Forest advocates, indigenous people take spotlight in video anthology series

MANILA, Philippines — Reina Bontuyan has spent more than 20 years of her life promoting responsible travel and care for forests and the environment, recalling how the out-of-body experience of mountaineering opened the doors for her sustainable enterprise.

“It takes perhaps a mountaineer to relate with the experience you will gain from hiking. For me, it was more of a spiritual journey. I was enveloped in a very rich foliage of forest with the sound of birds. It was a beautiful sight and it was a journey. It was like a solo reunion with my Lord. After the experience I remember telling myself:  'I'll have to do it again’.”

Because of this soulful retreat with nature, Reina transitioned from being a mountaineer to a full-time entrepreneur by founding Viajero which addressed the outdoor recreational needs of people in Cagayan de Oro, while educating its its clientele on how to more responsibly interact with nature through its workshops and training sessions.

This story of Reina and six other forest advocates are highlighted in AYEJ’s latest offering of a documentary series that zooms into the pressing issues faced by our forests and the tireless efforts of individuals working to protect them.

With the support of Forest Foundation Philippines, “Kwentong Kalikasan” offers a unique look into the lives of forest conservationists from all walks of life and their fight to preserve Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental’s most pristine and vital ecosystems. Through intimate interviews and breathtaking cinematography exposing the vast landscapes in Northern Mindanao, the anthology series takes viewers on a journey to the heart of our forests and the frontlines of the battle to save them.

From development workers to forest rangers

Kwentong Kalikasan is a storytelling project of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists (AYEJ) that features the stories and works of conservationists and emerging advocates of the forest landscapes through a 14-episode Documentary and TV-Magazine Series.

The documentary component features personalities such as Thieza Verdijo, who left the comforts of her corporate job and dedicated a career in forest management for the mountain ranges in Bukidnon with the Kitanglad Guard Volunteers, the unsung heroes who serve as forest rangers that protect and monitor the forests.

Kwentong Kalikasan also features indigenous Youth leader Anilaw Mansumangka, DENR forest ranger Zoilo Montebon, development worker Archie Tulin, adventurer and mountaineer Shania Yulo, and Andres Ignacio, Director for Planning and Geomatics of the Environmental Science for Social Change.

Andres, who has collaborated with both governments and indigenous communities to outline how the forest landscapes have changed over the years through their topographical and physical maps, reveals in the documentary how big of a challenge it is to get mainstream society to recognize the importance of indigenous people in the management of our natural resources.

For an even more deliberate experience of what it means to take care of the forests and the people thriving in it, Andres hopes that young people could “get out their comfort zones, get their hands dirty, their shoes muddy, to try to understand the situation of those who are in the margins of society in the forest landscapes.”

According to the Foundation’s Senior Program Officer Eric Buduan, 30 million hectares of land area in the Philippines was historically mostly covered with forests. However, commercial logging operations in the 1900s to the 1990s resulted in a significant decline in the country’s forests.

Despite national greening efforts, the sharp decline in forest cover has affected the capacity of the forests to provide ecological goods and services such as biodiversity, water services, and timber and non-timber products, he added.

Moreover, Buduan emphasized that forest conservation is not just about tree-planting. Rather, effective forest conservation starts with awareness and understanding of the importance of forests, hence the need for effective education and advocacy campaigns such as Kwentong Kalikasan.

Creativity at the heart of visual storytelling

The anthology series also offers its TV-Magazine component, inspired by YouTube’s Recreate, Cut, and Jubilee, where everyday people are brought together to intimately discuss issues on forest preservation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainability, through fun and creative games and activities.

One episode focused on entrepreneurial leaders busting myths about green businesses and why they shift to more sustainable options. Aries Paye of renewable energy company Greenergy Development Corporation, said: “The little things that we do in our businesses have an impact on our forests, our environment, and everything that businesses do that pollutes actually affects the consumers as well.”

According to Paye, it is important to support businesses who are advocating for sustainability, as it sends a powerful message to other businesses that they have to make the same shift to integrating sustainability in their operations.

The episode showcased how sustainability was embedded not only in their branding, but in the daily practice of these businesses in making the green switch.

Sendong survivors are also featured in an episode where, in an emotional turn, they read letters they write to their future selves after that fateful tragedy in 2011.

Keith Paasa, who lost his first-born son to the flash floods recalled, “It was pitch-black and you can really hear a lot of distressed calls. The only thing I told myself was really ‘Lord save me. I can’t do this, I can’t possibly survive this.”

A former Barangay Councilor, Keith now strongly advocates for the protection of the environment as a Senior High teacher saying that there is a need to have a “coherent, sustainable, and collaborative approach in dealing with our problem with climate and most especially with the forest reserves that we currently have.”

Tropical Storm Sendong ravaged Cagayan de Oro City more than 10 years ago, leaving over a thousand dead and more than 100,000 families displaced. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officials then cited in a report that denuded mountains and forests in the upstream communities of Northern Mindanao caused the upsurge in water levels that ultimately impacted the downstream communities of CDO and Iligan City, among others.

“Sendong was life-changing. My message to young people who would want to do environmental work is to dig deep in your heart and ask yourself: ‘What do you genuinely care about?’,” said Tat Gualberto, a development worker and forest advocate who also survived the tragedy.

AYEJ Executive Director Val Vestil said that they are using video as a strategy to effectively spread powerful ideas that try to educate, entertain, and inform people on forest conservation initiatives, and inspire courageous action.

"Visual storytelling helps put a face to the issues and innovations, relating specifically to the current state of our forests. And what better way to do that than by telling the stories of our frontline forest guardians and showing evidence of why it’s of prime importance to protect the last remaining forest cover," he said.

Widening the reach of the cause for forest conservation

AYEJ has partnered with the Department of Education’s Schools Division Offices of Misamis Oriental and Valencia to hold the traveling film festival, where the episodes will be screened in school communities of Valencia, Cambangon, and Guinoyuran this February.

The series is educational in nature and has been assessed by the National Council for Children's Television and passed standards for being a child-friendly program. The  documentary and TV-Magazine episodes will primarily assist learners in supplementing knowledge inputs for senior high subjects such as: Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction, Earth and Life Science, Media and Information Literacy, and Understanding Culture, Society and Politics.

To further widen the reach of the advocacy messages on the national level, the Kwentong Kalikasan series will be aired on television cable through Knowledge Channel from February through May every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday at 3:40 in the afternoon, feeding into their educational programs for Grade 8 audiences.

The episodes are free and accessible through AYEJ’s social media channels, including Facebook and Youtube. They are also available on the projects Distribution Partner platforms, Mulat Media, Oro Youth, FyT Media, Probe Media Foundation- Kabataan News Network, Oscar M. Lopez - Science for Climate Resilient Communities, and National Council for Children’s Television.

AYEJ is an ecological literacy non-profit based in Cagayan de Oro City committed to educate and engage civil society on environmental sustainability through communication campaigns, training programs, and knowledge product development.