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Monday, April 18, 2005
Sanchez: Chapter 13: Mountain ecosystem
By Benedicto Q Snchez
Nature Speaks
So, which is which? That's the question, the debate on how to look at mountains.
Let me be more specific. When the world under UN leadership celebrated the International Year of the Mountain in 2002, the Philippines placed the focal point under the Forest Management Bureau of the DENR. Official government policy equates mountains with forests.
But not according to the United Nations. Its Agenda 21 addressed the question based on a mountain ecosystem perspective. Its Chapter 13 emphasized that mountains are "major ecosystems representing the complex and interrelated ecology of our planet...essential to the survival of the global ecosystem."
It expanded the discussion to such Philippine upland concerns as being important sources of water, energy and biological diversity, minerals, forest and agricultural products, and recreation. As a major ecosystem representing the complex and interrelated ecology of our planet, mountain environments are essential to the survival of the global ecosystem.
...Because of their vertical dimensions, they create gradients of temperature, precipitation and insolation," or remoteness from other inhabited areas. Agenda 21, as environmentalists know, is the global blueprint for sustainable development, with the Philippines as a signatory. Under Pres. Fidel Ramos, the country crafted the Philippine Agenda 21-the country's response and commitment to Rio. But it omitted Chapter 13, listing and restricting its ecosystems approach on mountains to forest/upland management.
While PA 21 has a lot in common with A21, there are also basic differences. PA 21 narrowed mountains (or uplands) to forestry concerns: the expansion of marginal, degraded, unproductive areas; unsustainable management of remaining production forest; under-utilization of NTFPs; weak institutional capability of forest management, which included communities, regulatory agencies and support institutions; and policy reforms.
As the Mountain Partnership Secretariat wrote in response to an article I sent them, "The importance of the world's mountain regions has been internationally recognized since the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Indeed, the Summit's Agenda 21 contains Chapter 13, which is devoted specifically to mountains. But how much progress has been made during the past decade in addressing these areas at the local, national and regional level?
"Are mountains even considered as ecosystems in legislation?," it asked.
I can still remember way back in 1995 when I was chastised by someone from the Northern Negros Forest Management Council in implementing the DENR's community forestry program. Her beef against me and the NGO, the Broad Initiatives for Negros Development, that I work for?
Simple. We were promoting organic agriculture alongside sustainable forestry in Salvador Benedicto and Calatrava. As if you can't have agriculture and have forest management. Like the east and west of Rudyard Kipling, ne'er shall the twain meet.
Another criticism of our conduct with the CFP then was the promotion of fruit trees almost equally with exotic timber trees in the agroforestry area. The logic: fruit trees are basically agricultural crops but timber trees like eucalyptus and gmelina are supposedly forest species and therefore more appropriate for community forestry.
Duh!! As American teens would say. Forest dependent poor farmers of course view things differently. In the first place, they prefer fruit trees if only because they can gain economic benefits faster. Six years and the fruits are ripe for the picking. And unlike timber trees, they don't even have to cut the tree stands.
An important piece of local legislation is the proposed provincial environment code. The question I raised when I saw the draft was the ecosystem framework: would it be the forest ecosystem versus the mountain ecosystem approach? Here is how I formulated my proposals to the code:
"The mountain ranges of Negros Occidental are characterized by particular, natural, economic and social features, including geographic isolation, difficult climatic and environmental conditions, fragile ecosystems, political marginality and poverty. They are important sources of water, energy, and forests and agrobiological, often endemic, diversity.
They are sources of key resources, timber and non-timber forest products, and agricultural varieties, and recreation. They form a barrier to incoming air masses. Known as the orographic effect, they force air to rise where it cools and triggers precipitation. Rainfall increases with altitude, generally from 5 mm/100m to 750 mm/100 m elevation, and much more with intact watersheds. Colder temperatures at higher altitudes result in lower evapo-transpiration rates so that the over-all water balance in the mountains is positive. Mountain waters captured at high altitudes of the Bago, Ilog-Hilabangan and other watersheds are carried under gravity via the stream network or groundwater aquifers to the lowlands, with mountain waters in our humid province providing more than 60 percent of its freshwater.
"The various mountain ranges and volcanoes in the province constitute major ecosystems representing the complex and interrelated ecology which are all crucial to the survival of the entire island. With their vertical dimensions, they hold a variety of ecological systems, based on gradients of temperature, precipitation and insolation.
"Yet, mountains are fragile ecosystem, with its steep slopes erosion-prone, making its land mass susceptible to flash floods and landslides, volcanic eruption, high solar radiation, and rapid losses of habitats and genetic diversity. Soil formation and natural regeneration are slower at higher elevations. On the human side, because of their relative isolation and ruggedness of terrain, poverty is widespread among mountain communities. As such, they get the least in social services and infrastructure development."
The MP and the Mountain Forum shared my article entitled "Applying Chapter 13, Agenda 21 in the Philippines," worldwide. They echoed my call to "all members of the Mountain Partnership to provide yours truly with written examples of how other countries have addressed Chapter 13 in their legislation.
Will the Negros Occidental Provincial Board answer the call and go for Chapter 13? Comments are most welcome. Please send email to bqsanc@yahoo.com
(April 18, 2005 issue)
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