Traditional Conservation Systems in the Philippines

Traditional Forest Conservation Technologies in the Cordillera, Northern Philippines

As an immigrant from the Philippines, I really wanted to make a blog post about some environmental conservation systems among the Philippines' indigenous inhabitants. Growing up, my parents told me and my siblings stories about native peoples living in the mountains. Though fascinating, I never really gave these people much thought until I learned more about indigenous people through Anthropology 210.

After much research, I stumbled upon the above site about traditional practices of some indigenous peoples in Cordillera in Northern Philippines.

First of all, 17-22% of Philippines' population consists of indigenous people. The people of the Cordillera consist of one of seven groupings of tribes. Cordillera is host to many indigenous cultures like the Isneg, Kaligna, Bontok, Kankasey, and Tinggula, to name a few. The Cordillera people, especially, continue to be the subject of many studies and investigations due to their knowledge systems for natural resource management. Along with other indigenous people, the people of Cordillera implement their beliefs, culture, and traditions to preserve their environment.

One of the tribes in the Cordillera region are the Ifugaos, whose ideal forest management is deeply ingrained in their culture. They implement a muyong system of tending forests. The muyong plays an important role in providing for firewood, construction materials, food, and medicine. It is a storehouse for flora and fauna since is provides a water supply for surrounding wildlife. The quality of terrace cultivation and condition of the entire watershed depend on the water coming from the muyong. Since the Ifugao see the intricate relationship between humans and nonhuman resources which have a connection to the spirit world, they are very careful in their resource consumption. Ifugao culture and laws revolve around their physical environment and proper treatment and use of resources are strictly observed. Overall, the Ifugaos attribute value to the forest on the basis of cultural practices and ways and as a result, has transformed woodlots into multiple-use centers without disturbing the pristine condition of the natural forest.

Other tribes that contribute to preservation of natural ecosystems are the Isneg and Tiggulan with their forest conservation system of lapats. The lapat system highlights the imposition of taboo within designated areas. Exploitation of these areas are strictly prohibited until a certain amount of time has passed. Implementation of this practice includes avoiding places where lumber is usually gathered, avoiding fishing sections of the river, and avoiding gathering fruit from certain trees. The lapat system enables the natural recovery of the forest by allowing plants, trees, and wildlife to reproduce.

As evident, indigenous tribes play a crucial role in the preservation of forests and wildlife in the Philippines. Muyongs and lapats results from indigenous peoples' sensitivity and awareness of the extent of availability of natural resources. Furthermore, such indigenous practices have made the jobs of the Philippine government much easier. Forest protection is not a problem and new laws have been enacted to further preserve indigenous practices. To date, approval must be received from indigenous communities to allow the introduction of modern day technologies. Clearly, the Philippine government commends indigenous knowledge and continues to promote traditional conservation systems. Perhaps other modern-day societies will be inspired to do the same.

-Sharmin Dingle

Indigenous knowledge on diet in XinjiangⅠ

The Great Wall, Terracotta Soldiers, red lanterns and Peking Opera maybe the first things you think about China, so you must be surprised if I tell you there are desert, grassland and glacier in my hometown, Xinjiang, China.

Xinjiang is the geographic centre of Eurasia, the Talimu Basin and Zhungaer Basin are the most far places from the ocean which are separated by Tian Mountain (7435m high). Local people here, such as Uyghur, Kazak and Tajik are minorities in China compared with Han People, they live on grazing and oasis farming.

Sheep and hours are the most important support in native life and economy. People feed them, eat their meat, drink their milk, use their skin and fur to sew cloths and shoes, make their tails into musical instruments, and people love their animals, their fellows.

Mutton in other places has dudur and is really not smell good, but saline-alkali soil in northwest China makes water and grass here alkaline, and it can neutralize the acid in mutton and remove the odour.

Climate in Xinjiang is too dry for agriculture, indigenous people can only cultivate some drought-enduring plants, they have very few choices. Having Meat and milk (especially toasted) year by year cannot support all nutrition human body needs, and such diet with high protein, fat and calories can cause hypertension and hyperlipidemia and other angiocardiopathy, but a survey shows that native people fed on meat and milk whole life have less cholesterol, triglyceride and lipoprotein than immigrated Han people who cook much more vegetables and eat more “scientifically”.  Why??

Indigenous people in Xinjiang of course have their traditional environmental knowledge, too. They found these kinds of treasure in such a poor land environment: onions and carrots, they also have thorough technique to ferment milk. It’s their secret.

Onions with rich vitamins and mineral can provide organosulfur compound to keep out cancer and kill germs, and it’s the only vegetable with prostaglandin A that can help to enlarge vessels, reduce blood viscosity and promote sodium salt excretion, thus can definitely prevent thrombus and hyperlipidemia. Besides, onions are good to bone density and selenium in onions can keep people younger. The carotene in carrots is a strong antioxidant that can strengthen phagocyte, and carrot has an all-sided structure of nutrition. Xinjiang people almost have these two food everyday so that they can keep healthy.

Diet structure based on meat can cause indigestion, so native people created diverse raised dairy products. After fermented, milk has more free amino acid and lactobacillus, and less lactose, it can promote gastrointestinal peristalsis, protect other vitamins, help absorbing.

Traditional knowledge is just amazing, local people all around the world know how to survive and live better in different environments, generation by generation.

——Zhang Yin

Yakima Nation Wildlife

When describing this blog to some of my friends, they recommended that I look into something local and suggested the Yakima Nation. The first link that I found is a site on the Yakima Nation Wildlife Program and describes their goal as follows: "a Sovereign Nation under this Treaty, the Yakama Nation remains focused on our responsibility as stewards and protectors of the land and its valuable resources. In this spirit, the Wildlife Program has a proven history of effective natural resource management, providing scientifically-based but culturally-informed methods and strategies for wildlife management within the Reservation and Ceded Lands of the Yakama People". The people of Yakima Nation have several projects that work to protect and reestablish species and habitats that are at risk from problems such as invasive species, changing ecosystems and over-harvest. The link below gives a brief overview of these management programs.

http://www.ynwildlife.org/speciesprojects.php 

The protecting of salmon runs is very important to Northwest indigenous peoples,and this can be seen in the ceremonies and traditions that accompany the catching of the fish. Yakima Nation fishers use fishing platforms that are constructed at low water levels, such as the one below, and use dip nets to catch the spring Chinook salmon. The catching of the salmon is then followed by the "first salmon feast", which as one man, Antone Minthorn, noted is "an appreciation that the salmon are coming back". A detailed account of the celebration can be found at the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission's website: http://www.critfc.org/text/ceremony.html      

The stories about salmon that have been passed down through the generations definitely have a conservation edge to them, and apply to the environmental changes we are facing today. The traditions honor not just the work that was put into catching the salmon, but mainly what nature is giving to sustain and care for the people. There is no sense of entitlement, just gratefulness of the return of sacred fish and the life that it brings.

In closing I would like to share a story that I believe is very important to this post. This legend from the Yakima Nation tells of when the people forgot to continue the tradition of taking care of the salmon and honoring the use of its life in order to sustain their own. After several times on continuously doing this, the salmon failed to return to the people. The people tried everything they could think of to bring the salmon back but to avail until Old Man Rattlesnake give himself to the salmon to bring them back. 

~Melissa

Historical Trauma

http://www.nps.gov/trte/historyculture/ 
A culture, without their customs, including their hunting and gathering practices is not the same culture, which is directly impacted by the biodiversity of their environment they live in and help develop. 
I also believe that colonialism, just as much as biodiversity, plays a huge role in shaping a society. Historical trauma suffered by the Cherokee tribe when over 16,000 natives were forcibly relocated from their homeland changed thier culture forever. Above is a link with more background information that goes into the depth of trauma they suffered for the mere rumor of gold in modern day Georgia. If they did not die on their way to Oklahoma, they were severely discriminated against, even if they attempted to assimilate to Western society. Georgia then became a lush biologically diverse land to an eventually state of White settlers that transformed the land with roads, merchants, and a rapidly growing population. This may seem like an extreme example, but it shows how culture, biodiversity, and colonialism, all affect each other. -Rachel

Introduction and Aboriginal Wetland Burning

To start out, I would like to say that I am very excited to start writing on a subject that I believe is very important to sustaining both biodiversity and cultural diversity. TEK (traditional ecological knowledge) is described by the US Department of Agriculture as being the "knowledge base acquired by indigenous and local peoples over hundreds of years through direct experience and contact with the environment”, and this plays a major role in the basis of indigenous peoples' culture. What I would like to focus on for this project is TEK, and how indigenous people around the world use it to create and protect a sustainable environment that in turn supports them. Practices that are being used today in hopes of creating a "greener" way of life often have already been around for hundreds of years being used by many first peoples. I believe that there is much to learn from these ways of life, and I hope that what I write here helps to convey that!

The first link that I would like to share is a video from youtube on Aboriginal wetland burning in Kakadu, Australia (a national park). This is a very interesting example of how traditional knowledge can be used to help supply more biodiversity in an area. Before European colonization, Aboriginal Australians used fire in order to help control a native grass called Mudja, which actually chokes out other wetland plant species and thus can have a negative affect on birds and other wetland animals. In the 1980's, feral Asian water buffalo were removed from the park leaving nothing to really keep the Mudja grass in check, this is when the opportunity to use Aboriginal TEK came into play. The burning starts in September, where the under layer of dead grass is burned and the living grass is killed to and left for a few days to dry before burned again. Smoldering fires could last for weeks, but are controlled through past land management (not a ton of debris from past seasons) and by Aboriginal stewards working with park management.  The website notes serious improvement as this processes is continued, "Results show that the re-application of traditional fire management dramatically enhances the diversity of both plants and animals, thus significantly improving the natural and cultural values of wetlands". As the grass is burnt back, other wetland species take its place and the ecosystem is restored.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1uYBgaqeT0

http://www.csiro.au/science/KakaduWetlandBurning.html

~Melissa

Traditional Knowledge and Modern Science

http://www.scidev.net/en/agriculture-and-environment/editorials/traditional-knowledge-and-modern-science.html

I think that as society has progressed with the vast development of technology, spectators and critics have also begun to assess the effectiveness of such new “conveniences”. With talks of global warming and failed modern systems, more people are now turning to traditional knowledge, lifestyles, and social practices that have sustained tribal people for centuries.

The above link on “Traditional Knowledge and Modern Science” describes how the International Council for Science (ICSU) is trying to form a middle ground between the incorporation and acceptance of traditional knowledge into modern science. This is especially difficult since traditional knowledge is often mistaken for “pseudo-science” which challenges the Darwinian point of view with unscientific claims.

Generally, there is a mutual interest in scientists and indigenous communities to maintain sustainable agriculture and ecological practice. “Such work is likely to increase in importance during this century, both because of the recognition that many environmental problems are local in nature and the need for the cooperation of traditional peoples in addressing global issues,” a report of the ICSU claims.

Perhaps modern society’s greatest challenge is overcoming the “instrumentalist” view that prioritizes scientific techniques to overcome problems. This “encourage(s) a narrow outlook on problems; for example, it can promote agricultural productivity without adequately addressing the disruptive impact of agricultural techniques on ecological cycles.” Since instrumentalist attitudes are so deeply engraved in modern thinking, holistic approaches, a trademark of traditional knowledge systems, are especially encouraged.

Ultimately, reconciliation between traditional and modern science is needed to promote a more sustainable environment and healthier ecological systems. As opposed to being forgotten as a “thing of the past”, more and more scientists are now taking a second look at traditional knowledge and learning from it.

-Sharmin Dingle

Traditional Environmental Knowledge Uses

I agree with Professor Pena that societies such as the indigenous tribe of the Amazon in our Cajete reading have systems in place that were misunderstood and frankly underappreciated until recently, but now that researchers are finding that their environmental knowledge is in fact useful and has stood the test of time, what are the possible changes in Western culture that might take place? Will we or have we already begun shifting to more natural medicines, ways of disposing of waste, or even preparing/growing our food, or has this knowledge simply been an interesting story and something to think about and then eventually forget?

-Rachel