MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines), joins a growing number of organizations who support the adoption of "ecocide" as an international crime. We express this amidst our country's withdrawal from the the International Criminal Court (ICC) for an equally important issue of alleged crime against humanity perpetuated by the country's President for the extra judicial killings happening in the Philippines today. Both crimes are equally important and must have resolution within an international court of justice. Read here MAKAKALIKASAN's GREEN AGENDA founded on our unifying principles that include social justice: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/political-agenda.html We hope these principles are enshrined in the development of the normative standards for what will constitute "ecocide" under international law.
To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article AT THE NUREMBERG trials, which began on November 20th 1945, allied forces prosecuted leading Nazis for atrocities committed during the Holocaust and the second world war. Among the charges against them was something which, just four years earlier, Winston Churchill had called “a crime without a name”: genocide, the deliberate destruction of a group of people. The term, and a convention against it, was then formally adopted by the United Nations. Half a century later it became one of just four crimes punishable by the International Criminal Court (along with crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression). Now, there is a push to name another concept as an international crime—destruction of ecosystems and the environment, also known as “ecocide”. Read more
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MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) notes the main point of the study that shows "...(r)ecent varieties of rice, bred for environmental stresses like heat, showed better yields than both traditional rice varieties and modern varieties of rice that were not specifically bred to withstand warmer temperatures. But the study found that warming adversely affected crop yields even for those varieties best suited to the heat. Overall, the advantage of varieties bred to withstand increased heat was too small to be statistically significant."
This puts to doubt pronouncement of many big seed companies that their climate-resilient varieties are necessarily better that traditional varieties. We therefor cannot discount yet the value of traditional varieties in favor of this new technology touted as our solution to adopt agricultural production to the changing climate. More studies must be done quickly. Given the urgency of the impacts of climate change to our food security, MAKAKALIKASAN reiterates its position on ORGANIC AGRICULTURE within the framework of sustainable agriculture that among others promote traditional varieties that have proven capacity to adopt to rising climates. Notwithstanding, we also support more R&D (research and development) to provide key answers to this dilemma fast. Read here the GREEN AGENDA of the MAKAKALIKASAN on SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE and RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/sustainable-agriculture.html http:// naturepartyph.weebly.com/education-research--development-rd--artistic-expressions-for-sustainability.html JOIN to ACT through our FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainable.agriculture To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article A study of the relationship between temperature and yields of various rice varieties, based on 50 years of weather and rice-yield data from farms in the Philippines, suggests that warming temperatures negatively affect rice yields. Recent varieties of rice, bred for environmental stresses like heat, showed better yields than both traditional rice varieties and modern varieties of rice that were not specifically bred to withstand warmer temperatures. But the study found that warming adversely affected crop yields even for those varieties best suited to the heat. Overall, the advantage of varieties bred to withstand increased heat was too small to be statistically significant. One of the top 10 countries globally in rice production, the Philippines is also a top 10 rice importer, as domestic supply cannot meet demand. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) joins the growing number of organizations, communities and individuals throughout the Philippines calling for a nationwide ban on single-use plastics (SUPs). We will join the lobby in Congress for the passage of this law and will actively support its enforcement. Our plastic problem is something that we cannot win by recycling and upcycling alone. We must cut the source and force producers and retailers to find alternatives to the use of plastics. This forms part of long term agenda to shift our economic system into circular economy towards zero waste and minimization of all forms of pollution. In the GREEN AGENDA of MAKAKALIKASAN, this action is a necessary part towards an Ecological Economic System: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/ecological-economics.html
JOIN to ACT through our FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.zerowaste To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article 12 March 2021. Consumer advocacy group Laban Konsyumer Inc. and environmental health group EcoWaste Coalition have jointly urged the government to tackle plastic pollution at source such as by banning single-use plastics (SUPs). Through a joint statement to mark this year’s World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) on March 15 that has for its theme “Tackling Plastic Pollution,” the non-profit groups highlighted two policy opportunities that can catalyze the beneficial shift to sustainable packaging and product delivery systems in the Philippines. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) notes it good that the climate actions are considered in the credit rating of the country. However; regardless of any incentives to our debt servicing, the country cannot afford not to act on the challenges of climate change that is already upon us. Its is quite simply a matter of survival. What we can afford not to have is more borrowing. The recent heavy borrowings of the current government will further cripple the country as we struggle with our climate challenges. Even with what the IMF calls our "modest budget deficit"; notwithstanding that it has in fact doubled since 2019, this should not be any justification for the country to continue borrowing. This simply is not sustainable, especially as we confront more and more problems with climate change. We agree with the Finance Secretary and Climate Change Commission Chairperson's position that "... government's recovery programs should be tailor-fitted to attract investments in domestic renewable energy, sustainable urban planning, and climate-smart agriculture" but we do not agree that this should be through more borrowing. In fact, we stand by our GREEN AGENDA that we should stop borrowing for a decade and finding other ways and means to raise sufficient resources for what we need for our development and climate change adaptation. Read here our Green Agenda on National Sustainable Financing here: http://naturepartyph.weebly.com/sustainable-national-financing.html
JOIN to ACT through our FB action group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.climateactions To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: Makakalikasan Assembly Original article RESPONDING to climate change risks will benefit the Philippines in terms of debt servicing, as well as boost its credit rating, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) official said. “Joining the global effort to tackle the climate crisis will not only help protect the planet, but can also help strengthen public finances in the Philippines,” IMF Representative to the Philippines Yongzheng Yang said in an e-mail to BusinessWorld. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) welcomes with hopeful optimism this "Green Force" collaboration for green finance for the country. We call on the Banko Central ng Pilipinas for a broad-based process to ensure that the development of this "principle-based taxonomy" will truly be responsive to the needs of our people, especially the most vulnerable as we confront our environmental and climate change challenges. MAKAKALIKASAN offers to the for the consideration of the BSP our Green Agenda on Green Economics as guidepost: Ecological Economics - NATURE PARTY PH (MAKAKALIKASAN) (weebly.com)
To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is collaborating with the Department of Finance (DOF) and other key government agencies to facilitate the mobilization of funds toward green and sustainable projects. In his speech during the webinar of the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines led by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said the collaboration, coined as “Green Force,” would help embark on the development of a principle-based taxonomy. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) reports with much disgust that this situation of Indigenous Peoples reported in other countries are likewise happening in the Philippines. During this period of restrictions due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, government, corporations and Chinese investments are fueling development aggression anew. One only has to look at what is happening in the Kaliwa Dam in Quezon, the Chico Dam issue of the current generation in the Cordillera and 23 new mining operations that have recently been approved as proof of this. This after years of neglect of the needs of the Indigenous Peoples, despite the favorable standing our laws provide for them. We denounce this at the strongest possible way and re-commit to support Indigenous Peoples in their struggle for self-determination. Our Green Agenda demands this: a) Reclaiming Natural Resources Patrimony, b) Ensure Self Determination of our different "Peoples" & Final Peace Settlement.
JOIN to ACT through our FB action groups: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.indigenouspeoples To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article A new report evaluates the state of human rights among Indigenous peoples in five tropical forest countries: Brazil, Colombia, Peru, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. One of the key findings is that governments in these countries are prioritizing the expansion of the energy sector, infrastructure, mining and logging, and the development of industrial agriculture close to or inside Indigenous territories, while loosening oversight of land grabbing and illegal deforestation. Indigenous peoples have had to adapt their resistance and fight to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid having their rights violated even further. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) supports the Dumagat-Remontado tribes in opposing the Kaliwa Dam. We renounce actions to pursue this project, amidst this lockdowns and quarantines during the pandemic, despite the the Dumagat-Remontados not giving consent for this project. We call on national government to speed up the implementation of actions to manage this COVID-19 pandemic and to restore some level of normalcy as to not disenfranchise vulnerable groups further because of the many restrictions. Read here our GREEN AGENDA pertaining to our support for Indigenous Peoples www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/ensure-self-determination-of-peoples--final-peace-settlements.html
JOIN to ACT through our relevant FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.indigenouspeoples www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasancares To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article SINCE last year, the Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected peoples in the Philippines. These socioeconomic impacts have only worsened the existing challenges facing the indigenous peoples and increasing their vulnerabilities. For the Dumagat-Remontados along the Sierra Madre, the lockdowns have severely affected their economic opportunities due to restrictions in mobility. For instance, a community in Tanay, Rizal has had difficulties in sustaining income from selling root crops, fruits, and other agricultural products. Some of the men also lost their jobs in nearby towns, adding to the economic insecurity. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) supports full empowerment of Indigenous Peoples to manage their ancestral domain, including forest protection, conservation & regeneration. We also support the role of Non-IP (indigenous peoples) forest dwellers acting as stewards of our forest lands subject to the conditions of conservation tenurial instruments issued to them by national government that should regulate them, together with the local government units. Within this framework, we support the setting up of GREEN COMMUNES that that both result to habitat and biological diversity conservation and organic food production. This is part of our GREEN AGENDA under GREEN CITIES and DE URBANIZATION. HABITAT & BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION and SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE.
JOIN to ACT our relevant FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.biodiversityconservation www.facebook.com/groups/ph.reforestation www.facebook.com/groups/ph.greencities.deurbanization www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainableagriculture To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: Makakalikasan Assembly Original article Nearly one-third of the land on Earth is forested, but because of agriculture and infrastructure development, nearly 27 soccer fields' worth of forest are destroyed every minute. Globally, forests are home to a significant majority of the world's land biodiversity and absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide every year. Over 1.5 billion people worldwide depend directly on forests for food, shelter, and their livelihoods. In Southeast Asia, countries from Cambodia to Indonesia to the Philippines have returned 8.8 million hectares of forested land to local management, so people who live in forests can lead the protection of their homes. The Mae Tha forest community in northern Thailand, for example, has been able to address droughts and illegal logging. And in Seattle, community members are creating the Beacon Food Forest, an urban permaculture project consisting of fruit and nut trees, berry shrubs, and other edible plants to provide food for the community and rehabilitate native habitats. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) assert that this mudflow issue in Albay is not an isolated one. This is happening all over the country. By law, regulation of quarries are with the local government as compared to mining activities which are regulated by the national government. Regardless, the impacts of both are equally devastating. While our Green Agenda calls for a 20-year moratorium on all forms of mineral mining to rationalize our green development, we are not only for the immediate closure of illegal quarrying & persecution of violators but also for the review and stoppage of problematic quarrying operations leading to substantial reduction of issued permits for quarrying. We are instead for the full development of alternatives to the infrastructure needs that fuels quarrying like building roads and housing. The use of alternatives such as upcycling plastic wastes to road and bamboo infrastructure for social housing and public infrastructures; for examples should be pursued. With the impacts of climate change, we simply cannot afford the current degree of quarrying all over the country.
JOIN to ACT in our FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.mining.moratorium www.facebook.com/groups/ph.greencitiesdeurbanization www.facebook.com/groups/ph.greengovernance To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original article When Typhoon Goni, the world’s strongest last year, hit the Philippines in November, it triggered an avalanche of volcanic mud that buried 300 homes, killed 13 people and left three missing in the province of Albay. While such mudflows, known as lahar, are common in regions with high volcanic activity, experts and activists say the impact in Albay was exacerbated by the loose material left by quarrying operations. Quarrying of volcanic ash and debris from the slopes of Albay’s Mount Mayon feeds construction projects across the Philippines and is a key economic driver in the province. But watchdogs say the proliferation of mismanaged quarries is a result of a rarely scrutinized industry that is often under the watch of the local government. Read more MAKAKALIKASAN (Nature Party Philippines) welcomes this law and what it means for bringing justice and closure to the generations of small coconut farmers in this crucial step to resolve this coconut levy issue. As we may recall, this coco levy was collected from small coconut farmers during the Marcos administration but became private funds that fueled the growth of many private companies. After much struggle my the small coconut farmers and their supporters, it has been recovered, declared as public funds and now with this new law, this 75 Billion PhP coconut levy fund will now be transformed into a trust fund to benefit 3.5 M milli0n small coconut farmers. If managed properly, graft & corruption-free, it has the potential of fueling genuine sustainable development to support our unfinish agrarian reform. In the light of the many unsustainability trends in coconut farming development in the country, the Greens must now involve ourselves in this program and make sure that principles and practices of sustainable agriculture along small, sustainable family farming complemented; where appropriate with green commune communities will be direction of the use of this fund. Read here to understand the green agenda of the MAKAKALIKASAN on green economic development and sustainable agriculture.
JOIN to ACT our relevant FB Action Group: www.facebook.com/groups/ph.sustainable.agriculture To JOIN the MAKAKALIKASAN: www.naturepartyph.weebly.com/join.html To become a Founding Member, please JOIN our ASSEMBLIES: www.facebook.com/groups/makakalikasan.assembly Original Article President Rodrigo Duterte’s signing of the Coco Levy Act would benefit the country’s 3.5 million coconut farmers from 68 coconut-producing provinces, who own at most five hectares for the last 10 years, said Sen. Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food. Read more |
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