As countries around the world experience population increase, and accelerated growth and development, the world also faces a new, and more serious, problem as a consequence of so-called growth and development: ocean plastic pollution.
Nevertheless, with scientific and technological advancements come a mix of environment-friendly solutions, each offering a unique way of crushing the growing menace.
While science and technology experts are working on biodegradable plastics, manufacturing companies are working on various residual waste-recovery programs to reduce, reuse and recycle single-use plastics.
Recycled plastics are being used to produce chairs and tables for schools, while eco-bricks from hard plastics are used for building parks pavement and concrete plant boxes for added clean-and-green effect.
For the Philippines, however, these actions will not suffice. The country is the world’s third-largest ocean polluter.
Fortunately, there’s one possible long-term solution that might work wonders for the Philippines and the rest of the world.
In the country’s rural areas, the slogan is simply going back to the good old days when plastics have not been invented yet or, at least, not as widely used and popular as they are today.
It is popularizing handwoven bags and baskets made of indigenous materials, like bamboo, rattan or vines, and the use of banana leaves for food packaging the way our elders used to.
Dying tradition, industry
Filipinos are known for handicrafts, possessing unique skills to produce indigenous products using their bare hands and simple tools; skills that have been traditionally passed on from generation to generation.
Many rural communities have kept it as part of community or family tradition, and a way of life.
Over the years, however, as more and more plastic products are developed, and introduced, the once-thriving handicrafts industry faded. Today, some government agencies are, in their own little way, trying to revive the trade.
The Department of Agrarian Reform is working with agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations in various parts of the country to revive this tradition.
Skills training
In Eastern Visayas, agrarian reform beneficiaries from four different organizations completed a skills training to enhance the quality and designs of their handicraft products as part of a nationwide training program to boost the marketability of the handicrafts manufactured by farmers with the use of available raw materials in the area.
Members of the Macalpi Community Multi-Purpose Cooperative (MCMPC) in Carigara, Leyte; the Hantag Farmers Multi-Purpose Cooperative (HFMPC) in Maasin City, Southern Leyte; the Villahermosa Oriental Farmers and Fisherfolks Association (VOFFA) in Pagsanghan, Samar; and the Cabacungan Multi-Purpose Cooperative (CMPC) in Allen, Northern Samar, are known to produce various products.
Crop-based materials
Cynthia Zacate, senior Agrarian Reform Program officer of the Livelihood and Enterprise Development Division of the Bureau of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Development, said the training is for development of crop-based products from agricultural wastes—such as coconut coir, coconut husk, rice straw or anything usable that, otherwise, end up in the garbage dumps.
For instance, members of the MCMPC, who are into plant holder-making venture, use coconut coir as raw material.
HFMPC members, who are into sinamay weaving use abaca; VOFFA members, who make bags and hats, use buri; CMPC members, who are also into bag and hat making, make use of romblon or a variety of pandan leaves as their raw material.
“We want to train farmers on how to make something out of agricultural waste for them to earn extra income while properly disposing their agricultural wastes,” Zacate said in Filipino.
DAR Region 8 Director Stephen Leonidas said the training helps farmers improve their simple and limited designs, and in the use of other raw materials available in their area.
From crab baskets or containers, which are sold at P40 each, some VOFFA members have learned to make fashionable bags and other accessories, and sell them at a higher price.
Besides plant holders, those who have undergone training are now producing lamp shades.
Plant-based products
The Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), as part of its program in mainstreaming biodiversity, promotes the production of plant-based or biodiversity-based products in Southeast Asia.
ACB Executive Director Theresa Mundita S. Lim said through this, ACB can help member-countries address individual country problems on plastic pollution.
“Plant-based products are biodegradable, so they do not contribute to waste in the environment, including the destructive plastic debris in our oceans,” Lim said.
According to Lim, our great grandparents have used the plant-based materials for centuries, such as buri, or pandan, for bayong or market bags, and banana leaves as plates.
The dawn of plastics gradually resulted in the public shifting to this more convenient and cheaper, yet environmentally harmful material, she added.
Making a comeback
“Now, as the impact of plastics is being felt more ‘close to home,’ including ending up in the food we eat, and affecting our health, the use of biodegradable alternatives has since been making a comeback and is starting to become popular again.
“The only main difference today from yesterday’s plant-based utilities is that technology and innovation are increasingly being applied today to make plant-based products as convenient, easy-to-use and, hopefully, cheaper and more accessible as plastics,” she said.
“It is hoped that, eventually, this will encourage more people to go back to biodegradable materials, and contribute to less marine debris in our oceans and environment,” she added.
Biodiversity-based products
One of the programs of ACB is anchored on Biodiversity-based Products (BBP) as an economic source for the improvement of livelihoods and biodiversity protection.
The project takes advantage of Asean’s rich natural resources and biodiversity, which offer a huge potential for the region’s socioeconomic development.
Asean’s 10 member-states—Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam—accommodate about 18 percent of the species of the Earth.
The region has three of the 18 mega-biodiversity countries; about 35 percent of the global mangrove forests; and 30 percent of the coral reefs.
Further developing trade relations for bio-products or organic trade nationally, regionally and, possibly, globally, is one of the goals of the program.
Cambodia success story
At the Phnom Kulen National Park in Cambodia, a park named after the evergreen lychee trees, stretches up to 37,000 hectares. It is rich in biodiversity and home to more than 800 species of plants, approximately 40 species of mammals and an estimated 200 species of birds.
As life in the area is difficult, locals paid more attention to the cultivation of cashew and lychee trees, which can only be harvested during summer months.
The high demand for space for cultivated plantations is taking the toll on its forest areas.
The ACB project linked economic development for the people living around the national park, while conserving its precious biodiversity.
The project: “BBP as an economic source for the improvement of livelihoods and biodiversity protection” is supporting local communities in the buffer zones of protected areas to generate sustainable income through the promotion of biodiversity-based value chains.
Two biodiversity value chains were supported under the project—the production of black ginger tea, and handicraft items from vine/climbing fern.
Black ginger tea is cultivated in the villages around the Phnom Kulen National Park. The black ginger, also known as Thai ginseng, is acknowledged to have health benefits, such as cure for liver problems, digestive and stomach disorders, and as “natural Viagra.”
Vietnam success story
In Vietnam, one of the region’s richest countries in terms of biodiversity, life is not easy for the local people living in and around the mountainous national parks in Vietnam’s northern area.
The lack of agricultural land and low level of education lead to high poverty rate, which often leads to unsustainable exploitation of the forest areas.
Under Project BBP, four biodiversity value chains were supported in Vietnam, all aimed at increasing income through sustainable production of biodiversity-based products.
They are the Bo Khai Vegetable in Ba Be National Park; Honey Production in Ba Be National Park; Giao Co Lam Tea in Hoang Lien National Park; and the Medicinal Bath Herbs in Hoang Lien National Park.
The projects help increase the incomes of people living in Vietnam’s national parks, hence, reduce their dependence on the country’s threatened resources.
Biodiversity-friendly enterprise
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has been promoting biodiversity-friendly enterprises to sustain growth, and development, in rural areas, particularly in coastal communities, said Energy Assistant Secretary Ricardo Calderon.
“We have been promoting biodiversity-friendly enterprises through livelihood support. We have that last year. [Currently,] biodiversity-friendly enterprises are being pursued in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme [UNDP],” said Calderon, also the director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau.
“We have an ongoing search to give due recognition to communities in protected areas for biodiversity-friendly enterprises, including the use of materials that are abundantly found in their areas without necessarily affecting the ecosystem,” he added.
He said the objective of the program is to reduce the community’s dependence on natural resources, especially within protected areas and, hence, avert further destruction of forest ecosystems.
According to Calderon, the DENR, through the various fields or satellite offices in the regions, continue to educate the communities about the importance of not only protecting and conserving biodiversity, but of how to sustainably manage the natural resources to promote inclusive growth.
“We also support the use of biodiversity-based materials to produce products, like the weaving of mats, bags and baskets, because it helps reduce their dependence on our natural resources in the forest,” he said.
According to Calderon, part of their activities is to promote access to markets for biodiversity-based products and to look at strengthening its partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to help in popularizing unique products that are natural and environment-friendly.
Communicating biodiversity
The Philippines, being a member of the Asean, has the resources to promote biodiversity conservation and protection, as well as sustainably manage its abundance.
However, Lim said there’s a need to work across sectors, underscoring further the need for effective communication, to make people better understand and absorb the message.
“If you want to advocate biodiversity, do not talk about biodiversity. More often you speak about ecosystem-based adaptation, about natural capital, about non-timber forest products, wild relatives of commercially important crops, protection of artisanal fisheries, nature-based tourism, traditional medicine, and other terminologies that will resonate more to the sector you want to engage,” she said.
“In the process, you inject the word biodiversity in the conversation, and soon you find that they are beginning to use biodiversity in their dialogues and statements, as well. In the end, the term will not matter, for as long as the bottom line will be the same,” she said.
Lim said mainstreaming biodiversity in various fields is a significant step in achieving our much-desired sustainable development, where the goal is striking the balance between socioeconomic growth and environmental protection.
Image credits: DAR Public Assistance and Media Relations Service