TAKBUNDUKAN
Takbo para sa Kabundukan
PAYAK-PILIPINAS

The telltale signs of a very sick earth are everywhere. The heat of the sun is unusually intense cracking not only earth but skin as well. Rain pours frighteningly hard reminiscent of the fury of Ondoy. Rivers are black and putrid. Trash float in oceans everywhere. Rotting fish bring the fish industry down in Taal.  Tornados flatten homes and claim lives in the US. Eathquakes strike China, Japan and threaten other countries along the ring of fire (which of course includes the Philippines). Entire populations are starving in continents like Africa.

The signs of a sick earth are only part of another sign, that of a sick humanity failing to take notice of the signs. What happens when in spite of glaring signs, people continue to live in ways that do not only ignore the signs but aggravate these?

We have lost our basic reverence for nature as sacred. Many of us no longer know how to experience awe and wonder at a glorious sunrise and a nostalgic sunset. We no longer tremble with fear and joy before a giant tree in the middle of a rain forest. We have forgotten or worse never heard the gurgling sound of water rushing against rocks in a forest stream. Few of us wake up to the sweet song of chirping birds and the

We are beginning to lose this primordial simplicity of creature before creation. The world of Creator and creature has fast deteriorated into the global market of manufacturer and market; consumer goods and consumers. It is time to recapture our essential nature before it is too late. It is time to pay attention to being and to slowly veer away from having. Let us reconnect with nature, climb a mountain, go to the beach or simply sit beneath a tree and take  a few deep breaths while thanking God for what is and for what we are.

Today, we launch Takbundukan, a run… a pilgrimage to the mountains. We need to make both an outer and inner journey, a dual transformation of external structures and systems as well as personal spirituality and lifestyle. There are three symbols that we can reflect upon: the run; the walking/climbing staff;  and the mountain. We need to run because time is running out. We need a walking stick which urges us to take a long and sometimes, perilous journey towards social change and personal conversion. We need to both run to and contemplate mountains as symbols of nature, of creation, of being and redemption.

The run to and for the mountains calls us to the following:

1)conserve, protect, and rehabilitate (CPR) the mountains and forests through:

• rainforestation: planting trees using indigenous species;
• supporting the ban on the cutting of trees in natural forests

(President Noynoy Aquino’s  Executive Order 23);

• engaging in community forest protection;

2)respect and promote the rights of indigenous peoples (IPs) and their biodiversity-related knowledge, systems, and practices (IKSP);

3)push for an alternative  economic development paradigm/framework which is pro-environment and pro-poor

In line with this, we appeal to our President and legislators
to make laws, polices, and programs consistent with this sustainable development
paradigm such as:

• immediate passage of a new forest law which  will ban the cutting of trees in natural forests and further empower our local communities and local government (LGUs) to engage in participatory forest governance (specially within this International Year of the Forests);

• bias for the development and promotion of community-based eco-tourism;
• declaration of more protected areas;

4)    develop and deepen eco or creation centered spirituality sensitive to the religious and cultural worldview of our indigenous peoples, open to urgent call to develop simpler and  more sustainable lifestyles …

Fr. Roberto P. Reyes
June 6, 2011
DENR, Visayas Ave.

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• Forests fight back all over the world (environmentaleducationuk.wordpress.com)
• World forests capturing more carbon (news.bioscholar.com)
• Bacteria on old-growth trees may help forests grow (eurekalert.org)
• ‘Great Reversal’ as world’s forests stage a comeback (go.theregister.com)
• What deforestation? Carbon sequestered in forests is increasing (ktwop.wordpress.com)
• Deforestation? Carbon sequestered in forests is increasing (ktwop.wordpress.com)
• [In the news] Sagip GUBAT pushes for forest resources bill – www.manilatimes.net (hronlineph.wordpress.com)
• [Event] Launch of the Sagip GUBAT (saGipin Ugat ng Buhay At Tubig) Network (hronlineph.wordpress.com)