Meet MakMak, a “resident” in the municipality of Brooke’s Point, Palawan. However, MakMak is not an ordinary resident that goes to work for wages, or the school to learn its ABCs.
Rather, MakMak will fly from school to school to teach the town’s schoolchildren about the ABC’s of biodiversity.
This adorable mascot will teach young children about the importance of protecting Brooke’s Point’s biological diversity, why they exist, what’s their purpose and how they are able to support life in Brooke’s Point and anywhere else in the world.
Introduced on March 19 during the Kanyugan Festival by the Champions for Conservation (C4C) in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through the Protect Wildlife Project, MakMak was conceptualized to bring about behavioral change in Brooke’s Point through the younger population.
MakMak was introduced to a group of environmental journalists in a tour organized by Protect Wildlife in some of its project sites in Palawan on May 23 and 24.
Endangered species
MakMak, is blue-naped parrot, a representation of Palawan’s most threatened species which residents of Brooke’s Point are very familiar with.
With its outfit designed like a forest ranger, MakMak is hoped to represent the campaign to protect Brooke’s Point and its natural resources against the various threats to the people’s way of life.
As a species, the blue-naped parrot, a forest dweller, is able to see far and wide in the forest as it lives high in the trees, and is quite “talkative,” something the spokesman for biodiversity should be.
Rich biodiversity
Although biodiversity is now being slowly introduced in the curricula of public elementary schools in some areas in the country, little is known about it—what it means, or what it represents.
The Philippines is rich in biodiversity and is one of the 17 megadiverse countries in the world.
However, the country is also a biodiversity hot spot owing to the rapid rate of biodiversity loss. Many species are driven to extinction even before they were known to exist because of habitat loss characterized by massive deforestation, land conversion, invasive alien species and, in some cases, destructive development projects like mining, quarrying and illegal-logging activities.
In many areas that are supposedly protected by law, illegal wildlife trade remains a big challenge, such as in Brooke’s Point or the entire province for that matter.
A rockstar campaigner
Designed by the Brooke’s Point alumni of C4C training given by USAID Protect Wildlife, Makmak is fast-becoming a “rockstar” in barangay feasts and school events in Brooke’s Point.
Its very presence communicates educational messages about the environment, how to care for it and promote behaviors that protect species, their habitat and that of others that are important to maintain ecological balance in Brooke’s Point.
When MakMak is in complete uniform—including a ranger vest, radio, binoculars and a whistle—it illustrates the conservation threats that the behavior-change campaign of Broke’s Point is striving to resolve.
Local officials in the area claimed that the town is highly dependent on the bounty offered by the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL), considered as the nature’s pharmacy among Palawan indigenous people.
Booke’s Point shares MMPL with four other municipalities and is endowed with rich forest vegetation, trees, shrubs, grass and flowering plants and wildlife that include birds, reptiles and insects.
In terms of diversity, MMPL has at least 351 plant species, distributed across 214 genera and 192 families.
Of these, 16 species were identified as economically important, half of which are considered threatened or endangered.
Behavioral-change campaign
Lawrence San Diego, communications manager of the Protect Wildlife Project, said a behavioral-change campaign is a different approach to communication.
“IEC [information, education and communication] is good for promoting awareness and attitude toward environmental protection and conservation, but if you want actions that are measurable, we introduced behavioral change,” he said.
San Diego explained that their work with partners on the ground aims to encourage positive action, hoping that there will be an improvement in attitude or a change in the practice of the communities toward environmental protection and conservation.
Protect Wildlife Project targets to address two main issues—namely wildlife trafficking, or illegal wildlife trade, and habitat loss.
“We believe that one approach is not enough that’s why we have employed a multidimensional approach to address the problems. One is the behavioral-change campaign, conservation financing, governance and policy, which is the bedrock of the project we are working on to improve policy in environmental protection, conservation research and strengthening enforcement capacities,” San Diego said.
Conservation advocacy
Officials of Brooke’s Point said MakMak will help the local government in its behavioral-change campaign strategy targeting the town’s young children, who may soon start a way of life that deviates from that of the older generation.
“We’ve decided to change our strategy—from teaching the elders to teaching the children instead,“ said Rebecca Gadayan of the Municipal Planning Office of Brooke’s Point.
Gadayan said as part of advocacy, they produced IEC materials like comics, posters, leaflets, pamphlets and other reading materials for the schoolchildren.
Also the acting General Services Officer of Brooke’s Point, Gadayan said the decision to target children came after years of apparent failed attempts to educate the older population.
She explained that it is more difficult to educate the people as they have been accustomed to a way of life that is dependent on the natural resources.
Upland farming, for instance, is slash-and-burn farming to Brooke’s Point’s farmers.
Catching the blue-naped parrot for pets, or simply cutting down trees in the forest, means easy money.
“We want to change all that. This time, we want to educate the children, hoping they will be the one who will to educate their parents,” she said.
Francelita Ilado, Administrative Assistant IV of the Office of the Mayor, said soon MakMak will go to schools as part of their advocacy, making learning about Brooke’s Point’s endangered species fun and entertaining.
Besides the blue-naped parrot, the talking mynah, another endangered bird, is a targeted species in Palawan.
“In the communities, homes have a parrot or mynah as pets,” Ilado said.
To bring the young closer to Brooke’s Point’s threatened species, MakMak will soon be attending school events, both in public elementary and high schools—and teach the children to impart what they’ve learned to their parents—about the environment and ABCs of biodiversity.