Mapping, simply put, is a representation of the forest landscape on a piece of paper. But there’s more to it than just a visual aid. Maps tell stories: they narrate what has been and project what could be. Such is key to decision-making on resource management and ultimately, on forest conservation. Andres, Director for Geomatics and Planning of the Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC), calls on to get everyone involved in the movement to protect our forests, “We must give importance to our forest and care for it because it is also the forest who looks after us and the generations to come.” - This is part of the 7-Episode Kwentong Kalikasan Documentary Series which aims to highlight the heroes and the champions behind forest conservation in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. This is a joint project between AYEJ and Forest Foundation Philippines. Subscribe to Knowledge Channel YOUTUBE Channel: http://bit.ly/KnowledgeChannel For Donors, Teachers and Learners: www.knowledgechannel.org K

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Ako si Jose Andres Ignacio at ito ang aking kwentong kalikasan.

I'm Jose Andres Ignacio. I'm 56 years old.

I'm the Director for Planning and Geomatics of the Institute of Environmental Science for Social Change.

I'm being asked to share about my experiences and the work that I do in relation to forest management here in the Philippines.

When I was young, I wanted really to become a scientist ever since, but more focused on the stars, an astronomer.

Then when I was in college, I went into physics. At that stage, I thought that it was so detached from people.

I also like people. I mean, I wanted to interact a lot with people, especially the disprivileged.

I had to say goodbye to my childhood dream of being a scientist.

That's when I shifted out and focused on interdisciplinary studies in the Ateneo de Manila University.

In 1992, I went out for further studies at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

While I was there, I really focused on water resources management.

I was very interested in the science, especially how water works on the landscape and how we should be able to manage our resources.

As you might know, environment is actually a confluence of the science and where the people are.

So I said, hey, this is very interesting. I found it very fascinating that I could go back to science.

And yeah, the rest is history. I said, I'd like to be there. I'd like to transfer to Bukidnon if it's possible.

This is where we are needed in terms of the management of our resources.

And it affects everyone since we're in the uplands here in Bukidnon.

It really services a lot of communities in the lowlands everywhere in Mindanao because Bukidnon is a headwater province.

The water drains from here goes to Cagayan de Oro, to Cotabato, and everything in between, even in Agusan, etc., Davao City.

So yes, this is for me at that stage, the center of where the action was.

The Institute for Environmental Science for Social Change is a research and training institute.

We focus on a lot of research related to environment, to disaster risk resilience, disaster risk management, forest management, watershed management.

And of course, when we deal with these things, we have to take into account the communities who are all part of the processes on our landscape.

We have a very special focus on marginalized communities, specifically the indigenous communities.

We have a long time relationship with the community here in Eastern Bukidnon, the upper Pulangi area of Malaybalay City.

Well, indigenous communities in the context of Bukidnon especially, they're distributed in the last few remaining forest patches in this province and throughout the country as well.

A big challenge is really to get mainstream society to recognize the importance of people, especially the indigenous people, in the management of the resources.

The Forest Foundation has supported a lot of efforts here in Bukidnon that we are doing.

One primarily is the mapping of land cover in the province.

Mapping is, in our context now, is trying to represent the landscape on a piece of paper that you can bring around and show other people.

It actually is a document that can bring a consensus to local stakeholders.

You have to provide data, factual data, based on scientific methods, techniques, and this is what people can then base their decision-making on.

And I think that's very crucial when you're doing resource management.

We talk about resource management everywhere, but a lot of times no one has the information, the right data to work with.

This is the 2005 land cover map of Bukidnon, and this is what we did, supported by the provincial government of Bukidnon at that time.

What's so significant about this map?

It's the first comprehensive land cover assessment of the province of Bukidnon, or actually the very first of this type of detail for anywhere in the Philippines, actually.

In 2005, we had this much forest, around more than 200,000 hectares of forest.

The total area of Bukidnon is 906,000, according to the GIS.

In 2018, we were given support by the Forest Foundation Philippines, and including some of our partners in Belgium, to do a land cover update after our 2005 land cover update.

And this is 13 years after.

As you can see here, our mossy forest had decreased from 129,000 to 109,000, so we lost 20,000 hectares.

Primary forest from 25,000 hectares to 15,000 hectares, and we had a slight increase in secondary forest.

That's not necessarily a good thing, right, if there's a slight increase of secondary forest?

Actually, the secondary forest increase can be attributed to the loss of these two.

So when you cut the primary forest and mossy forest, that tends to be converted immediately to secondary forest.

We need to do mapping because we are all visual creatures.

We see so we can believe.

And mapping can help us see the landscape and see the various relationships of different resources and activities on the ground.

That can then help us project what's going to happen in the future.

For example, if you have a community that's situated in the center of a forest or a new road that's being built, you can already see what is going to happen.

And that's like a trajectory or a scenario that's being made.

And also, maps will tell us various stories on how people relate to the landscape.

This is Juan Zumbalan. He is our geomatics associate, and he's really the workhorse of a lot of the work that we do in mapping, technical work.

What we lack is the ability to map our surroundings.

Because most of the time, there are roads and there are subdivisions.

Without that, it's not possible to plan.

That's why mapping is important.

So we can see where the roads and subdivisions are.

Where the forest can't be disturbed.

In ESSC, we value the input of communities.

We value the input of communities in mapping their own local landscape.

And there's a process that we have developed, a community mapping process.

And this is where we get the community members together on a blank sheet of plastic sheets.

And they draw, using pencil pens, their landscape.

And what's very telling here during this process is the areas where the community really works on a day-to-day basis becomes larger on the map.

Because that's more familiar to them.

So this type of participation will get the community to own the data.

Because normally, when government would go to a community, they'd say, oh, this is what your community looks like.

So they have to accept that.

And if they don't believe that, there's no way for them to tell the government, hey, it's not true.

Because they have really technical map.

But through this process of community mapping, the community can have a say.

And I think what's really great about the support that Forest Foundation gave us is that it allowed us to freely hand over to the users, to the stakeholders,

the data that they need that's coming out from our initiative for their comprehensive land use planning, forest land use planning.

And the local governments really appreciated that.

Because they're not just dealing with maps, they're dealing with geographic information system databases that we created.

So these are just the same map, the data from the same map at the back of 2018.

But we have cut it up per congressional district.

So what we plan to do is to give these maps to the congressmen so that they have a better idea of the land cover state in their congressional district.

The land cover map that Environmental Science for Social Change provided to us, it's a very specific, it's a very detailed map.

What is the picture and scenario of the province of Bukidnon in terms of land uses?

So from there on, we were able to use up during the planning, especially in forest land use planning and also in the watershed management planning.

We were able to project the number of hectares that needs to be rehabilitated because of that map.

It was quantifiable, how much do we need to develop, to rehabilitate in order to protect the Bukidnon River watershed. And that's very useful.

The provincial government of Bukidnon provided 5 million for every year for Mount Kitagna Rains Natural Park to strengthen the enforcement of our three laws, rules, and regulations.

And also in Mount Kitagna Rains Natural Park, that's 4 million. So it's because we already know, based on the map, we were able to capture the things that we need for the local government units to address those existing issues and concerns.

I feel that very important impact in what we have been trying to do to get government to connect to where communities are.

And another important aspect of that is to get the community to a state where they can relate with government on an equal basis.

And not just dependent on what the government is going to give them, but to demand from government what they rightfully need.

Forest conservation is very important for us because the Philippines is an upland country. We're majority upland areas.

If those upland areas do not have the proper vegetative cover, which is a forest cover, a lot of the problems that we see nowadays that are being exacerbated by climate change, for example.

You know, we have more intense rainfall events, more intense typhoons. This affects everyone, not just those in the uplands, but more the people in the lowlands.

Now, if we don't have forests, how are we going to sustain the water that support us for household uses, industrial, agricultural uses?

It is very important for us to protect our forests because it is our forests that will benefit the next generations of people.

So if we really want stability across the board, we have to make sure that we don't lose any more forests and we actually grow more forests.

And the best thing to do is to get everyone involved in this.

I'm still doing this kind of work even at my age because for me, there is great need in trying to get the message across, trying to make things work with the community in terms of managing their resources.

Well, I hope for the Philippine forests that our government will sincerely recognize the importance of the role of indigenous communities in the management of the forest resources.

And also, together with that, that the indigenous communities themselves become responsible, not abusive to their fellow indigenous communities.

That is really my hope, that they learn to work together so that they can secure a wider area to manage the remaining resources that we have.

Thank you.

Thank you.