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Back to contents |
 Making
The Future Green
by Sonny Evangelista
RETIRED
MISSIONARY LEADS REFORESTRATION
Dutch
Father Bernard Erkens, CICM,
should be enjoying his retirement years but instead
has led his own environmental crusade in the
Vicariate of Tabuk, about 500 kilometers from Manila.
After 50 years of mission work in the Cordillera
region in northern Philippines, more than 25 of which
in Kalinga, he was asked to be the Administrator of
the Tabuk Pastoral Center and later Director of the
Vicariate's Clergy House.
There were numerous tasks to
accomplish as Administrator: supervising, and managing
a huge center. By the end of the day, he would glance
at the surroundings - the brown covered mountains used
as pasture lands. Regularly the tall grass would be
set afire to make way for fresh young grass sprouts, a
favorite for the cows.
"It bleeds my heart when I see the mountains being
burned. These are rich potentials for lumber, for
water, for livelihood. Instead the mountains are
burned to benefit a few cows belonging to
leaseholders, who have thousands of hectares to their
pleasure," Father Ben, as he is better known, said recently. "This is
crazy."
Rich lands
Kalinga is rich in land, of which the mountains
are government owned. However, influential
personalities have been able to lease these lands, not
considering the farmers in the area who have barely
enough land of their own.
"With merely one hectare of that land, poor families,
through selling their farm produce, can already send
their children to school. Poverty could then be
diminished if not eradicated in Kalinga. There is
wealth in those barren lands," he adds.
Planting
Not one "to fight city hall", Father Ben started his
reforestation project around the five-hectare Pastoral
Center in 1994, hiring students from the Vicariate's
college to plant indigenous tress. (He would beg for
funding mostly from his Dutch relatives and friends.)
The next project was on an idle strip of land fronting
the government hospital. And he found more areas for
reforestation.
He even went outside of Tabuk. In a neighboring town,
he asked leaseholders to allow him to plant on their
idle lands. On a 10-hectare mountain slope, he hired
10 farmers to care for 20,000-tree seedlings for the
next three years. Under his unique concept of
"environmental stewardship", the farmers were paid P
4,500 [Euro 66] to care for the seedlings. After three
years, the seedling would have grown sturdy to
survive. The farmers were also allowed to plant cash
crops for their sustenance.
Evening of
life
Today, ten years after he began his "greening of
Kalinga" he has covered over 52 hectares of land with
over 89,000 indigenous trees. Added to these, he was
able to give 800 students jobs for pay enabling them
to self-finance themselves during the semester.
One of these students is now a schoolteacher who sent
him recently P 500 [Euro 7] to give to a student
working in his reforestation project. "If I was able
to help four out of the hundred students that I have
in a year, I am most happy," he says.
Ten years hence, you see the results of his labor:
a forest-like
cluster of trees line the irrigation canal
behind the Pastoral Center, some portions of Tabuk's
streets are lined with his trees, among others. "My
reforestation projects have opened the eyes of the
students and the government officials. More people are
aware of it now." But, he adds humbly: "I am just in
the stream of environmentalism. I go with that. I like
that. It is for a very good cause."
Two years from today, at the age of 80, Father Ben
will be packing his few belongings and fly back to
Berneveld, Holland. There, "I will have a quiet rest.
It is the evening of my life. I will do my evening
prayers. That is good enough."<WM
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