Transition Phillipines focus on urban agriculture
By rob hopkins 11th March 2014
Transition Communities Initiative Philippines (or Kaya Natin Magbago Pagsama Sama) in Nuevo Ecija (NE) province in the Philippines are in process of developing a Permaculture demonstration site, fish ponds, development of production of coconut products. During March they will also be advancing Transition with six to eight municipalities in NE to raise awareness of what is involved. Meanwhile they also have an urban project about which you can find the background on their revamped web site. Julie Viloria and Adrian Atkinson take up the story:
I (Julie) once worked for the National Housing Authority (NHA) and we still have an apartment built decades ago in what is now a housing estate of around 3,200 people in a state of decay but with much mature vegetation. Transition now means centre city action and we are just helping initiate what we hope will become a vibrant city farm in the interstices/balconies of the estate.
We held an initiating event and find we have enormous enthusiasm, knowledge and expertise in everything from GIS (inventory what is on the estate) to growing of herbs and vegetables – to complement the hundred plus mango and other fruit trees on the estate – and in the fun organization of events.
Quezon City (where we are) is the largest municipality in Metro Manila and the young Vice-Mayor is herself into urban farming, promoting this as a municipal policy, and will provide support as a ‘pilot project’ (though some residents are suspicious that this will get used as a ‘political’ project). Already there are many on the estate who are already balcony and small garden farmers who know what works and what doesn’t work and who are composting their own waste – which we will extend to an estate-wide practice. Only organic, and step-by step towards permaculture…
There is immense enthusiastic about ‘greening’ the estate (actually already quite green) and doing urban agriculture, at creating jobs (income and poverty are a big problem in the wider neighbourhood) and recreating what had over the years become a moribund community – adjacent to a huge shopping mall that became everyone’s inhuman place to shop-shop-shop, thence retreating to the isolation of the urban apartment…
On the 8th March we held something close to a Grand Unleashing. We brought in some associates from the provinces to do some clearing up and painting and the Municipality sent their staff and lots of seedlings and other materials to demonstrate what might be done. Not everyone was happy with how things were steamrollered in with inadequate previous discussion and after a day of presentations and food and generally involvement, in the evening hazardous negotiations took place with regard to ‘communication’ and ‘responsibility’ etc. A difficult take-off, but in the end a determination to work in new ways and to be active…