Soon after I had reminded my students that exposure and staying close to nature was part of a long-term preparedness for calamity, I met Aida Granert under the shade of Elizabeth Pond’s beautiful trees. The Soil and Water Conservation Foundation (SWCF) which she and husband Bill head has been developing biodiversity reserve areas (BRA) in schools.
SWCF has this vision: “When a country loses its forests, it loses part of its soul. SWCF assists people and communities restore that soul”. So its mission is the “promotion of natural and human resources development through the implementation of activities projects and programs which are participatory, cooperative, community building and sustainable”.
Its “endeavors are designed to be technically appropriate, culturally sensitive, economically viable, socially acceptable while creating a more ecologically sound and sustainable environment”.
The foundation aims to develop a “comprehensive environmental ethic” in individuals and communities so they can manage and conserve resources well, and empower others to participate in “sustainable and equitable democracies”.
What excited me was the involvement of schools. A space is needed to set up a biodiversity reserve area. If the school does not have space, the local government unit may assist it in acquiring land beside the school, or private parties can help in this acquisition. SWCF provides the seedlings of trees of local varieties. Trees form the heart of the BRA, since these will attract birds and other creatures, as well as provide a home and shelter for fauna.
SWCF will provide training sessions for teachers, student leaders, and other groups that want to maintain a biodiversity reserve area. The BRA can become an alternative classroom, a training site.
Young people can become familiar with the many life forms sheltered here. They get to know our local trees by name. They learn how to monitor the creatures and the processes. But the learnings are not limited to the botanical or zoological.
There is so much about life to be learned within the reserve. Aida shared “10 Valuable Life and Business Lessons We Can Learn from Bees”. This reminded me of what Bill Clinton shared with Fareed Zakaria in Global Public Square.
A writer noticed a pattern among the creatures that survived and did not become extinct, creatures like ants, termites, humans – cooperation.
Among the training sessions for the teachers and student leaders is a write shop to help them prepare lesson plans integrating biodiversity awareness in various courses. With the BRA, teachers have observed an improvement in the performance of students not only in the science subjects.
The coming to life, the management, and ensuring of sustainability of the Biodiversity Reserve Area is really a collaborative effort of the school, various sectors of the community, SWCF, and the life community. It is a little paradise.
Some municipalities already have BRAs : Bantayan Island, Borbon, Catmon, Compostela, Daanbantayan, Liloan, Medellin, San Francisco. In Cebu City, Don Sergio Memorial High School has a biodiversity reserve area. Some supporters of the program are Foundation for the Philippine Environment and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc.
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We watched Partners in Law (LAW Center Inc.-Cebu Lady Lawyers Association) and encountered fiscal Liza Miscala-Jorda of the Regional State Prosecutor’s office. She shared best practices in anti-trafficking she observed during exposure trip in the United States sponsored by the US Embassy. What struck her was the victim-centered approach. They had a center which had all the needed services so that a young victim would not have to be moved. Upon the arrival of the victim she finds assurance of protection and support and is not even exposed to questioning to avoid further trauma.
Because of this, the trial itself is evidence-based, and moves away from relying on the victim and focusing more on material evidence and other persons from whom testimonies can be gathered. In this way, the case can proceed even if the victim does not want to file the case or prefers this to be withdrawn. These occur because often, a bond grows between the victim and the pimp. The girls even develop affection for this person. With a victim-centered approach, there is a need for a very good training for law enforcers on scientific, efficient evidence gathering.
Cebu lawyer Noemi Truya-Abarintos informed us that the modified Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law is now more firm and carries stiffer penalties. Since the element of coercion is an important aspect of what is judged to be violations of the law, trafficking of children becomes automatically illegal because clearly there is no consent. Both Noemi and Fiscal Liza pointed out that illegal adoption is considered trafficking in persons.
Many of the victims of trafficking are run-aways with low self esteem because they were never made to feel valued as individuals. They develop an attachment to the pimp or the trafficker as the first person who pays attention to them and makes them feel they have some worth.
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