“It’s actually a unique feeling if you see it in individual. The images can’t justify how magnificent the Rufous-headed hornbill is,” mentioned Jann Vinze ‘Javie’ Barcinal on his first sighting of the elusive however iconic chicken.
The Rufous-headed hornbill (Rhabdotorrhinus waldeni) or the Dulungan Hornbill is critically endangered and solely discovered within the rainforests of the Philippine islands of Panay and Negros. Barcinal explains that they’re thought-about “farmers of the forest” – these birds disperse seeds all through the forest ground as they search for fruits to feed on, regardless of being omnivores.
The younger nature conservationist instructed Eco-Enterprise he grew up listening to mythologies and folklore carefully intertwined with the pure environment, and believes that the tales not solely helped him deeply join with nature but additionally gave him the urge to guard the ecosystems that formed them. In July 2019, he based the grassroots organisation Dulungan Youth in Vintage, one of many 4 provinces on Panay, to advertise environmental consciousness amongst younger folks and spearhead community-led conservation of the hornbill.
Primarily based on latest knowledge by conservation group Birdlife Worldwide, only one,000 to 2,499 people of the Dulungan Hornbill stay within the wild, and they’re threatened by unlawful logging and poaching. Underneath the Republic Act No. 9147 or the Wildlife Sources Conservation and Safety Act within the Philippines, poaching and getting into protected areas for exploitative actions are unlawful. Nevertheless, lots of people don’t even know of the hornbill’s significance, regardless of it being recognised because the provincial chicken of Vintage.
Jann teaches hornbill conservation by means of artistic storytelling in one among Dulungan Youth’s workshops. This session was held in a classroom in Magsaysay, Culasi, Vintage province. Picture: Dulungan Youth.
Most not too long ago, Dulungan Youth led “Paglaum” workshops the place youth individuals created animation movies to clarify the significance of stakeholder collaboration to guard the hornbill. Paglaum stands for hope in Cebuano, a neighborhood language in Vintage province. Throughout 5 workshops from June to October 2023, Dulungan Youth impressed a minimum of 100 native youths to behave in conservation by means of artwork and ecology.
Efforts to deal with communication and inventive storytelling began in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, the provincial authorities of Vintage, suggested by conservation teams, declared each August – coinciding with the tip of the Dulungan Hornbill’s breeding season – Dulungan Month; when Covid-19 hit and a lockdown was imposed, it felt like this is able to cease efforts, however Barcinal instructed Eco-Enterprise the group was not deterred and determined to make use of the chance to shift its consciousness campaigns to social media platforms, assisted by “work-from-home volunteers”.
Throughout 4 years, 32 community-based campaigns had been held each on-line and in-person, and Dulungan Youth engaged with as much as 1,000 folks throughout totally different stakeholder teams.
Within the first Dulungan Month, one of many group’s members reported on the group platform {that a} juvenile hornbill had been held captive as a pet in a village, and this led to the hornbill’s rescue. The show of sturdy group belief impressed the authorities and Dulungan Youth was invited to take part in discussions of conservation insurance policies and initiatives with the native Division of Setting and Pure Sources (DENR). The rescued hornbill was rehabilitated and launched into the wild after a yr or two {of professional} care.
This juvenile Rufous-headed hornbill was saved from unlawful captivity as a pet. The case was found and reported by Dulungan Youth throughout their annual Dulungan Month consciousness campaigns. Picture: Jann Vinze Barcinal.
For the following few years, Dulungan Youth will push for extra inclusive conservation insurance policies and decentralised conservation areas by means of their programmes, Barcinal shared, including that he has secured funding to spearhead a one-year pilot in his hometown in Culasi, Vintage. This can contain establishing a conservation hub and group nursery for hornbill conservation.
Barcinal instructed Eco-Enterprise he desires to incentivise communities to surrender their exploitative actions to take care of their various livelihoods in ecotourism and nursery work.
“Dulungan Youth for me is a private motion to shift the present paradigms of conservation in Vintage to grow to be extra inclusive and holistic,” he mentioned.
Jann’s conservation efforts earned him an award in Creators of Hope – Younger Heroes for Ecology in Asia Pacific by the Jesuit Convention of Asia Pacific. He’s additionally amongst 10 winners aged 30 and beneath recognised by the Eco-Enterprise Sustainability Management Youth A-Record 2023 for his modern conservation efforts to safeguard the critically endangered Rufous-headed hornbill.
On this interview, he shares extra about his conservation work and his ideas about assist youth overcome local weather anxiousness.
What do you suppose makes Panay Island and Vintage province stunning?
Vintage is called the province the place the mountains meet the ocean. I can simply stroll for 5 minutes from my home and I’m already by the ocean; with a 10-minute bike experience, I’m on the foothills of the mountains. I grew up experiencing and seeing firsthand the range of life.
At the moment, Panay Island has eight per cent forest cowl remaining. Most of it’s situated within the Northern a part of my residence province within the Central Panay Mountains Key Biodiversity Space. The world is residence to various endemic species. There are these flagship species that we name the Panay ‘massive 5’. Aside from the Rufous-headed Hornbill, there are additionally the Panay Monitor Lizard, the Visayan Warty Pig, the Visayan Noticed Deer and the Rafflesia speciosa. All 5 could be seen in Vintage, and it says quite a bit about how various and wealthy in wildlife this province is.
We deal with this biodiversity as our cultural treasure. Past the safety of nature, we additionally need to defend our relationship and powerful reference to nature.
What do you inform youth that you just work with concerning the cultural significance and ecological worth of the Rufous-headed Hornbill?
The Rufous-headed Hornbill’s title [in Hiligaynon, an Austronesian regional language spoken in the Philippines] is “dulungan”. Its direct translation is “togetherness” in English. Dulungan displays on the significance of Vintage as a complete provincial group and its cultural worth. It additionally displays how artistic and creative the individuals are as a result of Vintage has a whole lot of tradition, and it’s embedded in nature, within the mountains of Vintage, within the type of mythology and folklore.
As an organisation, with Dulungan as a part of our title, even when it’s unplanned, it illustrates how we prioritise the values of collaboration and collectiveness in biodiversity conservation. As a result of we work collectively, our tales in Vintage are one way or the other interconnected on this massive tapestry.
How do you’re feeling about local weather anxiousness and the psychological wrestle that our technology faces as we endure destruction to nature, biodiversity and our communities?
Throughout one among our Paglaum workshops, this subject got here up and individuals shared how they felt so hopeless, like their particular person efforts can’t do a lot. I noticed how local weather anxiousness was affecting the younger folks in Vintage. Apart from typhoons, storms, forest fires and landslides that we expertise quite a bit in Vintage, younger folks see first-hand the ecological destruction of the forest. The environmental situation is so massive and so broad. It takes a very long time to see an impression on the bottom [when you do conservation work] and typically it may be a little bit bit discouraging, particularly at occasions after I’m impatient.
However that’s the place hope comes into play. To see hope for a future the place every thing is simply thriving, with people co-existing with nature. That’s the reason I’m additionally into community-led conservation — to create extra collective motion from that hope. So, on the very core of what I need to do is to make extra avenues and areas for younger folks and communities to take possession of that hope and translate it into collective motion. We all know that the ecological disaster is worsening however we don’t should strategy it in concern.
How do you persuade youths at Dulungan Youth and even exploitative companies to guard the Dulungan hornbill?
We have to work collectively and put aside variations, and on the similar time, stray away from solely capitalistic and individualistic pondering. We have to suppose that present points in local weather change and grassroots conservation will have an effect on us in the long run. We want everybody’s assist, not solely from communities, not solely from native governments but additionally from companies and companies.
The interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
Jann Vinze Barcinal was one among 10 sustainability leaders chosen for the Eco-Enterprise A-Record 2023. Learn our tales on different A-Record winners right here.
