To put a human face on the issues affecting our forests, the Association of Young Environmental Journalists (AYEJ), in collaboration with Forest Foundation Philippines, has launched a new project that aims to highlight ecosystem restoration, preservation, and conservation through visual storytelling and video advocacy.
Kwentong Kalikasan is a video advocacy initiative that seeks to feature the stories and works of individuals, scientists, conservationists, champions, and emerging advocates of forest landscapes through a video series in the hopes of multiplying, amplifying, and creatively documenting the positive impact of forest conservation work.
“We understand the need to come up with tailor-fitted approaches in making forests relevant, and resonate with our communities,” said Dennis Rosales, Landscape Coordinator of Forest Foundation Philippines, which he said is the reason why the Foundation has collaborated with AYEJ in this visual storytelling initiative.
According to the Foundation’s Senior Program Officer Eric Buduan, 30 million hectares of land area in the Philippines is historically mostly covered with forests. However, commercial logging operations in the 1900s to the 1990s resulted in a significant decline in the country’s forests.
Despite national greening efforts, the sharp decline in forest cover has affected the capacity of the forests to provide ecological goods and services such as biodiversity, water services, and timber and non-timber products, he added.
Moreover, Buduan emphasized that forest conservation is not just about tree-planting. Rather, effective forest conservation starts with awareness and understanding of the importance of forests, hence the need for effective education and advocacy campaigns.
Power of visual storytelling
Kwentong Kalikasan is a two-component series: The first component is a 7-episode TV-magazine show composed of a series of intimate indoor conversations featuring honest stories of Mindanaoans that cover topics like forest conversation, indigenous narratives, biodiversity, science, the environment, and everything in between.
The second component is a 7-part Mini-Documentary Series that will feature profiles of emerging advocates and personalities in the Bukidnon-Misamis Oriental area, zooming in on the human dimension of solutions-making in forest landscape issues.
AYEJ Executive Director Val Vestil said that they are now using video as an effective strategy to spread powerful ideas that try to educate, entertain, and inform people on forest conservation initiatives, and inspire courageous action..
“The thing about visual storytelling is that we have people at the heart of the story, and these kinds of stories are delivered through interactive and visual media,” he said.
The project was launched on the occasion of the International Day of Forests last March 21, and featured a panel discussion that was attended by VOX Editor and Motion Designer Joey Sendaydiego, environmental filmmaker Pia Duran, and National Geographic Explorer Gab Mejia.
“The power of visual storytelling lies in it being an immersive piece, a window that brings the audience to what is happening on the ground,” Duran said during the Zoom Session that was attended by over 300 participants from across the countr Mejia added that when beholding the truth to an audience, a meaningful impact can be made.
“In advocacy, we’re trying to solve issues and in visual storytelling we are able to show the truths, the realities, the nuances of society at large or the issues that we’re talking about, may it be the environment or the forest,” he said.
Moreover, the project hopes to immortalize the work being done in forest conservation and the people behind it.
Some potential episode titles for the TV-Magazine are: “Sendong Survivors Read Out Letters to their Future Selves,” “College Students React to Indigenous Knowledge,” and “Kids and Adults Draw What They Think Forests WIll Look Like in the Future.”
Thieza Verdijo, Deputy Director of the Xavier Science Foundation (XSF), and one of the personalities featured in the Mini-Documentary component, said that the XSF is delighted to take part in sharing the stories of the IP communities on Mt. Kalatungan, hoping to spark change in how audiences view the environment.
“We are all interconnected, so let’s work together,” she said. XSF is currently supporting indigenous people communities in their efforts to sustain their forest landscapes and promote resource governance.
The episodes will be launched twice a month starting April until October this year on the official Facebook pages of AYEJ and Forest Foundation. Following the roll-out of videos, AYEJ will hold a Traveling Film Festival by the end of the year where it will screen the episodes in and around communities and schools in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental.
