Note: (This is the second on a series of articles about the water crisis in the Cordillera published under this column)
At the end of 2016, I read there were time changes that occurred in Canada and the USA that highlighted for me, how best practices can influences people to do something together about their common causes and concerns.
In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, under the Daylight Saving Time, local standard time was adjusted forward when it was about to reach 2:00:00 on 13 March 2016.
Last November 6, 2016 the Daylight Saving Time ended in Toronto when local daylight time was about to reach 02:00:00, Sunday, 6 November 2016. The clocks were turned backward 1 hour to 01:00:00 on the same day.
The same procedure was followed in Texas; Georgia, Atlanta; San Diego, California, all in the USA on the same time and date the clocks were readjusted in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The idea of shifting daylight savings was introduced in 1784 by Benjamin Franklin, George Vernon Hudson, and William Willett.
However, the first official and established use of this idea occurred during World War II when Germany and its allies implemented shifting clocks to conserve coal. In later years, the US and European nations saw the positive results from this clock-shifting idea. For countries above and below the equator, waste of daylight is a logical concern.
Their main reason for daylight savings time is to make good use of daylight and save energy. Countries near the equator, like the Philippines, have almost the same day and night length and have no need to adopt the idea on the same purpose.
Studies done by the US Department of Transportation in 1975 showed Daylight Saving Time trims by about one percent each day the electricity usage of the entire country because less electricity is used for lighting and appliances. Similarly, in New Zealand, power companies found that power usage decreases 3.5 percent when daylight saving starts. In the first week, peak evening consumption commonly drops around five percent.
Centuries past since it was introduced, daylight saving time has expanded and is still practiced in several countries to good purpose. It is a good practice and human legacy that helps sustain life on earth.
As in energy, so is water. Both are equally critical to life and biodiversity that sustains quality survival for all human beings.
At the turn of the century, we are fast losing our energy and water sources. Aside from the daylight saving time, a lot of work including tapping solar and nuclear power is being done that may yet allow mankind to extend its last hours of sunlight on earth. But whether we will continue to have fresh water is another question that demands its own answers, in our quest to have a future that works.
More than three decades ago, I read an article in a magazine published by the Los Banos-based Philippine Council for Agriculture Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) noting the Cordillera as among if not the rainiest part of the globe. In those years, you can go inside the cloud forest which covered most of our mountains, and it was always raining every day. The cloud forest was practically called by ancient folks as “house of clouds and rain.” All around, in every mountain you can find a waterfall roaring and cascading down the mountainsides to the rivers that were clear all year.
The cloud forest is practically gone today including its cool gentle climate and rains. The mountains are getting wilder and worse in their hotness and wetness during stormy and dry-drought climes. Fresh water does not drip on rocks and cliffs anymore. You cannot drink or even wade in streams, brooks and rivers without getting sick. Our old folks and their natural resources management practices are almost gone from the view and psyche of the present local population, and our waters are polluted.
A best practice is a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has proven to reliably lead to a desired result. A commitment to using the best practices in any field is a commitment to using all the knowledge and technology at one's disposal to ensure success.
Centuries ago, good forest and watershed management planning through indigenous knowledge systems and practices and customary laws were established by ancient Igorot folks that may yet provide current and future generations, lessons that allowed them to keep the cloud forest and its fresh water flowing for hundreds of thousands of years – but which we have lost and forgotten. We start our discussion there in our quest to find ways, to reclaim and to keep the Cordillera’s free fresh water flowing even as we pursue economic livelihoods in our domains.
These practices generally aim to sustain wildlife animals and plants found in the forest and watershed that provide them domestic water, irrigation, food, medicine, fuel, timber and profit. Such practices also serve as the best preventive measure against soil erosion. These include muyong in Ifugao; lapat in Abra; batangan in Mountain Province; imong in Kalinga; and several others that upholds the principle of sustainable use, food and environmental security.
There are other best indigenous natural resource practices to manage soil, water and other natural resources like payeo or terracing (irrigated terraced lands which are traditional sources of food like rice, fish, shells, water vegetables); uma or swidden farms in not heavily forested areas planted to annual crops usually vegetables like beans; and other versions of assisted lands being regenerated and utilized for agro forestry and food production by the various tribes of the Cordillera. We will present some of these practices in detail in our subsequent discussions.
In the conduct of the Knowledge Learning Market (KLM) and publications of the Second Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resources Management Project (CHARMP2), not a few participants and beneficiaries of the Project from the different tribes in the region promoted and agreed on the continuing relevance, importance and usefulness of this indigenous practices recommending at the same time, their promotion and adoption in the government’s natural resources programs and projects for the Cordillera region.