21st Century Filipina Nature Writing for Sustainable Development and Environmental Justice

This research explores the potential of 21st century nature writing to empower disadvantaged communities, restore environmental rights at risk, and transform the global conservation agenda. Nature writing, which entails personal reflection and creative expression through language to record experiences of the natural world, encompasses many different formats: from poems, short stories, fables, essays, and journal entries, to annotated drawings, short skits, lyrical compositions, and - in the modern era - visual and spoken word performance through various digital media. While the art form has historically been associated with white, Western, upper-middle-class men, and has thus tended to reinforce social segregation and inequity even while inspiring responsible stewardship of the natural world, we re-envision it here in the hands of Filipina women as an instrument of sustainable development and environmental justice.

Underpinning the research is a critique of the currently dominant neoliberal framework for global conservation, which involves monetising the natural world and incorporating its various components into the global economy as commodities. Of particular importance are problems identified by a growing number of local communities, environmental NGOs and social movements in the developing world, including Philippines-based advocacy organisations such as Ibon International and the Center for Environmental Concerns. As laid out in an open letter to the United Nations, authored by a coalition of civil society organizations led by Ibon International, more than a thousand signatories contend that capitalist conservation reinforces corporate rather than local control over natural resources, thus endangering livelihoods, threatening the sovereignty of vulnerable communities, and devaluing place-based knowledge. They further describe that the economisation of nature exacerbates rather than addresses existing social inequalities, which in turn fuel further resource exploitation and environmental degradation.

The letter's authors instead call for environmental decision-makers to support a range of alternative knowledges and ecological practices as the 'building blocks' of genuine people-centered sustainable development. Our research responds directly to this call by conducting a practice-based inquiry in the form of a nature writing workshop, delivered in partnership with local writers and community leaders, and under the guidance of two local advocacy organisations who work in the areas of environmental protection and women's empowerment, respectively. The workshop examines nature writing as tradition, identity, practice, communication, advocacy, and legacy - all while working towards the compilation of a 21st Century Filipina Nature Writing Anthology. It further engages participants in the digital humanities to produce a distinctly contemporary piece of nature writing - the video essay - which will be disseminated through social media.

Ultimately, the project translates the environmental values, unique perspectives and future ambitions of rural Filipina women into specific and concrete policy recommendations, which will be presented to key national and international decision-makers, including the Philippine Commission on Women, in writing (in the form of a "policy pack") as well as through live performance. A showcase event held in the final month of the project will be attended by community members, conservationists, invited local representatives and key national policy actors. It will feature vivid and compelling nature writing compositions, written and read by the participants themselves, towards the aim of educating audience members, informing local as well as national environmental governance and policy, and moving decision-makers at all scales to immediate action in line with the stories revealed and insights gained over the course of the project.

Development experts and agencies at all levels understand that sustainable development initiatives are most effective - arguably only effective - when they are supported from the ground up. Conservationists, policy makers, and local leaders agree that more grassroots engagement is needed in both the formulation and implementation of action plans. Yet, in the trend towards globalisation and expanding socio-economic inequality, civil society organisations, social movements, and local communities are experiencing increased feelings of exclusion and marginalisation.

Our research addresses this injustice, not on behalf of disempowered groups but in partnership and solidarity with them. Through the medium of nature writing, Filipina women will articulate their unique knowledges, challenges, and experiences of the natural environment and voice their concerns to local, national and international bodies. As explained in the Pathways document, this will be achieved through a combination of writing activities, cultural performance, and film. The work is integrated with the efforts of two Filipino organisations, a governmental agency, and a global policy body (detail provided in Pathways).

Who will benefit?

The beneficiaries of this project are, first and foremost, the women who will participate in the research directly. By extension, their local communities will also benefit from the women's enhanced position and their defense of the local environment. Institutional beneficiaries include the two organisations (the Center for Environmental Concerns and the National Coalition of Rural Women) with whom this project is partnered. We have worked closely with these organisations throughout project design, and they anticipate that the research findings will be useful in their national activities (e.g. contributions to the State of the Philippine Environment document) and international engagements (e.g. the "Shadow Report" to the United Nations CEDAW committee).

In what ways will they benefit?

The women will benefit from the empowerment agenda of the nature writing workshops. The programme is designed to equip participants with skills and confidence to defend their environmental rights, and the dissemination strategy (cultural performance, popular writing, and film) is designed to amplify their all-too-often marginalised voices.

The partner organisations will benefit in two ways: directly from the research findings, which will inform their advocacy work, and indirectly by establishing new lines of communication and means of ongoing creative engagement with their constituent communities. Since the aims and objectives of this project were developed in consultation with the organisations, the findings will be directly applicable to their respective missions and activities. The research results will, therefore, be easily deployed in the organisations' active policy agendas. Further to this, the organisations will be equipped to replicate the workshop model we pilot, and thus scale up the work we do.

Finally, the cultural performance that is the culmination of this project will be delivered to an audience that includes local and national public officials (details on our access to these individuals and how this event will be coordinated are provided in the Pathways document). This "showcase event" will present the research findings and policy recommendations in a compelling and emotionally evocative manner. It is intended to educate, influence, and move policy makers on the environmental issues that mean the most to the women involved in the project. As part of the event, the officials in attendance will receive a "policy pack" that includes recommended policy actions. We will deliver a convincing, contemporary, and context-specific plea for environmental protection and women's empowerment that is accompanied by an actionable policy agenda.