“We encourage the Filipino public to go green this Christmas,” said Leon Dulce, campaign coordinator of Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE).
In a press conference on December 14, green groups Kalikasan PNE, Metro Manila-wide network Nilad, advocacy group BAN Toxics, and the UP Diliman-based General Assembly of Environmental Advocates (GAEA) enumerated the following holiday celebration and gift ideas:
- Bring your families to the last remaining ‘green spaces’ across the Metropolitan sprawl, such as the remaining mangrove forests in the Las Pinas-Paranaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area and the Tanza Marine Tree Park in Navotas, and the Arroceros Forest Park in Manila. There is also the recently opened National Museum of Natural History, where one can learn ecological knowledge from its collections on botany, geology, and zoology.
- Refrain from buying the latest versions of gadgets and appliances to reduce the fast-growing amount of electronic waste generated in the country. There are many cottage industries and startups focusing on recycling or upcycling materials, as well as other sustainable production industries such as organic farms and fair-trade markets.
- Make sure to keep celebration events trash-free. In the widely popular Lantern Parade annually held at the University of the Philippines – Diliman campus, student councils and organizations launched the #LanternParadeChallenge campaign to keep the celebration trash-free. A lot of volunteers have signed up to help remind Lantern Parade audiences to dispose their trash properly and to clean up any stray trash that find their way into the campus grounds.
- Spend your extra money and time with grassroots communities working on environmental issues. There are peace and solidarity missions facilitating psychosocial therapy, gift-giving, and solidarity exchanges to communities in the provinces of Batangas and Nueva Vizcaya between December 18 and 24. There will also be a gift-giving activity to indigenous Lumad communities in Mindanao from December that will depart from Metro Manila on December 16. These are communities campaigning against large-scale mines, coal power plants, and other big business projects that were affected by militarization.
- Help spread the word on social media about environmental defenders who may be unable to join their loved ones this Christmas. At present, there are at least 17 environmental defenders who remain unjustly imprisoned for opposing ecologically destructive projects and programs. The latest case was of Sherwin de Vera, an environmentalist and researcher from Ilocos who was illegally arrested just last December 12 while he was on his way home to his family, a clear form of harassment of advocates who go up against powerful economic and political interests.
Nilad launched a ‘Green Walk’ in Arroceros Park on December 9, so-called last lung of Manila, now threatened to be demolished for school facilities to be built. They are set to visit other remaining ‘green spaces’ in Metro Manila in their ‘Green Walk’ campaign.
Other ‘Green Christmas’ ideas various environment groups and netizens have posted on the internet include using sustainable or reusable materials as gift wrapping, making your own decorations or turning your recyclables into decorations, buying locally grown food, storing well and finishing off leftovers before they go bad, using compostable materials rather than plastic, making a recycling point at home given the expected accumulation of more trash this season, etc.
Some ‘Green Christmas’ gift ideas include: making your own gifts, giving eco-friendly gifts, giving an experience rather than an object, giving plants, giving fair trade consumables, etc.
