MAPping the Future

This month of September we are celebrating two of our most important natural assets or capital—our marine biodiversity resulting from our being a MAN (Maritime and Archipelagic Nation that hosts the center of the center of marine biodiversity in the world) and our bamboo of about 60 to 80 species, with more than 20 as part of our natural assets. Both can help make us a prosperous and stronger MAN despite the fast-developing crisis that has started to create havoc worldwide. Many refer to it as “climate crisis,” a term that unfairly attributes the crisis to climate and its natural characteristic to change.

In September 2017, President Duterte declared September as MANA Mo or MAN Awareness Month through Presidential Proclamation No. 316. At that time, few Filipinos were aware of the fact that we are a MAN. After four years, that awareness must have somehow increased. But, sadly, many of us have not yet learned to value our being a MAN, with biodiverse marine assets in our water bodies that constitute four-fifths of our territories.

Then, in Nov. 2019, our House of Representatives passed House Resolution No. 197 declaring September as the Philippine Bamboo Month. Perhaps, the aim was to join the worldwide celebration of bamboo this month because September 18 was officially established in 2009 as The World Bamboo Day at the 8th World Bamboo Congress in Bangkok.

The result may be confusing. But those of us who have recognized the value of our marine biodiversity, bamboo, and our other natural assets feel blessed to have more natural capital to celebrate although in only 12 months of a year!

But we must celebrate them with positive actions as our natural capital must be valued, accounted for, and sustainably used, if needed, to help us in our journey towards what I refer to as RICH (Resilient, Inclusive, Climate-smart, Healthy) sustainable development.

The PENCAS (Philippine Ecosystem and Natural Capital Accounting System) Bill filed by Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda is a legislative measure to mandate such actions. This House Bill 9181 is a pioneering measure not only in our MAN but globally. It has passed the First Reading in Congress. We must now support its early passage as a law. Our CASA (Climate Action and Sustainability Alliance), which grew out of the Sustainable Development Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), invites all to watch the first (https://youtu.be/voGr3psxqfI) and succeeding three episodes in the CAS4U channel in Youtube to understand ecosystem and natural capital accounting.

The PENCAS Bill requires a lot of work that we can do in phases. But some issues like the ones below need action now.

On marine biodiversity:

Plastics pollution—a national shame: We do not contribute much to global warming, which leads to adverse climate changes. But why should we contribute even little to it? Anyway, what is shameful is that our MAN is one of the global topnotchers in causing unabated plastics pollution in oceans and other water bodies.

Dr. Deo Florence Onda of the UP Marine Science Institute (MSI), the first Filipino to reach the third deepest part on earth, the Emden Deep in the Philippine Trench, shared with us the extent of plastics pollution now. Last Tuesday, he reported at the webinar hosted by the Maritime and Ocean Affairs Office (MOAO) of the Department of Foreign Affairs what he saw in the Emden Deep in an expedition held last March–plastics pollution everywhere! Most of the plastics (e.g., plastic wraps, product labels, and other packaging materials) are related to the economic activities around the area.

Ocean provides part of the oxygen we need to stay alive. It also absorbs heat from global warming. If we would continue to mess it up with our garbage, it could not function well. Bad behavior in carelessly handling plastics, which are truly useful, has reached even the deepest part of our country! So what we have is a behavioral crisis. We challenge both the producers of plastic materials and their representative end users to work together to take concrete actions to address this plastics pollution issue.

Knowing and protecting our marine resources: The good news is that scientists like Dr. Onda, other faculty members in the UP MSI that is headed by TOWNS (The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service) Awardee Dr. Laura David, and other scientists in various fields from academic and research organizations are working hard to know more about our biodiverse marine assets and protect them. The Philippine Navy started to help during my term in the Navy’s Board of Advisers by giving them access to the use of BRP Gregorio Velasquez, which has research capability. Fortunately, UP MSI now has started to build its own marine research fleet. But continuing enhancement of our MAN’s research capabilities is needed to understand the natural capital that we have in our vast water bodies.

Attention to Special Marine Mammals: Several NGOs are focusing their efforts to know more and protect our large marine mammals. One of them, Balyena.org, conducts research on whales and dolphins. Dr. Jo Marie Acebes leads this group that needs support to properly value and account for marine mammals’ role in climate change mitigation because they have carbon sequestration abilities. She invites us to understand our marine mammals’ contribution to maintain a well-functioning marine ecosystem and to add to our tourism revenues. They need help to conduct more marine mammal scientific research and to do conservation of these species and their natural habitats.

Developing our human capital: Those who are leading research to understand and protect our natural marine capital are mostly scientists and technologists. We need more of them. We must allocate more resources on science and technology (S&T) education and promotion. But we also need professionals from other fields, such as law and accounting, to collaborate with them. Their shared value should be caring for our ecosystem and natural capital.

On Bamboo: The other topic of our celebration this month, bamboo, can grow up to over 30 meters tall. Yet, technically, it is not a tree. It is a grass that is also referred to as a “weed,” a descriptive term to say it is undesirable because it can be the habitat of snakes. This topic surely needs more public understanding. In addition to its many uses, bamboo has high ability to sequester carbon and withstand adverse weather conditions

Fortunately, appreciation of bamboo by policy makers and business investors has increased recently, as it should! The world bamboo industry is now worth more than 75 billion US dollars. It is projected to grow further–near 100 billion US dollars in 2025.

The Department of Trade and Industry is now giving our local bamboo industry priority support. We need more support to address needs for investments and lands because we cannot satisfy global or even just local market needs for bamboo by depending on self-supporting bamboos of the past that just appeared and grew on their own.

We need funds to develop plantations with bamboo and complementary tree and plant species to avoid problems arising from monoculture. We need lands for such plantations and for processing facilities to produce bamboo for food, construction, and power generation—the three topmost promising possibilities for us.

For lands, we hope to see efficient approval systems with integrity in both the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), which have authority over idle public lands and IP lands, respectively.

Bamboo for Food: Bamboo shoots used to be the poor man’s food. We are now trying to upgrade their value by developing a book of gourmet recipes with bamboo shoots. If you have good recipes with bamboo shoots, contact us soon.

Bamboo leaves can also serve as nutritious food for chicken. Mely Bersalona, former officer of the International Network on Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) in Beijing, has been doing research on this topic to produce a commercially viable product.

Those who regard bamboo as undesirable weed should read banker-cum-gardener Flor Tarriela’s latest book on “Weedibles and Weedicinals.” The publisher, Department of Agriculture, may still have some copies available or may already have the book in electronic form in their website.

Bamboo for construction and other uses: We have been using bamboo for houses, foot bridges, handicrafts, and others. China and a few other countries may have more bamboo species and better technologies than us. But we can still compete successfully in the world market —with our creativity. Cubo Modular has already proven that by winning a global award for the design of a house made with bamboo.

Bamboo for power generation: Bamboo can help us address the looming energy crisis and also reduce dependence on imported oil and coal for our power plants. We are noe working on this possibility.

Marine biodiversity and bamboo are but some of our natural assets that we must celebrate with positive actions as we, a MAN, take our journey towards full recovery and RICH sustainability.

(This article reflects the personal opinion of the author and does not reflect the official stand of the Management Association of the Philippines or MAP. The author, a Life Member of MAP, is former Chair of the MAP Sustainable Development (SD) Committee. She is Convenor-Chair of Climate Action & Sustainability Alliance (CASA) and serves as Board Director of organizations on climate change, SD, science and technology, education and communication.