June is set to launch a nation- wide network of local linkage bodies for environmental conserva- tion and sustainable development of their own communities. |
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EDITORIAL BOXED FEATURE: SPECIAL ARTICLE: COVER QUOTE:
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Support the 'Ugnayan' and Act Local Together
Five Basic Commitments of 'Ugnayan' Covenant Signatories
Declaration for World Environment Day
"Almost impossible is very different from really impossible. If enough people work together closely enough, if strong synergy is indeed alive, we can make those graph lines meet. ” –Moderator Ding Reyes, synthesis of Kamayan Forum April session. |
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Support the ‘Ugnayan’ and act local together! IT ALL BEGINS in the person. Care for our natural environment begins, in fact, in the inner environment of each of us, manifesting in environment-friendly behavior with the family in the home, radiating across boundaries of bigger and bigger communities, from neighborhood to town or city, to province, to nation, all the way to the planetary constituency of the forthcoming World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. Think global, act local! is a good 1990s call for remembering and pondering today. Think and talk global is what the heads of state will surely do a lot of during the summit. They have many questions to address: what has been accomplished in the full decade after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, also known as “Rio Summit”)? After the UNCED hammered out Agenda 21, has this been translated into country-specific programs and policies? What has been the impact of this on the environment, if any? In our case, a joint government-NGO council immediately came out with Philippine Agenda 21, had this blessed with the power of policy from the national government, and was made to undergo a process of particularization in the regional and provincial contexts, before it apparently lost whatever momentum it had at the start. What about impact on the environment here? Did it have any? Of course, it must have had some impact. But as we would always like to remind reporters on the “environment beat,” the Philippine environment is not in the office of the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources or in any building of his entire department, and neither is it in the national and regional offices of all environmentalist non-government organizations (NGOs) combined. Much less is it in filing cabinets where copies of PA21 and minutes of discussion meetings on it are being kept. The environment is in the very lives of the people in neighborhoods and villages and in clusters of these. Apparently, all talk of PA21 stopped short of reaching these “low” levels of living reality. Still, there was concrete action in the communities where the local people themselves decided to protect their lives against environmentally-destructive “development” projects, and then managed to draw in support from city-based advocacy groups. There are actually organic environmentalists in the communities, and many of them can be interlinked in coordinative bodies that they can fully claim to be their own. The initiative of the WED-Philippines network to build the Ugnayang Pamayanan as local bodies interlinking the local government, local cooperatives, local scouts, local Parent-Teachers Associations, etc., may indeed come a long way in generating local action for real impact on the ground in the coming years |
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Kamayan
Forum Topic for May: ‘Green Communities’
Communities’
linkup bodies
to
emerge and ‘Act Local!’
As Rio+10 World Summiteers are set to ‘Think Global’ WHILE governments and civil society organizations of various countries are preparing to “think and talk global” during the World Summit on Sustainable Development or WSSD this coming September in South Africa, the commemoration of World Environment Day in the Philippines early in June is set to launch a nationwide network of local linkage bodies for environmental conservation and sustainable development of their own communities. The
draft text of a Pambansang Kasunduan para sa Ugnayang
Pamayanan, is now being prepared for signing by leading
representatives of the local government, cooperative, scouting,
and other sectors whose members would be persuaded and enabled to
team up in Lupong Ugnayan committees in as many villages as
possible. The signatory organizations would uphold “five basic
commitments” (see boxed item below). All these will be
discussed in the May 17 session of the Kamayan para sa
Kalikasan Forum. Meanwhile,
the steering committee of the WED-Philippines Network met
last April 29 on the details of a “Green Families and Communities
Festival” set for the whole day of June 2
at the
Ninoy Aquino Nature
Park near the Quezon Circle in Quezon City, and a multinationality
tree-planting at the La Mesa Dam watershed on June 5, in partnership
with the Australian Embassy and ABS-CBN Foundation. Hundreds
of people from various walks of life, including cooperators, girl
scouts and boy scouts, delegations from communities and environmentalist
groups, and other concerned citizens, are ere expected to come
especially on the June 2 affair.
The
festival centerpiece, in line with the “Green Families and
Communities” slogan of WED-Philippines, is the signing of the
“Pambansang Kasunduan para Ugnayang Pamayanan” by
representatives of the local government units, cooperative sector,
the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, and the Girl Scouts of the
Philippines, among others. Puerto
Princesa City ex-Mayor Edward Hagedorn and Prof. Ernesto Gonzales,
secretary-general of the Lambat-Liwanag network of universities for
empowering paradigms, as well as Chairman Soc del Rosario of the 6th
National Cooperative Summit Committee will be among the main
speakers. The participation of cooperatives in WED2002 is a
drum-up activity for the Coop Summit to be held in Cagayan de Oro
next November 28-30. Other
highlights of the June 2 festival include exhibits and
video-showing, sale of products that promote a healthy lifestyle for
all and for the ecosystems, demonstration of some
environment-friendly inventions, like the Filipino-invented
hydrogen-powered motor vehicle now being manufactured in Europe, and
an aero-gas injector that cleans up vehicle exhaust and saves on
fuel consumption. There
will be free rides in Engr.
Daniel Dingel’s “water-fueled”
car and in the airconditioned jeepney of Orlando Marquez to be
scheduled around the park. A
booth will buy empty softdrink cans for half a peso each and will
also buy plastic containers of mineral water. This
year being the International Year of Mountains, the Mountaineers for
the Environment
(MoFE) will have a “wall climbing challenge” to the
climbing enthusiasts as well
as to the curious who would be deemed healthy enough for the
strenuous activity. There will also be the agapé lunch and instant compost-digging, facilitated by Salika, GSP and BSP; morning shibashi exercises, martial arts exhibitions, and the families’ fun run, all led by Sanib-Sigla, Ichiban Karate groups and the Aero Sports Center; Salika’s story-telling and “safari” tour for children; a sharing session among youth leaders in mixed discussion groups; a “healing the Earth” ritual led by representatives of indigenous communities; and a “Sanib-Tinig para sa Kalikasan” jamming in the early evening. The World Environment Day-Philippines Network is convened by the United Nations Information Centre-Manila (UNIC). A complete list of activities, with schedules and the groups organizing them, came out in a WED-2002 special pull-out folio which was carried in the copies of this issue of the Kamayan para sa Kalikasan Journal.
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Tough
Challenge
Discussed in April Forum EFFORTS
at rescuing the world’s natural
environment
suitable
for
human habitation are now defining a graph line that slopes
upward, but all the patterns of human destruction on the planet are
also drawing another graph line, one sloping up at a much taller
angle. It is almost impossible
that the lines would ever meet in the future. And
it’s a crucial race against time, because
the “point of no return”
is almost
here. Environmentalists worldwide face this tough challenge, according to Roy Cabonegro of Kabang Kalikasan ng Pilipinas (World Wildlife Fund-Philippines), who also represented Earth Day 2002 Network-Philippines as the main speaker at the 145th session of Kamayan para sa Kalikasan Forum last April 19. Mr. Cabonegro spoke on “The State of the Philippine Environment 10 Years After the Rio Summit.” Toward
the end, the forum's lead moderator, Ding Reyes, emphasized that 'almost'
is quite different from actually impossible, when it comes to
beating the deadliest deadline on the environment. He said the
magnitude of synergy we can build among various efforts, based on
the sheer number of people involved and on the degree of teamwork
all these people can manage to build among them, will be decisive in
this attempt. This, he said, is the logic of bringing in
new active players in environment conservation, like the
cooperatives, the scouts and the PTAs, and forming them in linkage
committees on the ground through the Ugnayang Pamayanan project. The Forum also heard the presentation of the many activities prepared by various organizations for Earth Day 2002, which was set to be celebrated at Manila’s Arroceros Forest Park two days later (see boxed item in the previous issue). This was reportedly very successful. |
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The signatories to the Pambansang Kasunduan para sa Ugnayang Pamayanan will build and lead their local units and members in joint active stakeholdership on the Basis of these “Five
Basic Commitments” 1.
Commitment to the Value of Life. All committees and members
of Ugnayan shall uphold the value of Life – human life, quality of
life of the people, quality of life of the community itself, and the
life of the natural environment which is the community’s home --
as immeasurable and therefore can not be assigned a monetary price.
In making decisions, therefore, it is imperative for the community
to consider which of the options would best promote the nature and
future of the Life of the community and of its home. 2.
Commitment to the Truth. As a living channel of reliable
information for the community, each Lupon ng Ugnayan shall seek out
and systematically collate all important data involving the
environment of its community and shall spread any information labeled with its status of certainty, i.e. whether it is a proven
certainty, a likelihood, a possibility, etc. Because the community
needs complete and reliable information, all who spread inaccurate
data labeled as “certain” shall be made to lose their
credibility. 3.
Commitment to the Community’s Right to Decide its Affairs and its
Future. Each committee of Ugnayan shall uphold the
citizens’ right to decide issues that affect their common welfare.
Ugnayan shall help the community form its decisions on the basis of
a free flow of information and opinions in open and honest
discussions, and shall exercise suasion on government units
concerned to consider well such decisions. Basic principles of
democratic governance mandate that in the conservation and
disposition of a community’s natural and social resources, the
community’s will should be decisive, and on issues affecting
larger scopes of governance (municipal, provincial, etc.) the will
of the small communities forming these larger constituencies,
through their synergized thoughts and decisions, should be
considered decisive. 4.
Commitment to the Value of Unity and Synergy.
In all their actions, the Ugnayang Pamayanan
committees
shall be guided by the Prime Directive:
Build and strengthen the unity of the people in the
community. It shall link up the unlinked, coordinate the
uncoordinated and even seek to act as a living bridges among
organizations or sections of the population that are not relating
enough or at all, or are even hostile to one another. The best
interests of the community can only be fully established and
effectively asserted through unity and strong synergy (many
people working really closely together, teaming up on the basis of
their commonalities and diversities) to counteract the
pressures of entities that tend to harm these interests. 5.
Commitment to the All the Basic Rights.
A committee of Ugnayan shall not undertake any act or
even pronounce a declaration that would violate any of the basic
rights of the citizens to freedom of thought and of expression,
freedom of association and of collective action, or any of the basic
human rights of the persons within or outside the community. The
committee shall exert best efforts to help the community members to
recognize and effectively assert their human rights which are an
inseparable consequence of their dignity as human persons. TOP This is the first draft of the principles which shall form part of the basis of the Pambansang Kasunduan para sa Ugnayang Pamayanan currently being drafted and refined.
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Declaration
for World Environment Day (Declaration
of Commitment to Join the Annual Commemoration of World
Environment Day in the Philippines)
CONSCIOUS
that every living being has an intrinsic and inviolable right to a
healthy planet in which to live, thrive, reproduce and sustain life,
in accordance with the laws of Nature, a healthy World
Environment with clean and pure air and water, naturally fertile
soil, clean and renewable energy and rich biodiversity ACKNOWLEDGING
the individual and collective responsibilities of human beings to be
active stewards of the Earth, mandating that our lifestyles be harmonious
with Nature, and fully protective of present and future generations,
and that acts that harm the environment, and failure to protect it,
are crimes against every living being that exists now and will
emerge in ages still to come; AWARE
that effective stewardship of the Earth can only be fully achieved
by bringing individual commitments and energies together into one
harmonious force, with synergies in nations, communities and
families, where commonalities are fully appreciated as bonding
elements, and diversities are valued as opportunities for enrichment
and dynamic unity; and FULLY
DETERMINED to join the rest of the World Community in the United
Nations-led annual commemoration of World Environment Day and to
maximize on the potentials this and similar commemorations hold
for the imperative of widescale education, mobilization and
consolidation of multitudes of people for the rescue, healing and
conservation of the environment, WE, THE UNDERSIGNED, fully respectful and appreciative of our diversities, and firmly sharing a common sense of commitment in the effective stewardship of the Earth, freely decide to unite in undertaking a fitting commemoration of World Environment Day in the Philippines in the first week of June every year, and to unite in undertaking an organized preparation for the broad and profound success of such commemoration.
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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.
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