The Terrible Twos: The Mangyan Iraya Tribe towards Dependency, and Continued Self-Sufficient Forest Conservation
The Terrible Twos: The Mangyan Iraya Tribe towards Dependency, and
Continued Self-Sufficient Forest Conservation
Charl Justine Darapisa
The Mangyan Iraya tribe practices endogenous mechanisms in forest conservation. While conservation science remains a convergence interface of multiple junctures, Indigenous communities depend on nature's ample benefits. The logic is simple; nature conservation as mutual respect for the tribe's Gods in return for agricultural abundance and health. This, however, begins to change through time as government projects intervene. As I begin to explore the social-psychological systems towards forest conservation, two emergent and seemingly new mainstream cut across the Mangyan Iraya's recent practices---the dependency on the government's greening programs, and refrain from the long-practiced self-sufficient forest conservation.
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The 'Terrible Twos' is a normal stage in a child's development in which a toddler can regularly bounce between reliance on adults and a newly burgeoning desire for independence (Ianelli, 2020). Conversely, biodiversity research requires the dedication of seeing situations 360'. I did just that. The members of the local community, apart from long-perused traditional conservation regimes, there remain a new topic of discussion on the influence of government's executive greening projects to expand reforestation projects in the Philippines.
The National Greening Program or simply NGP provides economic gain for the members of local Indigenous communities. The faith of the government mainly relies on the continued-traditional practices of reforestation and or simple regreening areas in the mountain.
I associate the concept of terrible twos when I first heard about the dependency of forest conservation to National Greening Programs (NGP). This concept is new. Here, the government's national greening project invites Indigenous Peoples to spearhead and consistently monitor areas that went under reforestation in exchange for economic benefits. Based on personal accounts from the Environmental Officers of DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) Forestry Mamburao, an NGP project lasts for three years with a contract of >20,000USD per year. A project consists of 25 members who are members of organized groups within the Indigenous community. The Mangyan Iraya being known as a friendly and peaceful tribe embraces the government's initiative. This is good. While the contract is distributed to 25 foresters, the Mangyan Iraya enjoys from time to time the economic support the NGP provides. From the typical monthly income of 1,000 pesos (20USD) a family of 5-7 earns more or less 200 USD or 10,000 pesos a month received from the NGP projects. Sadly, the lack of skills and knowledge in financial management, the members would lend their bank cards to outsiders who would promise to give them the monthly money while waiting for the reforestation funds. In turn, this exchange has interests, thereby, reduces the total amount a member would receive.
The Mangyan Iraya becomes so dependent that they had to pause the traditional kaingin farming for the duration of the NGP contract. Members would now focus on the reforestation projects for the next three years. This is understandable since a member of the NGP project would reforest 20 hectares a month as per the contract of the program. Apart from the tedious replanting, monitoring should be done from time to time together with the representatives of the government. With the assistance of researchers from the DENR, combined with the traditional knowledge of the Mangyan Iraya, there had been successful conservation stories that were documented. This sets an example of enhanced community capacity through incentives and empowerment.
This practice hinders the transference of Indigenous knowledge to the younger generation. For example, a member of the NGP project who stopped working in the kaingin will not be spending day and afternoon teaching his son how to plow in sloppy hills or where to locate the best place for kaingin. Perhaps, a young man would not know where to best plant rice, and staple food like cassava, and corn.
This may also pose threat to the practice of praising gods and goddesses that guard the forests and bless the kaingin farms. The considerable reduction of members of the community who would pray for the gods may later cause the dissipation of their heritage and customs. A seven-year-old would not be witnessing the traditional paminghian ritual where the owner of the kaingin and a local shaman would pray for the gods for blessing and good harvest. This is crucial because experiencing one's culture develops identity and provides a clear picture of one's heritage. The reduction of occurrences of ritual robs the opportunity for the young generation to learn their culture.
My work with the Mangyan Iraya tribe made me realize the power of cultural capitalization. Here, one's culture and heritage become a powerful engine to move the community forward and sustainably manage resources. On top of everything, the
Mangyan Iraya remembers the sanctity of their laws to the tribe and to Apo Iraya. While there is no clear evidence on the reduced belief to Apo Iraya after embracing NGP projects, there is evidently reduced occurrences of the members from the Mangyan Iraya who would continue practicing the kaingin farming.
“In our culture, the midnight between the last and
first day of the year dictates the fate of the harvest throughout the year. The
elders observe the brightness or dimness of the moon. A bright moon doesn’t mean
well, the dimmed moon meant we will have a good harvest. If the moon shines
bright, it means the rats and pests will be able to find our plants. The
behavior of the moaning cow and carabaos is observed too, as well as our
domesticated chicken. The uneasiness of the cows meant difficulty in working in
the farm fields or that the animal will get sick. Meanwhile, when the chickens
scratch the ground as early as midnight means that the Mangyan Iraya will have
a hard time finding food in the forests, and in general.”
How would you expect a young boy to know this traditional knowledge if his father is busy focusing on the reforestation of mountains? The innovation needed is pretty much simple. Government initiated projects like NGP should remain, on top of all, encourage the Indigenous communities to continue working with their traditional practices. This may include but not limited to praying for Gods and Goddesses before and during reforestation activities, or perhaps on occasions when the reforestation is done, the communities would then be encouraged to go back to kaingin practices. Such innovations would cater to the roles of governments in enhancing sustainable management without obstructing the practices that enrich one's Indigenous knowledge. Government projects should account for the original and romantic arguments that originally inspired these conservation practices.
Continuous support for the self-sufficient implementation of 'outside' policies must be inclusive and sensitive to the lifestyle Indigenous communities have long practiced. This provides the opportunity for local communities to explore their social values towards conservation. These changes may lead to a different approach to how people can value and perceive trade-offs between stakeholders. Policy instruments may explore research on what motivates communities to conserve: political, psychological, cultural, spiritual, or economic. This may help advance our policies to understand pro-environmental behaviors in a complex system such as forest conservation.
Written by: Charl Justine Darapisa
Photographed by: Shaira Faye Salazar
Reference:
Ianelli. V. (2020) Your Toddler and the Terrible Twos, yourverywellfamily.com
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