UP Baguio native plant advocates initiate plant exchange

December 7, 2020 Community Billboard

The University of the Philippines Baguio (UPB) Native Plants Committee initiated a program called Cordilleran Traditional Plant Exchange as part of the 2020 Ibagiw Creative Festival’s Art in Sunshine Park event, morning of Sunday, 29 November 2020.
The program, Cordilleran Traditional Plant Exchange, according to Ms. Sher Guinid of BACCI and Pasakalye, is inspired by the tradition of sharing and caring among Cordillerans, specifically the
traditional system of sharing seeds, seedlings and plants. The program thus aims to revive the tradition of old and re-introduce it to our times in the hopes to educate the public about the importance of native plants.
The plant exchange program is an activity to engage people to look into the matter of patronizing native plants and related concerns of sustainability as well as forest protection and conservation. The plant exchange activity held is symbolic. The organizers hope to show that we can re-introduce these traditions as a means of advocating the cause for native plants and the promotion of natural ecosystem diversity.
During the program, Prof. Zenaida Baoanan, PhD, member of the UPB Native Plants Committee, reminded the public of our love for plants and of the fact that they have an important role in our lives. Dr. Baoanan also recalled that pine trees give the city of Baguio and the Cordillera region a distinct character. She also shared that before the dominance of pine trees, the region used to be an oak-dominated area. The word “bagiw,” a kind of moss, from which Baguio’s name was supposedly derived, is suggestive of a mossy forest.
Dr. Baoanan, who also coordinates for UPB’s Master of Science in Conservation and Restoration Ecology program, further opined what might have happened to the oaks and emphasized the need for more research in order to provide evidence-based explanations.
She follows this up with the Anthropocene epoch which accounts human activities impacting on our planet’s climate and ecosystems. Meanwhile, Prof. Jocelyn Floresca, also a member of the committee, shared with the audience the definition of native plants. According to her, these are plants that have been in a certain area for a very long time without human interventions and have formed interconnections with other organisms which result in a balanced ecosystem. Prof. Floresca also expressed that the activity is held with the hopes that forest protection and conservation as well as the cause of native plant species are promoted with the cumulative efforts from a supportive community.
The plant exchange, an activity which take the form of both the literal barter of plants and the sharing of insights, will cap the “Mula Shi Ili” event day long, Sunday, 29 November 2020. The event includes an exhibit of photographs of native plants and a showcasing of some of the native plant-based goods produced by a team of UP Baguio researchers led by award-winning educator and scientist, Dr. Teodora Balangcod.
The project, “Harnessing the potential of plant resources of the Cordillera for drug discovery and promoting the use of indigenous wild plants and underutilized and neglected food crops as alternative food source and livelihood of local communities,” is a recipient of a Commission on Higher Education (CHED) DARETO grant.
The products include candies, ice cream, noodles, cookies, tarts, seasonings, and ointments using native plants as bases such as ube, littuko, and chesa. Symbolizing the collaborative efforts and important roles of different sectors of society, the organizers presented native plants to representatives of the public including the academe and the media. The committee thus presented native plants as tokens to Dr. Raymundo Rovillos, Dr. Teodora Balangcod, Dr. Baoanan, Prof. Floresca, and Ms. Liezl Dunuan.
UPB Biology instructor and Native Plants Committee member, Mr. Geno Pagaduan, on behalf of committee head Mr. Maverick Tamayo, expressed thanks to the public in participating in all the
activities of “Mula Shi Ili” (plants of the homeland). He likewise thanked the Ibagiw 2020 organizers for including the “Mula Shi Ili” among the highlights of Art in Sunshine Park.
UPB Chancellor Dr. Rovillos also noted that the Art in Sunshine Park event is the most inclusive and multisector component of the 2020 Ibagiw festival. He further expressed that the
Sunshine park activities are a realization of a vision and a concept of a kind of community engagement that UP has been doing. Being among the events at the khawa (center) of the festival, as the 2020 Ibagiw concept puts it, Art in Sunshine Park shows the significance of community engagement, the role of creatives and the academe, and collaboration among all sectors. This is what is manifested in advocacies such as that of the Native Plants Committee and those of the Ibagiw fest.
JL Lazaga/UP Baguio Public Affairs