Loren, 'warrior ecologist'

Sen. Loren Legarda has been in the news the past few days — and not because she’s been the target of gun-toting, trigger-happy colleagues — who still have to dredge up juicy snatches about her private affairs. Her life, it appears to me, has been an open book. So no one can find anything with which to deal a blow on her widely perceived presidential aspiration.

She’s been in the news pages and magazine lifestyle sections for her no-nonsense espousal of conserving our natural resources. It’s a hot topic these days — never mind if the nation (or a part of it) is focused on the looming economic recession and the coming presidential election in the United States. It’s something that has consumed a good part of her time and energies, no wonder she’s referred to as the “ecological warrior.” And to think that she — a petite, socialite-smart-looking figure — is no bolo-brandishing or gun-wielding kind. But surprise, surprise, she can be fiery if she so decides — like when it comes to climate change.

Her battle cry has been saving our forests — which have been wantonly destroyed by mankind, and so are in need of a CPR, or conservation, protection and restoration.

No one really took much notice of Loren’s launching of Luntiang Pilipinas project 10 years ago. This was launched Oct. 28, 1998, one of many civic organizations engaged in rejuvenating the country’s environment which was institutionalized under its Trees for Life Foundation, Inc.

Luntiang Pilipinas marked its 10th anniversary Oct. 14 with an elaborate program at the Kweba in Luneta Park. At the ceremonies, it was shown how the movement has gone a long way in carrying out its mission to tell the nation what preservation and protection of the environment mean.

According to Loren, Luntian’s vision and strategy is for it to become in the next ten years the catalyst to protect and preserve the environment through the establishment of more forest parks nationwide, creation of a North and South Luzon Expressways green belt; establishment of seedling banks in strategic locations; mobilization of a corps of Green Crusaders among the youth; formalization of partnerships with various stakeholders in the field of environmental protection, and information campaigns.      

During the past decade, the movement, with partners from government and private agencies, has planted two million trees in 33 provinces and 28 cities.

In partnership with the Bureau of Plant and Industries, it also launched the National Seedling Bank three months ago — on June 5, 2008 — on the occasion of World Environment Day at the Los Baños National Crop Research and Development Center in Los Baños, Laguna. The project aims to provide seedlings and saplings of plants and vegetables to the public who wish to establish forest parks and vegetable gardens in their own barangays or communities. Similar seedling banks have been established in Iloilo, Lipa (Batangas), Rizal and Antique.

Last Oct. 14, Luntian signed a MOA with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to lay down the strategies for the implementation of the Luntian’s latest program, “10@10”, which aims to plant 10 million trees in the next ten years. The agreement was signed by Secretary Jose Atienza and Ma. Teresita Pineda, president of Luntiang Pilipinas.

Prior to that, it signed an agreement with UPLB to protect Mount Makiling and its surroundings — a program in line with the United Nations Environment Programme project calling for the planting of seven million trees by the end of 2009.

Loren’s efforts as an ecological warrior have resulted in her receiving awards, the most prestigious of which is her elevation to the Global 500 Roll of Honor of the UN Environmental Program (UNEP). Another award Loren cherishes is her recognition in 2004 by the Priyardashni Academy of India.   

The Philippines, experts says, is always a target of calamities because of its location in the Pacific. Thus, efforts must be doubled to rehabilitate the country’s damaged forests in order to provide a human shield against the weather’s extremities.

“Now, more than ever, Luntiang Pilipinas firmly stands at the forefront of the crusade for environmental protection and preservation,” Loren said.

*      *      *

From OneWorld.net is an item on women’s being hard-hit by the US economic crisis. The item quotes Sara K. Gould, president and CEO of the Ms. Foundation for Women, as saying that women, particularly low-income women and women of color, will likely bear the brunt of the spiralling US economic crisis. She says: “Even at the beginning of the economic downturn, more women than men, and more African Americans and Latinos than Whites, were caught in the sub-prime mortgage trap. Now that the crisis has escalated, we must expect that the negative repercussions for women — especially women of color — will escalate as well.”

Women have faced challenges to their economic security long before the recent turmoil in the stock markets, writes Gould. The gender-wage ratio has not improved since 2001, with women still being paid only 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. The disparity is even greater for women of color — African-American women make 62 cents and Latinas make only 53 cents for every dollar of male earnings.

Other points: Women comprise the majority of low-wage workers (accounting for 68.2 percent of minimum-wage and below-minimum-wage workers in 2007), and most poor Americans are women and children (with women comprising a full 39 percent, children, 35 percent, and men, 26 percent).

Accounting for 37 percent of families in poverty, the poverty rate for single female-headed households is higher than any other demographic group, writes Gould.

If conditions of women in America have worsened, how much more will the poor women in the Philippines suffer from the economic downturn in the US.

*    *    *

My e-mail:[email protected]