Sunday, May 18, 2025
Asia Democracy Chronicles
Follow Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Features & Analysis
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Articles
    Private: Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia

    Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia

    Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw

    Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw

    Fifty years since the war, Vietnam still seeks reconciliation

    Post-disaster conundrum

    Post-disaster conundrum

    From domestic crackdown to global manhunt

    From domestic crackdown to global manhunt

    Disputed lands, contested rights

    Disputed lands, contested rights

    Pressed for funds

    Pressed for funds

    Defunded dreams

    Defunded dreams

    South Korea’s shining example

    South Korea’s shining example

  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
        • Hong Kong
        • Macau
        • Tibet
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN
  • Features & Analysis
    • All
    • Analysis
    • Articles
    Private: Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia

    Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia

    Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw

    Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw

    Fifty years since the war, Vietnam still seeks reconciliation

    Post-disaster conundrum

    Post-disaster conundrum

    From domestic crackdown to global manhunt

    From domestic crackdown to global manhunt

    Disputed lands, contested rights

    Disputed lands, contested rights

    Pressed for funds

    Pressed for funds

    Defunded dreams

    Defunded dreams

    South Korea’s shining example

    South Korea’s shining example

  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
        • Hong Kong
        • Macau
        • Tibet
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN
No Result
View All Result
Asia Democracy Chronicles
No Result
View All Result
Home Philippines

Women at the forefront of conservation

In one of the provinces in the island of Panay in the Philippines, women across age groups are taking the lead in conserving a once-denuded natural park

byGregg Yan
April 10, 2023
in Philippines, Special Feature
Reading Time: 6 mins read
A A
0
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

“W

e have planted over 10,000 seedlings in those mountains,” gestures 70-year old Villa Abagon, a Bantay Gubat (forest warden) from Barangay (native Filipino term for a village or district) Cabladan, Sibalom town, in the highlands of Antique province, located in the Western Visayas region.

Cabladan is among the sixteen barangays (the smallest administrative division in the Philippines) straddled by the 5,511-hectare Sibalom Natural Park which plays host to a mild montane forest and endemic fauna, including 28 bird species found only in the Philippines. 

Villa Abagon, 70, is one of many women serving as Bantay Gubat or forest wardens in central Philippines . At Sibalom Natural Park, her work has seen over 10,000 tree seedlings planted. (Contributed photo)

Villa Abagon, a lola (grandmother) at her age, is among the few women serving as Bantay Gubat and Bantay Dagat (coastal warden) in the country. She has been patrolling the woods and planting native trees as warden for over four decades. 

“These trees are our legacy for the next generation. Sometimes I feel they too are our children,” says Villa. Her work mostly entails nursing and planting cash crops and native tree seedlinks like Adlawan, Labnog, Narra, Nato and Tabuyog in the foothills of the natural park. 

“I think we’ve planted over 10,000 seedlings so far,” she says of her work in the park—which was heavily denuded during the Second World War. “I’m near the end of my days and so know that I won’t see many of these trees mature – but my 15 grandchildren, like Lloyd here, will.”

Like Abagon, many women in Antique are at the helm of protecting and sustainably managing their home forests. In Sibalom Natural Park, women forest rangers like Lumen Tiongco work alongside men to keep loggers at bay, plant crops, and native trees. 

Like Lola (grandmother) Villa, Lumen Tiongco serves as a forest warden despite her advanced age. Together with other women rangers in her community, she strives to keep Sibalom Natural Park safe from brush fires.(Contributed photo)

“Mount Porras, the highest point in the Sibalom Natural Park, was not covered in trees,” the 63-year old Lumen recalls of the park’s denudation after the Japanese occupation (1942-1945). She adds that in the 1970s, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reforested the area, but without the benefit of knowing about native or exotic trees. Now, forest rangers like her plant tree seedlings like lauan (Shorea negrosensis), tambuyog (Ficus nota), labnog (Ficus septica) and dau (Dracontomelon dao).

Lumen and other women rangers also regularly clear brush to create fire lines, making the Sibalom Natural Park safer for visitors.

“My scariest moment as a Bantay Gubat was when we had to put out a raging fire. Even today, I can feel the searing heat, hear the crackling of dry leaves, the sizzle of timber. That was a long time ago – but I can still see flames eating up part of a mountain,” she says. 

“We also stop honey collectors from smoking out bees from their hives. As we learned the hard way, forests and fire can be a fiery combination.”

Women at the helm

Fe Lonasco is the president of a local people’s organization–among the many others that are women-led–which provide livelihood to communities from forest products. Her organization transforms these materials into wearables and other implements. (Contributed photo)

“The woods provide us with an endless array of non-timber products,” says 49-year-old Fe Geraldes Lonasco, the president of a local people’s organization in Sibalom. According to her, the forest rewards them with indigenous materials like tapuyay, bakan, balud, bulo, pandan, rattan which they use to produce hats, bags, and other implements for their livelihood. 

Lonasco, along with her people’s organization, returns the favor to the forests by actively working to keep environmental degradation – logging, swidden farming and charcoal making – at a minimum. “We don’t just protect these mountains. We help keep useful forest products flowing,” she says. 

But Lonasco’s organization isn’t the only women-led group keeping Sibalom’s forests protected. According to Cynthia Blancia, provincial environment and natural resources officer, many people’s organizations in the province are women-led as well. “[Their] skill sets complement those of our men,” she says. 

In fact, Blancia, who started working for the government’s environment department 35 years ago, says that most of the line managers and section heads in their office are women. 

According to public environmental officer Cynthia Blancia, many people’s organizations in the central province of Antique are women-led as well. “[Their] skill sets complement those of our men,” she says. (Contributed photo)
“In my experience, women make good ediators as they are nonthreatening and open to quiet discussions, listening to and drawing out people’s ideas,” the 56-year-old environment officer says.

Blancia says she never experienced discrimination in her capacity as environment officer. “Food preparation is usually led by women. For fieldwork, we regularly hire both men and women as rangers and park wardens.” 

For 27-year-old Sibalom Protected Area Management Office staff Elizabeth Ann Daquipil, her work in protecting the park has somehow fulfilled her dreams of becoming a biologist.

“We had a brilliant biology teacher in school and I wanted to be just like her,” she shares, adding that she had to take up agriculture instead owing to their family’s farming background. “I was eventually accepted at the DENR and I couldn’t be happier.”

“Today, we study and protect breathtaking areas like the Sibalom Natural Park, home to giant Rafflesia flowers and endangered birds like Walden’s and Tarictic Hornbills. It’s just as I always dreamed. Biology!” Elizabeth says, who’s now on her fifth year in her job at Sibalom.  

Elizabeth Ann Daquipil, 27, has been with the Sibalom Natural Park management office for five years. Working in the Sibalom Natural Park is somehow a fulfillment of her dream of becoming a biologist. (Contributed photo)

Mainstreaming gender equality

For Annabelle Plantilla, National Project Manager of the Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), the women forest wardens in Antique are prime proof that they play an important role in conservation and protection.

“These women put great value, time, and effort into protecting our forests,” Plantilla says, “despite being busy with household chores, farming and other income generating work, plus their never-ending tasks as duty bearers,”

Across the archipelago, women can be found taking charge in the defense of the forests, which are also domains of the many Indigenous groups in the country. In Busuanga, Palawan, in western Philippines, Indigenous women are taking the lead in restoring and monitoring its mangrove forests after being hit by supertyphoon Haiyan in 2013. 

Palawan, dubbed the country’s last ecological frontier, is known for its lush forests and rich biodiversity.

According to BirdLife International, Indigenous women “have recognized the need” to defend forests, not just for their communities and kin, but also for its wider and global ecological benefits. “They are great leaders willing to go above and beyond for their community, and an inspiration to women everywhere to be bold in protecting their human rights,” says the organization. 

BIOFIN, a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiative, is working with the DENR to mainstream gender parity in all aspects of governance and decision-making across 41 countries, including the Philippines. 

“Promoting gender equality in all projects is just one aspect of DENR-UNDP-BIOFIN’s work to develop and implement inclusive funding mechanisms to sustain biodiversity conservation,” says UNDP Resident Representative Dr. Selva Ramachandran. 

The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal Five (SDG-5) focuses on pursuing real and sustained gender equality, putting emphasis on the recognition that women are at par with men in their respective societies. 

intro
page 1
page 2
page 3
page 4
page 5
page 6
page 7
previous arrow
next arrow

Sources: ReliefWeb International, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia and the Pacific

“Enhancing the capacity of women can help community members – both men and women – escape poverty,” Dr. Ramachandran adds. 

As they have for decades, the women forest rangers – mothers, daughters, grandmothers alike – of the Sibalom Park in Antique continue to serve as stewards of nature, helping make forests safer and more productive for all.

“This is their avowed commitment,” says Plantilla of BIOFIN.◉

Reprinted and adapted with permission from BIOFIN-Philippines.

Tags: Asia-PacificEnvirnomental justicePhilippinesSocial Protection and InclusionSouth Asiaspecial featureWomen's Participation
Gregg Yan

Gregg Yan

Next Post
Backbencher MPs Must Not Be Appointed to Government Agencies or GLCs, as It Can Compromise their Parliamentary Duties to Monitor the Executive to Prevent Wrongdoings

Backbencher MPs Must Not Be Appointed to Government Agencies or GLCs, as It Can Compromise their Parliamentary Duties to Monitor the Executive to Prevent Wrongdoings

Afghanistan: Taliban Must Stop Targeting Afghan Women

Afghanistan: Taliban Must Stop Targeting Afghan Women

Backbencher MPs Must Not Be Appointed to Government Agencies or GLCs, as It Can Compromise their Parliamentary Duties to Monitor the Executive to Prevent Wrongdoings

Sri Lanka: Proposed Vague Anti-Terrorism Act Suppress Fundamental Freedoms

Features and Analysis

  • All
  • Special Feature
Private: Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia
Special Feature

Economic fragility hobbles press freedom in Asia

byCristina Chi
May 17, 2025
0

The 2025 World Press Freedom Index paints a bleak picture of press freedom in the region, with declines in economic...

Read more
Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw
Special Feature

Scam hubs linked to Naypyidaw

byRejimon Kuttappan
May 16, 2025
0

Myanmar’s junta and its armed local affiliates are keeping the country’s scam centers in business in the midst of a...

Read more
Analysis

Fifty years since the war, Vietnam still seeks reconciliation

byJacopo Romanelliand1 others
May 10, 2025
0

Saigon falls, the United States withdraws, and the country reunifies. But divisions remain and a peace beyond the end of...

Read more
Post-disaster conundrum
Special Feature

Post-disaster conundrum

byGeetanjali Krishna
May 10, 2025
0

The recent 7.7-magnitude earthquake that ravaged central Myanmar magnifies systemic neglect of a people already reeling from oppressive junta rule.

Read more

Pitch Us A Story

Have a story to tell, nuanced insights, or expert analysis to share with a regional (i.e. Asia), even global, audience? Want to weigh in on specific issues, including those disproportionately affecting specific segments of society, which run the gamut from poverty and inequality to human rights violations? We’d love to hear from you.

We run features, op-eds, analyses, among others, that probe issues around fundamental rights and civil liberties, and illuminate the challenges of governance in Asia.

Yes, I’m Interested

Follow Us

Facebook
Twitter
RSS

©  Asia Democracy Chronicles.

Web Design and Development by Neitiviti Studios.

  • Features & Analysis
  • Countries
  • Issues
  • Democracy Digest
  • Asia Through The Lens
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
  • About
No Result
View All Result
  • Features & Analysis
  • Countries
    • NORTHEAST ASIA
      • China
      • Japan
      • Mongolia
      • North Korea
      • South Korea
      • Taiwan
    • SOUTH ASIA
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
      • India
      • Nepal
      • Pakistan
      • Sri Lanka
    • SOUTHEAST ASIA
      • Brunei
      • Cambodia
      • Indonesia
      • Laos
      • Malaysia
      • Myanmar
      • Philippines
      • Singapore
      • Thailand
      • Timor-Leste
      • Vietnam
    • GLOBAL / REGIONAL
  • Issues
    • Elections
    • Access to Education
    • Access to Health
    • Authoritarianism and Abuse of Power
    • Civil Liberties
    • Discrimination Against Covid-19 Patients and Specific Sectors
    • Gender-based Violence and Child Abuse
    • Governance
    • Labor and Migrant Workers’ Rights
    • Media Freedom – Issues
    • Movement and Migration
    • Privacy and Surveillance
    • Social Protection and Inclusion
      • Peace and Diplomacy
  • Democracy Digest
    • Democracy Digest Archive
  • Asia Through The Lens
    • Northeast Asia
    • South Asia
    • Southeast Asia
    • Regional / Global
  • Democracy Watch
  • Statements
    • Civil Society Statements
  • About
    • Pitch Us
    • Back to ADN

© 2022 Asia Democracy Chronicles - Designed and Developed by Neitiviti Studios.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In