Sarayo Forests
By Drei H. Castillo & Rona Reina de los Reyes
Our lives, livelihoods, security, and well-being are largely intertwined with the earth and its abundance. For generations however, our deep connection to nature is being severed as destructive practices and climate vulnerability contribute to our environment’s degradation.
And in this climate crisis, communities most vulnerable to disasters are often those whose exposure to risk have been brought about by undignified living conditions, resource exploitation, and a lack of more sustainable livelihood options.
Samar Island is one of the Key Biodiversity Areas in our country. Rich in natural resources, its very center is Samar Island Natural Park (SINP) which houses over 300,000 hectares of continuous protected landscape.
Palapag, one of the island’s oldest towns, has sadly converted most of its forested area into monocrop farms and remains to have one of the highest poverty incidences in our country.
As an emerging urbanized area, we dream of building a future of thriving communities within the municipality where growing together with nature creates:
- Restored natural landscapes
- Community and climate resilience, and
- Intergenerational equity
Involvement and participation in communities is central in finding solutions to our community’s wicked problems and in creating a holistic approach to better use of resources — one that is built on respect for the very environment that people depend on.
For the past year, we have been weaving the interconnections of key community stakeholders to their role in landscape restoration; building the foundations of replicable models of Agroecology — an agricultural approach that takes the environment into account; and co-creating sustainable livelihoods within Palapag through forest-friendly cacao, a crop normally found in every Palapagnon’s backyard since the 1500’s galleon trade.
Creating market access for climate resilient produce ensures that farmers are living in safe and healthy environments and have stable income sources.
By developing our existing tableya culture into a large-scale social enterprise, we will be able to mitigate risks for disaster resilience through landscape restoration, create passive income for the community, and increase biodiversity in the key ecological sites of riverside, woodland, and coasts.
Initially partnering with and encouraging cacao and native tree intercropping in 5 barangays, we hope to stabilize our cacao supply chain and reforest at the same time. In addition to these community-owned farms, we are also developing an 8-hectare forest farm school.
It will not only serve as a demonstration site and learning center of soil care, climate resilient technology, and Agroecology but also create a yearly buffer of roughly 3,200 kilograms of cacao beans which can support our community enterprise in meeting market demands.
Adapting to the challenges this pandemic has given, most trade, commerce, as well as education has shifted online.
As we started our initiative in 2019, we raised funds by selling bangles for forest nurseries through the social media platform, Instagram. Through the success of that small fundraiser, we were able to lay the foundations for where we are now in our movement and prove the impact that online visibility can make in reaching eco-conscious Filipinos.
And so, for us to better share our story and inspire our market, we are developing a social media presence that aims to make our product more accessible to a larger audience, share our story of collective action, teach the value of earth care, and encourage our audience to become advocates for the environment one cacao product at a time.
In order to further strengthen our movement, our organization is in need of support in the following areas:
- Infrastructure — a cacao processing area,
- Product development — a partner chocolatier, and
- Social Media Marketing — training for and a partner in digital communications and commerce
Get to know us more though bit.ly/sarayoforests or drop us a hello via our email at hellosarayo@gmail.com.
