Anilaw Makumpot Mansumangka leads the Anak ng Tribu Higaonon-Talaandig Association which promotes and preserves their culture and forest conservation’s importance through capacity-building initiatives, leadership formation, and socio-economic activities, and a member of the Higaonon-Talaandig Tribe of Misamis Oriental.

“The forest is our church, pharmacy, market, and hospital. For us lumad youth, if we forget the importance of nature, we will also lose the value of being part of a tribe. Our identity as lumads is tied to the forest,” he said.

The story of Anilaw and six other forest advocates is highlighted in the Association of Young Environmental Journalists’ (AYEJ) latest offering of a documentary series “Kwentong Kalikasan” that zooms into the pressing issues faced by our forests and the tireless efforts of individuals working to protect them.

Kwentong Kalikasan is a storytelling project of the Association of Young Environmental Journalists (AYEJ) that features stories and works of conservationists and emerging advocates of the forest landscapes through a 14-episode Documentary and TV-Magazine Series.

With the support of Forest Foundation Philippines, “Kwentong Kalikasan” offers a unique look into the lives of forest conservationists and their fight to preserve Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental’s most pristine and vital ecosystems.

From green entrepreneurs to forest rangers

The documentary features personalities such as Reina Bontuyan, a mountaineer turned entrepreneur who founded an outdoor sports center where mountaineers and enthusiasts were educated to be more responsible in interacting with nature through workshops.

The series also uncovers the power that maps hold through Andres Ignacio, who has worked with governments and indigenous communities to outline how the forest landscapes have changed over the years through their topographical and physical maps.

Kwentong Kalikasan also featured development workers Thieza Verdijo and Archie Tulin, an adventurer and mountaineer Shania Yulo, and DENR Forest Ranger Zoilo Montebon, who took us into the life and struggles of the Kitanglad Guard Volunteers (KGV) of Bukidnon.

“The KGVs work for an honorarium but they don’t really mind much about the money. Because we simply want to protect the forest. Because protecting the forest is worth more than the value of money”. DENR Forest Ranger Zoilo Montebon said.

According to the Foundation’s Senior Program Officer Eric Buduan, 30 million hectares of land area in the Philippines was mostly covered with forests. However, commercial logging operations in the 1900s to the 1990s resulted in a significant decline in the country’s forests.

Creativity at the heart of visual storytelling

The anthology series also offers its TV-Magazine component where people are brought together to discuss issues on forest preservation, biodiversity conservation, and sustainability through fun and creative activities.

In one of its episodes, couples and best friends are made to compete to guess whether the flora and fauna revealed are native to the Philippines or not. Quiven Omandam, one of the participants became emotional upon realizing the beauty of native species.

Sendong survivors were also featured in an episode where they read letters for their future selves after that fateful tragedy in 2011.

A Senior High School Teacher, who also lost his first-born son to the flash floods, Keith, now strongly advocates for the protection of the environment as a teacher saying that there is a need to have a coherent, sustainable, and collaborative approach in dealing with environmental problems.

Tropical Storm Sendong ravaged Cagayan de Oro City leaving over a thousand dead and more than 100,000 families displaced. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) officials cited that denuded mountains and forests in the upstream communities of Northern Mindanao caused the upsurge in water levels that ultimately impacted the downstream communities of CDO and Iligan City, among others.

AYEJ Executive Director Val Vestil uses video to effectively educate, entertain, and inform people on forest conservation initiatives, and inspire courageous action.

Widening the reach of the cause for forest conservation

AYEJ has partnered with the Department of Education’s Schools Division Offices of Misamis Oriental and Valencia to hold the traveling film festival, where episodes will be screened in schools of Valencia, Cambangon, and Guinoyuran this February.

The series has been assessed by the National Council for Children’s Television and passed the standards for being a child-friendly program. The documentary and TV-Magazine episodes will assist learners in supplementing knowledge inputs for senior high subjects such as Disaster Readiness and Risk Reduction, Earth and Life Science, Media and Information Literacy, and Understanding Culture, Society, and Politics.

To widen the reach of the advocacy, the Kwentong Kalikasan series will air on television through Knowledge Channel every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday of February to May at 3:40 in the afternoon.

The episodes are accessible through AYEJ’s Facebook and Youtube accounts and are also available on the projects Distribution Partner platforms, Mulat Media, Oro Youth, FyT Media, Probe Media Foundation- Kabataan News Network, Oscar M. Lopez – Science for Climate Resilient Communities, and National Council for Children’s Television.