THE EARTH WITHIN ME: A JOURNEY TO SAVE THE LAST ECOLOGICAL FRONTIER OF LASAM

THE EARTH WITHIN ME: A JOURNEY TO SAVE THE LAST ECOLOGICAL FRONTIER OF LASAM

By Sonnyboy Pacursa

CLOAKED with magnificent evergreen forests growing prodigiously the entire year of a well-balanced sun-rain barrage, Barangay Sicalao, Lasam has enjoyed the bounty of a tropical rainforest endowed with a treasury of extensive wildlife with timeless confidence.

Considered as the last ecological frontier of Lasam, Sicalao hosts wonders of extraordinary features almost strange, unheard-of to the oblivious: a diversified flora and fauna, mountains and karsts, limestone hills, tunneling network of caves still unexplored and a thick tropical forests with an impenetrable tangles of vegetation.

With the Zinundungan River, a major tributary of the Cagayan River, meandering right at the center of the municipality, bisecting the entire town of Lasam into northern and southern halves, it irrigates, sustains and nurtures the entire Valley of the Zinundungan, a narrow but fertile land extending into the adjacent town of Rizal, Cagayan and emanating from the lush, tropical inner mountains of Apayao province in the Cordilleras. The tropical regime of alternating wet and dry gives way to the more complicated shadings beneath the forest floor of Sicalao, in return supporting myriad of animal life forms and vegetation…

Hundreds of places—but one thing captivates my heart: the tropical rainforests

I am a nature enthusiast from this municipality of Lasam, considered as the rice granary of western Cagayan. A SMALL-TIME hiker yet, I have a big penchant of caring Mother Earth. A POOR TRAVELER yet, I have a rich understanding and experience to the existence of every life in the fragile ecosystem; the great nature outdoors whom I consider as my second home. I call my relationship with the nature a "love story" that started ever since I first laid eyes on the beauty of the great outdoors and those that are found into the wild. I have been roaming the mountains and forests for more than a decade now that all began when I discovered the sheer power of being ALONE.

Many underestimate the prime motive of being solitary, at times. It was so ADDICTING: once you experience how quiet it is to be, how serene and undisturbed your physical world, away from the noisy bustling concrete jungles, you wouldn't let anybody stop your burning passion. I travel, go out places NOT to have something to brag in social media, NOT to have stuffs to show but to LEARN and APPRECIATE the beauty of the Earth endowed to us by God and IMPART that appreciation to others that could affect, influence or IMPACT one's decisions to how they view the importance of communing nature. It is by this appreciation that caring for the environment stems out. HUNDREDS of places: heritage sites, man-made structures, beaches, rivers, caves, islands, summits, museums I have visited, photographed, captioned. But there is one thing that always strongly captivates my heart; the tropical rainforest in the mountains.

Sicalao, Lasam—hosting extraordinary features of karsts and limestone mountains

My hometown Lasam is still covered by about 40% of natural forest; most of which are embedded in the barangays of Sicalao, Peru, Viga, Cabatacan East and Cabatacan West, collectively called the PESIVICA, the "forest heartland of Lasam". As if the forests of Sicalao and the entire Zinundungan Valley seemed to be immune to human molestations. I was wrong. While I have witnessed denuded forests, slashed and burned slopes, destructive and unsustainable small-scale mining (quarry) and land conversion in other parts of the country, specifically the Cordilleras that I have been into, it didn't come to me that I would witness the same in my province: patches of deforested mountains, tree-less barren lands in the interiors of Sierra Madre, extensive charcoal-making industry in the uplands of eastern Cordilleras, and the receding forests cover along the stretch of the Zinundungan Valley. A massive clearing in a sea of forest viewed from a drone shot and from Google Earth map reveals a menu of unprecedented human activities mainly from unsustainable upland farming, charcoal-production (uring or uging), "kaingin" (locally known as uma) and the worst, illegal logging.

"I need to heal the Earth", in my thought

It is with a heavy heart when right before my eyes I saw the devastated condition of the Zinundungan Valley, now barely breathing for life. Its lungs, the massive rainforests of the once grand Cordilleras are slowly disappearing. I felt that the Earth is within me and I am within the Earth. Every skin I have, every muscle and blood constitute part of the Earth where we live. I am the Earth and the Earth is me. Just like all of the living things that abide in the law of nature, healing is an urgent matter if anyone chooses to survive the harsh life.

"I need to heal the Earth", in my thought.

My small but brave treks and adventures, confined into the deepest parts of the Sierra Madre, the Cordilleras and other parts of the country have opened my eyes into the reality of how cruel is man to nature. In my mind conceived a crucial decision; a life-changing testimony of becoming an environmental advocate. I realized I was so selfish when I bragged, "I am a nature enthusiast". It is not something to be proud of until you do something to protect the one and only Earth we are actually living right now. That "something" transformed into an " advocacy"; protecting the environment and advocating to the people about the Earth’s repair and its sustenance. But environmental repairs can only be conducted by the collective efforts and dedication of ordinary people and the true protection takes money, expertise and ongoing community and government supports.

My mission is SIMPLE and HARD. But indeed, it is not impossible. Imagine in the next millennium, we the people, and the next generations still have a beautiful, lush green Lasam and Zinundungan Valley to explore.

Helping the general populace understand the importance of nature protection 

In as early as 2018, I have attended, joined and participated local environmental drives that include bamboo and timber planting, forest clearings, plastic waste management and recycling within my town as part of my promise to be an environmental advocate known to the environmental groups as an "eco-warrior". I partnered with local organizations; those that are inclined into similar advocacy of nurturing, sustaining the planet Earth. I do not have a BIG NAME to influence people, nor lucrative resources to implement what is in the core of my mission. But I exploited the far-reaching prowess of SOCIAL MEDIA pages platforms to drive my urge of environmental protection and help the general populace understand the importance of nature protection to halt natural disasters attributed to human activities, and more importantly, what can we do to arrest the ever-worsening effects of climate change that could wipe out human race if not mitigated.

In a comment made by Lasam Mayor Dante Dexter Agatep, he expressed his grief over his awareness of the massive but silent forest destruction in our town. He emphasized the importance of environmental ADVOCACIES and said he is in full support of the funding of any endeavors, undertakings and projects because according to him, the forests belong to our children and to the future generations to come.

A menu of unprecedented human activities mainly from unsustainable upland farming, charcoal-production or "kaingin"

And so with my willingness to continue to be a part of the legion of Earth protectors and climate change fighters, I am standing proud as an eco-warrior for the environment. It's true that I DO NOT MAKE MONEY from it but I believe the protection of the environment and the entire planet should not always be a business as usual. We are all threatened by the negative impact of climate change. It is a global concern so what good will our investments and profits be; what if we have huge earnings and yet, we have nowhere else to go, we have no food to eat and we have no air to breathe because we were all be affected by climate change?

True protection takes money, expertise and ongoing community and government supports

It is time. And I say it again:

"Imagine in the next millennium, we the people, and the next generations still have an idyllic, lush green Lasam, a Zinundungan Valley to EXPLORE and a beautiful and bountiful planet Earth to live our own lives and dreams". ®

Sana ay magtulungan po tayo para sa ikagaganda ng ating kalikasan, bayan at kinabukasan.

Maraming salamat po. 🙏

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