Inside WWF Philippines

by Yeb Sano

As Mayon Volcano warms up for a highly probable major eruption within a few days, I think it opportune to dedicate a blog to my friends who live along the perilous gullies on the slope of this awesome mountain. The incredible resilience of these people form part of the Filipino spirit and their story is a harbinger of hope for the future. I would say that the extraordinary character of communities like this fuel our optimism in saving nature for people. I hope that their story will also inspire respect for the power of nature. Join me as I reflect on their journey vis-à-vis our own existence.

Yesterday the Nido Petroleum company presented to WWF their project to drill for oil in Northwest Palawan, 51 kilometers off the coast of Busuanga. They were in the process of obtaining clearance from the DENR to begin drilling operations and had conducted the necessary consultations with the local government, people’s organizations and needed consultation with an environmental group, WWF, because the project is within the Sulu Suluwesi ecoregion. So they presented their gem of a project, taking pictures of the consultation as proof that it had happened.

The IHT front page is an article on coal and China that illustrates the predicament the world is in today. China is the center of global climate change discussions. There is no sustainable world without a sustainable China with over a 5th of the world’s population. Energy generation in China has to keep up with the rapid 10% per annum economic growth and right now one of the solutions is to build a new coal plant every 7 to 10 days. To watch China develop today is like seeing the Industrial Revolution that kicked off the northern world economies over 100 years unfold over a span of 10 years, and unfortunately, replaying the same dangerous phases that, on hindsight, destroyed much of the world environment and contributed wholesale to climate change. Today, China burns more coal than the US, Europe and the rest of the world.

My current read is ‘Collapse’ by Jared Diamond, a fascinating account of ancient civilizations that failed. Diamond has a 5-point structure on the factors that contributed to the collapse of past civilizations. He examines the Polynesian settlements of Easter Island, Pitcairn, and Henderson, then on to more ancient civilizations like the Anasazi in New Mexico and of course, the Maya. I’m at this point in the book and frankly, who needs fiction...

by Lory Tan

I just returned from the second in a series of meetings of WWF’s Energy Task Force. Aside from looking backward at the energy decisions made over the last century, we looked forward 50 years. Many global energy concerns were taken up. Among them, we spoke at length of the characteristics of a new energy paradigm for the planet.

I spoke for the developing world, arguing for the inclusion of approaches that had particular relevance for us.

My post for today is simply to bring attention to two significant additions to the list on the left column. One is a paper on Bretton Woods by my favorite economist, Sixto K. Roxas, which you can download, and the other is a link to a video of my favorite ex-politician, Al Gore and his talk to the Stanford Graduate School students. Taking different approaches, they essentially tell us that we have to start ‘thinking’ about the way we think, calling for nothing less than a shift in worldview. Both are great thinkers, a Filipino from the Southeast and an American from the North. It’s so cool to get a global view from both sides of the equator.

Finally the Bush administration, which is not on my list of reliable leadership, admits that climate change is real, happening now and Katrina was probably one of the first signs of change. But, predictably, they are opting for voluntary emissions reduction, afraid to threaten their economic hegemony. While the UK and Europe, and perhaps even China and India shift to renewables, the US will fall behind, still trying to curb their addiction to fossil fuels. Their resistance to shifting now may well be their achilles' heel because in the future, focus and funds will increasingly be towards putting out the ‘fires’ from climate upheaval, immensely straining resources all around.

The term for organizations such as WWF is ‘non-profit’ or ‘non-governmental’ with a lot of ‘nons’ to express what these organizations are not, rather than what they are. The reason for this terminology is that non-profit, cause-oriented groups are a relatively new phenomenon, emerging around the beginning of the 20th century. For-profit or corporate entities were established from 15th century mercantilism as a legal entity for joint investments with the purpose of profit. Non-profits emerged in response to a failure in the way society was structured and kept their negative nomenclature, maybe to remind us of the gap, the lack, the unfulfilled social promise of nations to their citizenry.

It’s a drama that plays out over and over again, the main characters changing only slightly depending on the situation and the place. Like a Greek tragedy occurring in real life, the tensions are between the laws of man and the laws of the gods, in this case, the laws of nature.

by Sheree Ann Pagsuyoin

Like many others who take a long first look at the WWF logo, my daughter also asked the same question- Why does the Panda look so sad?
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Doing environmental work is often hard labor and to a point, frustrating. The environment ranks low in the priorities of people. Initiating involvement in preserving the environment is like talking to a wall. Voluntary contributions –either time or financial– are hard to come by. These contributions are perceived as non-return investments, a charitable deed of the Good Samaritan. Many find it difficult to part with hard-earned money that could otherwise be used for purchasing goods for the family.

Conservation projects are even more difficult to manage. While we at WWF can go on reiterating the interrelationship among the environment, health, food, utilities, economics, etc, there is only so much that an ordinary person can internalize - or want to listen to, as is often the case. Pressures to bend rules or go around the law strike us from many different groups with vested interests (see Lory Tan’s related blog on this site).

Rewards come in, though. Where WWF sets foot, community empowerment has brought in undeniably remarkable achievements. Fish catch and biodiversity have significantly improved in many of our project sites (see related links on www.wwf.org.ph ). Local ordinances have been passed and implemented to secure and protect marine biodiversity. Sound capacity building strategy has given the community a sense of ownership of the conservation projects.

But as in the case of stories, happy endings are still endings. WWF exits a project when it deems that everything is already in place; that even without the organization the community it has helped for a long time can still sustain and manage the project.

WWF takes more than just pictures and leaves more than just footprints. We take with us the lessons and sense of fulfillment from the whole experience, and leave behind a community aware of its responsibilities to the environment, and doing something about it. Then we move on to the next project.

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So then, while I was still trying to compose a suitable answer to a 7-year old, she already had a follow-up question – What can make the Panda happy?

Can you guess what I said?