Preserving Ifugao’s culture, tradition through agrobiodiversity

Story & photos by Jonathan L.

Mayuga

MEET Milagros Dulnuan, president of the Fruitful Farmers’ Association in Ifugao province in the Cordilleras. Wearing the traditional Ifugao women’s clothes of blouse and tapis (wrap-around skirt), Milagros was arranging the various agricultural products and byproducts showcasing the Agrobiodiversity Project outside a crowded conference hall at a hotel in Taguig City.

Dulnuan, who hails from Hingyon, Ifugao, was a presenter of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) booth during the two-day event in January.

The event showcased successful Global Environment Facility (GEF)-funded projects as part of the GEF-National Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue that was organized by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Showcasing various agrobiodiversity products, the FAO booth also showcased traditional rice varieties from Ifugao, and an assortment of rice-based food, such as cookies with sesame seeds, bars, inamot, imbuleh/binakle (rice cake), ginitaan.

Also showcased in the FAO booth were ginger and ginger-based products like tea and candy; taro chips, cookies and various handicrafts.

Best practices

CONRADO BRAVANTE of the DENR’s Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Service (FASPS) said “the exhibit was intended to bring to the participants and to the public the gains of the projects, which are related to biodiversity, chemicals and waste, land degradation, international waters and climate change.”

Through the exhibit, the DENR, FASPS and GEF, intended to display the best practices with the hope of replicating the successful projects in other areas, Bravante told the BusinessMirror in an interview at the sideline of the event.

Under the eighth replenishment cycle of the GEF for the Philippines, a $52 million funding opportunities for communities in the focal areas were identified by GEF and the DENR.

At the opening of the exhibit on January 18, the FAO Agrobiodiversity Project stood out as Dulnuan shared the Ifugaos’ indigenous knowledge, skills and practices that promote sustainable food production practices that lessen the adverse environmental impact of agriculture.

Besides the products from Ifugao, the FAO booth also showcased various produce by women beneficiaries from Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, such as hand-woven abaca and t’nalak cloths of the T’boli people.

What is agrobiodiversity?

THE FAO defines agrobiodiversity, or agricultural biodiversity, as the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms that are used directly or indirectly for food and agriculture, includ - ing crops, livestock, forestry and fisheries.

Agrobiodiversity includes harvested crop varieties, livestock breeds, fish species, and nondomesticated, or wild resources within fields, forests and rangeland, including tree products, wild animals hunted for food, and aquatic ecosystems.

It also includes nonharvested species in production ecosystems that support food provision, including soil micro-biota, pollinators and other insects, such as bees, butterflies, earthworms and greenflies, and nonharvested species in the wider environment that support food production ecosystems, such as agricultural, pastoral, forest and aquatic ecosystems.

Under threat

LIKE biodiversity, agrobiodiversity is under threat.

According to FAO, various local food production systems are under threat, including knowledge, the culture and skills of farmers.

“With this decline, agrobiodiversity is disappearing; the scale of the loss is extensive. With the disappearance of harvested species, varieties and breeds, a wide range cal governments and schools, and participated in public forms to highlight the importance of resource conservation.

Holcim Philippines President and CEO Horia Adrian said: “Coprocessing is an important part of our efforts to advance circularity in the construction industry.” of unharvested species also disappear,” FAO said.

Alarming loss

IN the last 100 years, the FAO said the scale of loss of agrobiodiversity is alarming. It noted that since the 1990s, some 75 percent of plant genetic diversity has been lost as farmers worldwide have left multiple local varieties and landraces for genetically uniform, high-yielding varieties.

It said that 30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction. It is alarming that six breeds are lost each month.

Currently, FAO said that 75 percent of the world’s food is generated from only 12 plants and five animal species.

Worse, of the 4 percent of the 250,000 to 300,000 known edible plant species, only 150 to 200 are used by humans, with rice, maize and wheat contributing nearly 60 percent of calories and proteins obtained from plants.

ABD Project

ACCORDING to FAO’s ABD Merchandise Module, the Philippines is one of six areas identified by the GEF as priority genetic reserve lo -

By Rizal Raoul Reyes

cations for wild relatives of agricultural crops.

“It serves as the home of over 5,500 traditional rice varieties, and boasts of a broad spectrum of indigenous and endemic species of vegetables and fruit crops,” it said.

It is for this reason that the Dynamic Conservation and Sustainable Use of Agro-Biodiversity in Traditional Agro-Ecosystems of the Philippines Project (ABD Project) was conceptualized. It aims to enhance, expand and sustain the dynamic conservation practices that sustain globally significant ABD.

The project was made possible by a GEF grant of $2.18 million, with co-financing of $11.52 million.

Its implementation, which started in 2016, was concluded last year, benefiting more than 2,000 farmers in 17 communities in the municipalities of Hingyon and Hungduan in Ifugao, and Lake Sebu in South Cotabat o.

Support to farmers

THE project is helping farmers through the provision of livelihood assistance, such as trainings and farm tools to help augment their income.

It is assisting farmers conserve traditional crops and practices, contributing to the protection of the environment.

In Hingyon, Ifugao, the project has provided various assistance to farmers, honing their knowledge and skills in enterprise development and farming system on heirloom rice and upland vegetable.

Farm machinery, tools and community seed banks were provided by the program.

Empowering women

SPEAKING in Filipino, Dulnuan said with the ABD Project, they came to realize the importance of preserving and conserving their culture and tradition, such as Ifugao’s heirloom rice.

She said most of their organization’s members are women, who have become very productive because of the training in food processing.

“In our town, because of the project, the local government unit passed a resolution promoting locally produced rice,” Dulnuan said.

With the various export-quality products the Ifugao farmers are currently able to produce, she said their Fruitful Farmers’ Association is looking forward to having their own facility through the help of GEF or other funding institutions, to comply with the requirement of the Food and Drugs Association (FDA).

“One of the requirements of the FDA is a food processing facility. That is why we are hoping to have financing for the facility so that we can get the FDA approval that will allow us to export our products,” she said.

According to Dulnuan, women members of various groups from different areas covered by the project were given the opportunity to shine.

“For every product, there’s one processor assigned to do it. For example, for ginger candy, one person is assigned to it. Mostly, women farmers are into this project more than men,” she said.

HOLCIM Philippines’ waste management unit Geocycle is helping 35 cities and municipalities stay clean and divert materials away from landfills.

Holcim converts 1M tons of waste for fuels, raw materials for cement

ONE of the leading building solutions provider in the country, Holcim Philippines Inc. converted around a million tons of qualified wastes into alternative fuels and raw materials for cement production in 2022 as it accelerates circular construction in the construction industry, the company’s news release said.

Through its waste management unit Geocycle, Holcim made productive use of discarded materials from industries and communities through cement kiln co-processing. This helped the company conserve virgin natural resources and avoid high-carbon traditional fuels, such as coal, while providing partners a safe and environment-friendly waste management solution.

Among the beneficiaries of the company’s circular economy drive are 35 municipalities and cities nationwide, which were able to divert waste away from landfills.

Geocycle also helped industrial partners manage wastes, including nonrecyclable plastics. Furthermore, the company completed the installation of facilities for co-processing ozone-depleting substances. The unit conducted lectures on proper waste management for lo -

He added: “Our success in reusing discarded materials is further reducing our consumption of natural resources and carbon footprint. This also enables us to help industries and communities achieve their zero waste objectives. We are excited to continue growing our co-processing operations to further contribute to building progress in the country.”

Co-processing is a government-approved and globally recognized waste management technology that repurposes qualified discarded materials into alternative low-carbon fuels and raw materials in making cement.

Among the environmental advantages of co-processing are the extremely high temperatures of kiln and longer treatment time that prevent formation of harmful gasses. There are also no residues to be landfilled.

Holcim Philippines is increasing its use of low-carbon fuels in cement manufacturing to reduce carbon emissions, cut use of virgin raw materials and contribute to managing wastes in the country in a sustainable manner, the news release said

IT would have been a different scenario in the Philippines if the country just fully implemented Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) Act.

Gloria Estenzo Ramos, vice president of Oceana Philippines, said that RA 9003 would have been a game changer which could have helped the country formulate a better green agenda.

“If we had just complied with the provisions of the law, we could have achieved a zero waste campaign,” she said in her presentation on “Plastics Impacts on Climate, Health and Human Rights” during the celebration of the International Zero Waste Cities Conference 2023: Zero Waste to Zero Emission in Quezon City on January 26.

“The provisions are really good based on the hierarchy of ecological principles in accordance with the very source of recycling,” Ramos added.

Sen. Loren Legarda authored RA 9003, which was signed into law on January 26, 2001.

According to Legarda, the law emphasizes recycling to ensure less garbage that is actually brought to the sanitary landfill.

Meanwhile, the waste that would be brought to the final disposal site is effectively maintained.

Moreover, it bans open dumps, the use of incinerators and burning of waste. It promotes the use of environment-friendly disposal of solid waste.

Ramos pointed out it is still challenging to implement recycling in the local government units as they need a big push to convince their solid-waste management committees to carry out their mandate.

She said the more than two years of Covid-19 has exacerbated the plastics crisis as online deliveries proliferated because people had to stay at home and buy their needs online.

She said the Philippines is one of the largest contributors of plas - tic waste with 2.7 million tons of plastic waste generated each year and an estimated 20 percent of this ends up in the ocean, Even the deepest parts of the Philippines are not spared from plastic pollution, according to Ramos.

She cited the research of Filipino oceanographer Dr. Deo Florence Onda, who discovered that even Tubbataha Reef is experiencing plastic pollution.

Zero Waste Month celebrations originated in the Philippines in 2012 when youth leaders issued a Zero Waste Youth Manifesto calling for, among other things, the celebration of a Zero Waste Month.

This was made official when Presidential Proclamation 760 was issued, declaring January as Zero Waste Month in the Philippines. It was promoted widely by nongovernment organizations and communities that had already adopted this approach to manage their waste.

To date, more than 25 cities across the region have established zero waste models.

They showcased innovations in source separation, organics management, materials recovery and plastics regulation. Several cities have also incorporated waste assessment brand audits.

By Tim Reynolds

The Associated Press

AS LeBron James closes in on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is about to become the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) career scoring leader the journey has included several memorable moments. And there have been many. Many.

Through 20 seasons and four NBA championships, the list of James’s unforgettable nights is immeasurably long. But here are five that stand out.

THE MASK

THE highest-scoring game of his career came on March 3, 2014, when LeBron James— playing with a mask to protect a facial fracture—toyed with the Charlotte Bobcats, scoring 61 points to set a Miami Heat record that still stands.

He made 22 of 33 shots in a 124-107 win by the Heat. He made his first eight 3-pointers, the last of them officially listed as being from 29 feet but seemed to be deeper.

Even the Bobcats were awed.

“You take away his 61 points,” Charlotte’s Al Jefferson said, “and we still had a fighting chance there at the end.”

THE LOOK GAME 6 of the 2012 Eastern Conference finals did not start with Miami in great shape. The Heat were in Boston, trailing the series 3-2, one loss away from elimination and—after losing in the NBA Finals the year before, the first season of LeBron James’s tenure in Miami—quite probably needing to win to keep Miami from overhauling the roster.

James missed his first shot.

He made his next 12 shots.

He finished with 45 points, 15