Mountaineering Groups Discuss UN’s ‘Year of the Mountains’
WITH 2002 having been declared by the United Nations as "Year of the Mountains" and also the "Year of Eco-Tourism," representatives of mountaineering groups gathered at Kamayan-EDSA last February 15 for the fo-rum’s session on the subject.
Ray Cuyugan of Sikap-Bundok and Manny Perez of Mountaineers for the Environment joined the forum moderators, along with special guest Luis V. Torres of the United Nations Information Centre and actor-environmentalist Roy Alvarez on the panel, while representatives of other mountaineering organizations formed the bulk of forum participants.
Mr. Torres informed the body that most of the wars now going on throughout the world are being fought on mountains, with mountain ecosystems being among the biggest war casualties. He said that while environment is the concern of all, efforts to conserve it appear to come in trickles. "While we have reason at times to lose hope after many cycles of talking and doing things, we cannot afford to give up," he said, adding a call for hastening of the time when these trickles will combine in torrents and create a massive tide of efforts.
Perez stressed the need to educate the youth on the effects of environment-destructive ways, and Cuyugan said lack of self-discipline and common sense has been behind the practice of some mountaineering groups who bring up lots of food when they climb but are apparently too weak to bring the empty containers down with them. He also noted the effect of rapid population growth on the mountain forests.
Other mountaineer group representatives were Eric Garcia of Banahaw Mountaineers, and Malou Ramirez of Laguna-based Malayang Mamumundok para sa Kalikasan. Ramirez revealed that her group had replaced their group’s Mountaineering Courses 1 & 2 with ecological training courses 1 & 2.
Vice Chair Roy Alvarez of the SanibLakas ng Inang Kalikasan (SALIKA) described the project he is coordinating for Mt. Banahaw. Dubbing himself as an "activist for dialogue," he said, "Unless people discover their identity and therefore their real relationship with nature, environmental destruction will continue." SALIKA’s Chair Marie R. Marciano, regular forum co-moderator, added that various ways have to be found to help protect the environment while many are still trying to find themselves. She compared mountains to "gentle giants" who are providing us all with water, air and food, but we have been ungrateful
Workers cooperative advocate Tony Cruzada added that "Solutions must be carried out in a way that educates, to enable the people to see the interlinking of all the problems, and therefore the interlinking of all efforts at solution."
Pinky Serafica of the SanibLakas program for Cooperative Education on Synergism (CES), said in being rooted in community and nature one does not have to be literally in some rural area or mountain, but just in being one with people in various "layers" of our personal concerns, with many opportunities to be created and optimized in advancing our environment advocacies in all our circles.
Candelario L. Verzosa Jr. of the Cooperative Development Authority added that we all have a lot to learn from indigenous communities on mountain conservation.
Engr. Faustino G. Mendoza Jr., newly-elected president of the National Economic Protectionism Association (NEPA), said: "Nationalist businessmen stand for better management of the resources of the people."
Dependence on foreign investments and trade, he explained, results in economic policies that waste our resources, like our minerals, flora and fauna, and sell these out such that when the time comes that Filipinos are able to fully pursue industrialization, we would no longer have these natural resources.
For synthesis, lead moderator Ding Reyes emphasized the need for dialogues among adversaries, and even among allies in the environment movement.
In the latter case, he said, all are enabled to help one another in unifying our thoughts, words and deeds in harmony with the living spirit of nature. We are enabled, likewise, to fully appreciate the synergy of all our diverse and loosely-coordinated actions that can be viewed and felt as a strong synergy of efforts, or "sanib-sikap," for the environment.