Focus on Arts and Ecology

A new global study of lakes shows water levels falling and finds a global warming fingerprint.

By Bob Berwyn, May 18, 2023

Water storage in many of the world’s biggest lakes has declined sharply in the last 30 years, according to a new study, with a cumulative drop of about 21.5 gigatons per year, an amount equal to the annual water consumption of the United States. 

The loss of water in natural lakes can “largely be attributed to climate warming,” a team of scientists said as they published research today in Science that analyzed satellite data from 1,980 lakes and reservoirs between 1992 and 2020. When they combined the satellite images with climate data and hydrological models, they found “significant storage declines” in more than half of the bodies of water. 

The combination of information from different sources also enabled the scientists to determine if the declines are related to climate factors, like increased evaporation and reduced river flows, or other impacts, including water diversions for agriculture or cities. A quarter of the world’s population lives in basins where lakes are drying up, they warned.

Vanishing lakes have already caused starvation and dislocation, and increased the potential for international conflict, including in Africa, where Lake Chad is drying up, as well as in South America, where Bolivia’s Rhode Island-sized Lake Poopó, once the nation’s second largest body of water, disappeared over the last few decades.

The study identifies the southwestern U.S. as a troubled area, confirming the challenges spurred by dwindling water supplies in the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Powell and Lake Meade on the Colorado River.

The new study showed lake water storage loss prevailed across major global regions including much of interior Asia and the Middle East, northeastern Europe, as well Oceania, North and South America and southern Africa. A total of 457 natural lakes had significant water losses of about 38 gigatons per year, while 234 lakes showed water storage gains and 360—about a third of the studied lakes—showed no significant change.

​​Only about one-third of the total decline of water storage in drying lakes is offset by increases in other lakes, and the water bodies with rising levels are mainly in remote and sparsely populated regions like the Inner Tibetan Plateau, the Northern Great Plains in the U.S., and the Great Rift Valley in Africa. These storage increases were driven mainly by changes in precipitation and runoff, the study concluded.

Uncertainty About the Great Lakes

The research did not find a climate warming fingerprint affecting the Great Lakes, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. During the 1992-2020 study period, water levels in the Great Lakes dropped steeply and then increased sharply again due to big swings in rainfall. The researchers’ analysis didn’t show a global warming signal, said lead author Fangfang Yao, who studies surface water changes at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Lake Michigan-Huron shows no trend during our study period. Lakes Superior and Erie both of them show an overall increasing trend, suggesting the greater role of natural climate variability,” Yao said.

While the research didn’t show their water levels significantly affected by global warming, the Great Lakes are being impacted by other climate extremes. Ice cover has declined significantly, lake temperatures have warmed and seasonal overturning water cycles have changed, making some parts of them more susceptible to toxic algal blooms and fish die-offs. The study raises warnings about multiple compounding climate impacts, said co-author Balaji Rajagopalan, associate chair of the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The federal government’s 2018 National Climate Assessment projects the levels of Lakes Michigan and Huron will probably fall 6 inches by 2100, with other Great Lakes dropping by smaller amounts, but the assessment cautions that there is still a lot of uncertainty in those projections.

Increasing Lake Sediment Cuts Storage 

Nearly two-thirds of all large reservoirs covered in the study experienced significant storage declines, but the picture is complicated by the fact that reservoirs overall showed a net increase in storage, due to the filling of newly created water storage lakes. 

Declines in the amount of water stored in reservoirs filled before 1982 “can be largely attributed to sedimentation,” the study found. “Globally, sedimentation-induced storage loss offsets more than 80% of the increased storage from new dam construction.” 

The study’s findings suggest that sediment build up is the main cause of the storage decline in existing reservoirs globally, the authors wrote, with a larger impact than variability in the climate’s water cycle.

The new study helps connect the climate change dots of global warming impacts to lakes, Rajagopalan said. The unique global lakes dataset came from “meticulously stitching disparate satellite information into a coherent time series of lake levels. Now we have this long, contiguous and homogeneous time series,” he said. “So now you can look at trends.” 

The large-scale decline in global surface water has real impacts for local populations across many regions of the world, said University of Oregon geographer and water researcher Sarah Cooley, who was not involved in the study.

“Many of these local populations are dependent on lake water storage, whether for water supply, fishing and food supply, hydropower, irrigation, navigation, recreation,” she said. “I think the major takeaway of this study is that drying trends in lakes are prevalent worldwide, and perhaps more so than previously thought.”

The findings complicate the “wet gets wetter” paradigm of global warming by identifying declines in lake water storage in humid regions, she added.

“This is an important finding,” she said. “It emphasizes the fact that we should not expect increases in water availability in humid regions to offset declines in lake water storage in arid regions.”

The decline of lake water storage documented by the new research could also have other climate effects, said Benjamin Kraemer, a lake researcher at the University of Konstanz, in Germany, who was not involved in the study.

“We already know that when water levels decrease, sediments that were previously submerged become exposed to the air,” Kraemer said. “This exposure can spark microbial activity and decomposition of organic matter in the sediments leading to the release of CO2, methane, and other gases. Thus, decreased water levels can potentially increase greenhouse gas emissions from exposed sediments. The drop in water levels documented in the study could have large implications for climate change.”

He said dropping water levels can exacerbate other environmental threats. “Many of the lakes shown as declining by the study are also facing changes in temperature, nutrients, neobiota, and pollution,” he said. “Merging all of these stressors into a complete picture of threats to lakes remains a major challenge ahead for lake science.”

(Sources: Inside Climate News)

With the mercury rising in India's capital, New Delhi, electricity demand is touching new heights. The state government expects peak demand to touch 8,000 megawatts (MW) by June or July 2023, beating last year's record high of 7,695MW by about 4%. The burning of fossil fuels, which fire power plants that supply nearly two-thirds of this need, adds to Delhi’s deteriorating air quality leaving it trapped in a vicious cycle of rising temperature and electricity demand.

Although the Delhi government has taken initiatives to serve this demand through renewable energy and rationalise demand by promoting energy efficiency, there is room for improvement if the state wants to lead the country in terms of electricity transition.

The state must aggressively pursue solar power targets, promote sustainable practices in various sectors and participate more in green electricity markets. For this, the well-planned use of the Rs33.48 billion (US$407 million) allotted to the energy sector in Delhi's budget for 2023-24 is crucial.

Need to ramp up renewables

Delhi's peak power demand has increased rapidly as its electricity consumers grew 83% between 2011 and 2021. As a result, the state's peak demand in the financial year (FY) 2021-22 was 52.4% higher (7,323MW) than FY2010-11 (4,810MW).

Renewable energy had a key role in Delhi's ability to serve the peak demand. But far from resting on its laurels, the state needs to accelerate renewable energy deployment and buy more clean energy by participating in green market mechanisms.

Currently, Delhi's state electricity distribution companies (DISCOMs) have power purchase agreements for 8,115MW. Of this, only 32,67% (2,560MW) comes from renewable energy.

Similarly, Delhi also utilized just 13.86% of its renewable energy potential as of March 2023. With an installed capacity of 302MW, it met just 11% of its renewable energy target by December 2022.

Moving in the right direction

The state has taken steps to add to its renewable energy generation capacity. By 31 March 2023, its renewable energy capacity rose to 302MW.

Delhi is also the only state to shut down all its thermal power plants and shift its industry to clean fuels. The state's draft solar policy, unveiled in 2022, set an ambitious target of installing 6,000MW of solar capacity by 2025, which will comprise 750MW of rooftop solar and 5,250MW of utility-scale projects outside Delhi.

The time is now to make efforts to achieve the ambitious targets. With the current rooftop installed capacity of approximately 208MW, Delhi needs approximately an annual capacity increase of 24% in the next three years to meet the 750MW target. This will need the implementation of models such as hybrid renewable energy service company (RESCO), community solar and peer-to-peer trading. This will help aggregate the demand and resources from small rooftop owners.

Delhi will also need financial incentives like partial guarantee funds, credit guarantee funds and green bonds to raise funds for achieving these targets.

Until Delhi ramps up its renewable energy generation capacity, the state should look at alternatives to procure clean power.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis highlighted in the recent State Electricity Transition (SET) report that the contribution of green electricity markets, like the green day ahead market (GDAM), in Delhi's renewable energy mix is relatively small. The report found that the state only purchased and sold 303 million units (MU) and 3.46MU, respectively, in the GDAM through power exchanges.

Delhi should look to procure more renewable energy through GDAM, as the platform will play a significant role in the future.

Effective demand-side measures

Apart from the supply-side measures to ramp up renewable energy capacity and phase-out fossil fuels, the Delhi government is also making efforts on the demand side to promote energy efficiency.

The state government has promoted using energy-efficient building codes to tackle construction dust and better appliances that consume less electricity. It has also done well by installing 378,992 LED streetlights across Delhi as of 28 April 2023.

LED streetlights are another tool for state governments to save electricity. At a national level, LED streetlights have helped save 8,857MUs per year and avoided 1,476 MW of peak demand. In addition, 13,419,641 LED bulbs distributed in Delhi under the UJALA scheme resulted in state-level energy and cost savings of 1,742,769 MWh and Rs6.97 billion (US$ 0.85bn) per year, respectively. 

Further, the state has successfully installed 259,071 smart meters out of the sanctioned 259,713 under the National Smart Mission. Such demand-side measures help monitor, track and optimise the electricity bills ensuring effective utilization of each generated electron.

The SET report identified several impediments to Delhi's transition, including a low percentage of renewables in the power mix (9%), untapped renewable potential (86%), unmet renewables target for December 2022 (88%), and limited participation in green market mechanisms. Despite having the right resources and the distribution and transmission infrastructure, progress has been slow. The state must accelerate the adoption of rooftop solutions and hybrid projects (renewable + battery storage) to guarantee round-the-clock power (RTC) and overcome the aforementioned barriers.  

While Delhi has taken some steps towards a clean electricity transition, there is no doubt that the state lags in several areas. Setting ambitious targets for renewable energy capacity addition is the right move, but the government must also take steps to achieve those targets. At the same time, it must also not lose momentum in promoting energy efficiency. Electricity demand will keep rising in the years to come, and the only sustainable option for Delhi is to use more renewables to serve its consumers.

May 19, 2023 

The three taikonauts aboard China's Tiangong space station will have company soon. The China Manned Space Agency says the Shenzhou-16 spaceship will bring a fresh three-person crew to replace them this month.

The Shenzhou-16 ship is already at the launch site. This will be the fifth crewed mission to the space station. The Shenzhou-16 taikonauts will stay aboard for six months before the Shenzhou-17 crew replaces them in October.

(Sources: China Report)

May 19, 2023 

China’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, made a two-day visit to Ukraine this week in an attempt to build trust and create conditions for peace talks.

Li met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as well as Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. In a statement issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Li said, “There is no panacea to resolve the crisis.” Li also emphasized the importance of the 12-point paper released by China stating its position on the political settlement of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

The trip comes about three weeks after a phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and President Zelenskyy in which the Chinese leader renewed Beijing's commitment to standing on the side of peace.

The Chinese envoy traveled from Kyiv to Warsaw for talks with Polish officials. He was also to travel to France, Germany and Russia. A visit to EU headquarters in Brussels was a late addition to his itinerary.

(Sources: China Report)

May 19, 2023 

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday sent a congratulatory message to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, the rotating president of the Council of the Arab League, on the 32nd Arab League summit in Jeddah.

At the summit, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad was welcomed back after being cut off from most of the Arab community for over 12 years.

Though the warming ties may signal a new approach to dealing with Assad, the feeling is not shared by all. Some Western countries consider him a war criminal for using chemical weapons against his own people, an accusation he denies.

What does Syria’s return to the Arab fold mean for the region, its security, and the leader himself? 

More headlines:

· In an unexpected move, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended the summit before he headed to the G7 in Japan.

· Zelenskyy presented a 10-point peace plan to the delegates and asked for support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

· The Gulf states have maintained a neutral stance in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

(Sources: China Report)

May 19, 2023 

China and the five nations of Central Asia have charted a new blueprint for relations at a milestone summit in Xi'an.

It was no coincidence that the northwestern Chinese city was chosen to host the two-day meeting. More than 2,100 years ago, a Han Dynasty envoy set off from Chang'an, now Xi'an, to open the door to exchanges between China and the people to its west.

Chinese President Xi Jinping was joined by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

In his keynote address, Xi told the leaders that the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of their countries must be safeguarded. And he said Central Asia and China should continue taking the lead in Belt and Road cooperation. Here are key quotes from Xi's speech. You can also read the full text. Two experts discuss the significance of the summit here.  

All six leaders signed the Xi'an Declaration in which they pledged to build a closer community with a shared future. They also agreed to increase people-to-people exchanges. And the two sides, China and the Central Asian countries, will take turns hosting biennial summits, with the next one planned for Kazakhstan in 2025.

More headlines:

· Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov flew from Xi'an to Beijing to continue a state visit to China at the invitation of President Xi. The two leaders had a bilateral meeting during the Xi'an summit.

· Xi also held bilateral talks with the presidents of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

· Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev is no stranger to China, having studied and worked there for almost a decade. In the lead-up to the summit, he sat down with Wang Guan from CGTN's Leaders Talk program for an exclusive interview.

· One of the agreements emerging from the summit was an increase in student exchanges. Central Asian students in China opened up to CGTN about language, culture and why they love China, and the importance of the Belt and Road Initiative.

(Sources: China Report)

 This big China environmental story, 12–18 May

Various regions of China are experiencing abnormal weather this month, including extreme heat, rainfall and drought.
 
In some parts of the country, these conditions have followed one another in quick succession, in what are known as “compound events”.
 
On 6 May, the temperature exceeded 41C in the Changjiang and Lingao counties of Hainan, China’s southernmost island, according to the Hainan Provincial Climate Center. 
 
A drought has lasted for several months in the southern parts of south-western China, mainly in some areas of Yunnan, and will continue on through May, the National Meteorological Administration predicted.
 
In early May, heavy rain hit Hunan and Fujian, where Beijing News described it as “pouring water”, and Jiangxi and Guizhou. 
 
Jiangxi, in central China, seemed to suffer most, with about 10 counties experiencing torrential rain, and a river embankment breaching in Yichun city. About 540,000 people in seven cities in the province were affected by the disaster, and 16,000 people were evacuated, stated Jiangxi’s emergency management department. 
 
In Fujian, four officials fell into a river after a bridge collapsed and lost contact, reported CCTV (China Central Television).
 
In the first week of May, 21 rivers burst their banks in Jiangxi and Fujian, statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources showed. Among these, two experienced their largest floods on record.
 
In the second week of May, northern China experienced very hot weather. Beijing and surrounding provinces and cities, as well as Xinjiang, all reached temperatures above 35C. At the same time, Jiangxi’s government announced that after several days of temperatures hitting 33C, heavy rain is coming again in some areas this week. 
 
The succession of extreme weathers in Jiangxi is consistent with compound events. The IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) analysed such events for the first time in its sixth assessment report (2021). Compound events give communities little time to recover, Zhai Panmao, one of the report’s authors, has explained.

In a paper published early this year, some scholars proposed the concept of intraseasonal “compound whiplash event”, meaning an abrupt swing between warm–dry and rainy conditions. Climate change is making such whiplash events more frequent and more intense, particularly in East Asia, the authors found.
 
The National Fire and Rescue Administration pointed out this week that extreme weather is frequent this year, and said “it is necessary to go all out in flood control and drought relief.”
 
However, the worst may be yet to come. The National Climate Center predicts that this summer the Central and Eastern Pacific will enter El Niño, meaning the intensity and duration of extreme weather events will likely increase in China.

(Sources: China Dialogue)

With bird flu spreading globally, some argue fur farming should be abolished to impede transmission to humans. 

By Catherine Early, May 16, 2023

Bird flu, or H5N1, has scientists and conservationists rattled. The current variant, which has been circulating among birds globally since 2020, is more deadly and spreading more rapidly than previous mutations of the virus. Some people have died after contracting it from birds, but so far no sustained human-to-human transmission has been identified.

Infections are also shifting from seasonal to year-round, and having a far greater impact on wild birds, according to a study by scientists at the University of Maryland. Its authors concluded that H5N1 will probably become endemic in the US, as it likely already is in Europe, and warned of risks to food security and the economy.

“This high pathogenic virus is wiping out everything in numbers that we’ve never seen before,” said Jennifer Mullinax, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland and a co-author of the study.

H5N1 viruses primarily infect domestic poultry, where they emerged, and wild birds. They have already had a devastating effect on wild bird populations. In the UK, conservationists have warned that bird flu could put the great skua at risk of extinction.

However, the viruses have also infected mammals, including badgers, black bears, bobcats, coyotes, dolphins, ferrets, foxes, lynx, minks, otters, pigs, polecats, raccoons, seals and skunks. In March 2023 alone, 3,487 sea lions died from the virus in Peru – equivalent to 3.29% of the population there.

Transmission between mammals has been limited, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). However, one outbreak has particularly worried scientists. In October 2022, mink on a farm in Galicia, Spain, started dying in higher than normal numbers. H5N1 had spread among the almost 52,000 animals, which were housed in 30 barns.

All the mink were culled over the next month. Farm workers were quarantined, and none tested positive for bird flu. Scientists studying the outbreak cited infected wild birds as the possible cause because the mink farm is partially open, and though there had been H5N1 cases in the region, it had not been found at poultry farms that provided food for the mink.

Mink are particularly under the spotlight because they are highly susceptible to human and avian flu viruses. Farmed for their fur, the animals are typically kept in crowded barns, increasing the risk of transmission. And their genetic similarity raises the risk of mutation. In short, mink appear to be particularly well placed as the species in which H5N1, currently mostly in birds, could mutate to be far more deadly to humans.

The risk was laid bare during the Covid-19 pandemic, when widespread outbreaks of the virus in mink farms demonstrated that not only did it circulate widely among mink, but also mutated and then spread back to people.

Regarding bird flu, only six people have so far been reported as having had the current strain, all caught from direct exposure to infected poultry. Four were from Europe and North America, and had no symptoms or only mild clinical signs, but two from Asia had severe symptoms and died, according to the WHO.

Analysis of the H5N1 viruses from the Spanish mink farm has not found any indications that would point to increased ability to infect humans, according to Dr Tim Uyeki, chief medical officer of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a US public health agency.

An update by the agency in March confirmed that 10 people globally have contracted HPAI A(H5N1) since January 2022. Hundreds have died from H5N1 overall since 2003, and all were infected after coming into contact with poultry.

H5N1 viruses are not currently able to easily infect the human upper respiratory tract, which would be needed to increase the risk of transmission to people, Uyeki explained. The threat to human health depends on whether there were any genetic changes in the virus, and how these compared to existing H5N1 viruses circulating in birds, he added.

“While there was a genetic marker in the H5N1 viruses detected during the outbreak in mink in Spain that may have increased the amount of virus in infected mink, this marker is unlikely to make it easier for H5N1 virus to transmit to humans,” he said.

Humans lack the type of cell receptor in the upper respiratory tract that H5N1 viruses use to cause infection, he explained.

According to the WHO, the risk of infection for humans currently remains low and no sustained human-to-human transmission has been reported. However, it said it was continuing to monitor the situation alongside the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).

Nevertheless, some believe that the time is now right to ban mink farming globally. A growing number of countries have already outlawed the practice due to animal welfare concerns. Farmed mink are kept in tiny cages, which has led to eye and ear infections, deformed feet, repetitive pacing indicative of mental decline, and cannibalism, according to Humane Society International (HSI).

Momentum for a ban accelerated during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw mass culling of farmed mink. In Denmark in particular, more than 15 million mink were exterminated after the virus was found to have mutated in 200 mink farms.

“One of the few positive things to come out of the Covid period is an awareness of the consequences of intensively keeping animals,” said Joanna Swabe, senior director of public affairs for HSI in Europe. “Secondly, it has actually accelerated the decline of the fur industry.”

So far, 19 countries across Europe have banned the practice. It is still allowed in Finland, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Spain, Romania, Sweden, Denmark and Bulgaria, but the industry is in decline. The number of animals killed for fur in European countries had already fallen from 43.6 million in 2014 to 30.7 million in 2019 before the pandemic; by 2021 it had declined further to 12 million animals, according to HSI. Some 1,500 retailers, including Gucci, Adidas, H&M and Zara, have committed to eliminating use of fur.

Moves are underway for an outright ban at EU level. The European Commission is drafting legislative proposals to update and expand the scope of EU animal welfare legislation as part of its farming strategy, which campaigners argue is the perfect opportunity to include a ban on the fur trade across the EU.

A petition urging a ban, organised by animal rights campaigners, was signed by more than 1.7 million EU citizens, exceeding the number required for the commission to respond. Swabe was confident the campaign to abolish fur farming in Europe would succeed as the commission had already committed to end caged confinement for farmed animals.

“It will be very inconsistent if they stop people keeping chickens and pigs in cages, but still allow animals to be kept in tiny cages for fur. That’s not consistent and it’s not going to go down very well – they know which way the wind is blowing,” she said.

The situation is less clear in the US, where there is little regulation of fur farming, and submission of data to the US Department for Agriculture is voluntary. Bills have been introduced in Washington and Oregon to end fur production, but they failed to pass. An attempt by some animal protection groups to have farmed mink listed as “injurious” under the Lacey Act also failed. That would have prohibited the import and transport of live or dead mink and their parts, including fur, according to PJ Smith, director of fashion policy at HSI in the US.

An attempt was made to introduce a federal bill to abolish fur farming in 2021, but new proposals are in the offing that would introduce a buyout program to help mink farmers transition to alternative activities, Smith said.

Mink farming is also significant in China. In early 2020, China announced a complete ban on the consumption of terrestrial wild animals as food – including captive-bred wild animals – and a crackdown on the illegal wildlife trade. However, the ban did not cover non-food uses of wild animals, leaving farming for purposes such as fur and traditional medicine largely unaffected. Moreover, mink and several other species (including foxes and deer) used for fur and medicine were subsequently reclassified as “livestock” meaning they now fall outside the purview of China’s Wildlife Protection Law, and any farming restrictions imposed under it.   

Despite the continuation in some parts of the world of the farming of mink and other animals for fur, there have been scant attempts to bring the issue of wildlife consumption and trade into international agreements on pandemic preventions, including regarding a treaty currently under negotiation.

Discussions so far have mostly focused on outbreak surveillance, containment and response, rather than avoiding zoonotic (that is, animal-to-human) spillovers in the first place, according to a paper published in the Lancet Planetary Health.

Its authors urged a shift of focus to preventing such spillovers, since containment of outbreaks would become unfeasible given the acceleration of globalisation. The treaty should be “explicit about zoonotic spillover prevention and focus on improving coordination across four policy domains, namely public health, biodiversity conservation, food security, and trade”, it said.

Christian Walzer, executive director of health at the Wildlife Conservation Society said that the global community should collaborate to end fur farming. Ultimately, health should be viewed as a global good, he said.

“Health is not a cost, it’s an asset. We need to change the narrative. In a global context, we simply can’t afford to keep farmed mink, when we know they’re highly susceptible [to] groups of viruses which have pandemic potential,” he said. Since the demand for fur is dropping anyway, it really makes no sense to keep producing it, he added.

Swabe echoed these sentiments. Mink farms represent “a recipe for disease transmission”, she said. “Covid will be nothing compared to avian influenza if it took hold in human populations, so having populations of animals in captivity whose only purpose is to provide pelts for luxury products – is it worth the risks to human health and the health of the species that we keep for food?” she said.

By Keith Anthony S. Fabro, May 15, 2023 

Gloomy skies don’t dampen the spirit of Virginia Nazareno as she happily waters organic vegetables on an April morning in Kiday, a sitio or hamlet on the banks of the Agos River at the southern tip of the Sierra Madre mountain range.

“Our pechay are so big, customers are amazed,” the 66-year-old says, pointing the sprinkler to the foot-high leafy vegetables. “They say it’s their first time to see pechay as large as these.

“They ask what fertilizer do I apply? I reply, ‘It’s just organic materials, no chemical fertilizers,’” says Nazareno, the farmer-leader of the Kiday Community Farmers’ Association (KCFA).

The organization has 35 members, 30 of them women aged 30 and above, including Nazareno. Based in Quezon province on the Philippines’ main island of Luzon, the group was formed and introduced to organic farming in 2005 through the Social Action Center, a Catholic Church-led nonprofit. The assistance came following four successive tropical cyclones that battered the area in November 2004, causing the Agos River to swell, inundating homes and farms and killing more than 1,000 people.

In Kiday, a hamlet of around 50 households, this disaster led to a community shift from conventional to sustainable farming. After the three-year grant from the Social Action Center ended in 2007, the KCFA worked with MASIPAG, a nonprofit organization that since the 1980s has promoted agroecology through partnerships between scientists and farmers.

The Philippines’ agriculture sector has suffered weak growth over the years due to a host of factors, including farmers’ lack of access to inputs and markets, leading to widespread poverty in farming communities. MASIPAG says it hopes to address this by supporting agroecology practices with its nearly 600 partner organizations across the country.

“Organic farming is what we see as the most appropriate response to food scarcity and poverty in the agriculture sector, because in organic farming or agroecology in general, you don’t need many external inputs, and it enhances diversity in the community, making agroecosystem flourish,” MASIPAG Luzon coordinator Weng Buena tells Mongabay.

This type of sustainable farming, however, isn’t widely practiced in the Philippines, largely due to the government’s continued reliance on conventional farming and limited support for alternative methods. In Quezon, public investment in a mega dam project also threatens the propagation of this practice, and the perpetuity of community values it instills.

Agroecology practices

On a drizzling afternoon in April, KCFA members gather at the association’s center to prepare compost, a mix of organic materials helpful for soil nutrient management. One man switches on the government-donated grinding machine and feeds coconut husks into it. Then, two elderly women funnel the ground husks into a sack filled with fruit and vegetable peels and other biodegradable kitchen waste.

Kiday members also add into the mixture other nitrogen-rich organic materials like chicken manure, banana trunks, rice straws and grass clippings, and store the mixture for three to six months. When the compost is ready, they apply it on their communal farm to enrich their diverse vegetables, including okra, pechay, kale, eggplant, chili pepper, pole bean, cucumber and bitter gourd.

“We have seen and proven that our plants, our vegetables grow better and fuller with the use of organic compost — chemicals harden the soil, so we never use them,” Nazareno says. “If you are truly diligent, your farm will have a continuous source of compost, because as you plant you are storing organic fertilizer and this can be used in the next planting season while you’re using what you previously composted.”

This practice, in which crop residues are recycled and their nutrients added back to the soil, is a cost-effective and sustainable form of nutrient management, says Ma. Lourdes Edaño, a professor of sustainable agriculture at the University of the Philippines Los Banos.

“In organic agriculture, we want our farmers to build their resources within their farm, utilize it to make a closed system, wherein their resources are built up and used, resulting in minimal wastage within the farm,” Edaño tells Mongabay.

“The prices of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are usually increasing because we have to import this [from] outside our country,” Edaño says. “If farmers would be utilizing their own resources, this way, they do not have to keep on buying these external input[s].” Incorporating organic materials into the soil, she adds, increases its water-holding capacity and helps crops withstand droughts.

To continue feeding the crops with nutrients, the association produces its own liquid fertilizer that’s applied directly to the leaves, known as foliar fertilizer. It’s made from chopped banana stems, madre de cacao (a nitrogen-fixing tree), moringa and water spinach, which are rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients that support plant growth. These are fermented in a bucket for two weeks, after which a sardine can’s worth of concentrate is mixed with water in an 18-liter (4.8-gallon) knapsack sprayer and applied on crops twice a week.

“It’s a great feeling for us farmers whenever we see our crops growing and thriving,” Nazareno says. “You can’t contain the happiness because you finally see the benefits of cultivating the land. All the love and dedication you put into your crops for them to flourish are ultimately paying off.”

They also concoct a natural pest repellent instead of using chemical-based pesticides that kill beneficial insects and contaminate water bodies. One morning, women huddle around a wooden table beside a stream using bolo knives to mince chili pepper and leaves of madre de cacao and a variety of herbs, including lemongrass, oregano, basil, giloy and nami.

One elderly woman puts the concoction in a clay pot, mixing it with warm water and squeezing by hand to get its extracts. It’s left overnight, then the mixture is sprayed directly on the vegetables’ foliage to ward off worms, bugs and other harmful insects. The same mixture is also used on the organic rice farm behind of the community’s vegetable garden, where pest-repelling flowering plants like marigold also abound. “These are effective because we can see that our crops are not attacked by pests as much,” Nazareno says.

The group’s lowland organic vegetable and rice farms are surrounded by lush hills where agroforestry is practiced. Across the slopes, fruit-bearing and hardwood tree species are planted, a practice known as contour farming, which conserves rainwater and reduces soil erosion. The wide variety of trees attracts the return of wildlife, performing vital ecosystem functions that maintain stability in the area.

To retain seeds in the community, locals practice seed banking, both communally and individually. “We’re storing seeds, because how can you call yourself a farmer if you do not have your own seeds? Seed is life — it is the lifeline of farmers,” Nazareno says.

At the KCFA center, heirloom seeds are housed to support members and conserve seed diversity. They say this ensures the seeds they plant are natural, not genetically modified, unlike those distributed by the government to most farmers across the Philippines.

“I inherited these seeds from my ancestors,” Nazareno says. “It’s a must that you keep your own seeds so you don’t have to source it from anywhere, and since you’ve stored your own, you can plant crops any time during the planting season.”

An elderly woman reaps a bundle of mustard leaves she helped cultivate inside a greenhouse of the Kiday Farmers Community Association in Quezon province. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.

Social benefits

Bayanihan or communal unity and cooperation is a Filipino tradition, once practiced widely in the form of communal farming. But it has faded with modernization and private land ownership. Kiday is an exception. The practice remains alive here, helping each farmer weather the impacts of household and community challenges.

“[Agroecology] reduces the financial burden of the community members, and also enhances social structure, because going into this type of farming requires cooperation and support from each other, so those are the values restored by organic farming,” says Buena from MASIPAG.

Every day, members volunteer their effort and time to manage their communal farm. Early in the morning or late in the afternoon, some manually weed grasses growing in vegetable plots, while others water the crops. There are also members tasked with producing and applying compost, natural fertilizer and pest repellent.

In all these activities, women’s active participation is evident. “As women, we feel that our engagement is important, because we’re mothers and grandmothers who prepare food on the table,” Nazareno says. “Through our involvement in organic agriculture, we know that the food that we cook and feed our family is safe and diverse.”

In all the activities at the KCFA center, women’s active participation is evident. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.

Almost every household in Kiday maintains its own backyard vegetable garden. Surplus produce from the communal farm and homes are sold at the village and town centers, providing community members with cash income.

The KCFA has also ventured into food processing to produce cassava chips, ginger candy and tea, bignay wine, and jam both for local and international markets. Proceeds are shared equitably among members, with a portion returned to the communal fund to support farm management activities and charitable work.

During the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, the group and its agroecology practices proved their relevance to the community. Members extended their produce to households in nearby hamlets and villages, allowing them to survive through what would become some of the most stringent lockdowns anywhere. This, they say, has motivated others to establish their own backyard vegetable gardens.

Giving back to the community is part of the KFCA’s practice. Each May, the association invites people from other communities to join in its festival called patikim, meaning “taste.” During this annual festivity, members cook their traditional vegetable- and coconut-based cuisines to feed the attendees, who also return home with takeaway vegetables.

In her backyard organic vegetable garden, Arlene Nazareno, a village nutritionist and member of the Kiday Farmers Community Association, harvests pechay for dinnertime with her family. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.

Limitations

While organic farming is promising, it has its share of challenges. For one, it’s more labor-intensive than its conventional counterpart, and organic farmers’ perseverance and diligence are put to test. It requires months or even years of conditioning the soil and periodically controlling weeds and pests to enjoy bountiful harvests. In a country where the poverty rate among farmers is 30%, the upfront time investment and delayed financial returns can be a barrier to people already living hand to mouth.

Kiday farmers say they’d rather make the extra effort because they can’t afford to go into conventional farming and risk getting mired in debt. Conventional farmers, according to Nazareno, have been conditioned since the country’s “green revolution” in the 1960s to use heavy chemical inputs to improve agricultural productivity, thus many end up applying for loans. If their farming fails and their household financial responsibilities accumulate, they have a hard time paying up, leading some to pawn their land to loan sharks to free them from debt.

It’s true, Nazareno says, that their first two years of doing organic farming were disheartening. Despite the extreme effort required, the method didn’t give them yields comparable to conventional farming.

Experts say this low yield is part of the early stages of organic farming adoption. “We often remind the farmers, especially if they’re coming from conventional transitioning to organic, do not expect that it will be equal from the get-go,” says Edaño, the agriculture professor. “There is really a time that the yield will decrease, primarily if the soil has become too degraded, but despite that, three years later, or three croppings, they can recuperate in the long run.”

In Kiday, members have endured and seen their harvests increase over time. Bolstered by support from MASIPAG, they continue to regenerate their soil with organic material, and practice other natural farming methods that improve their agroecosystem diversity.

The Philippine government’s continued prioritization of conventional farming is also a challenge for farming communities who already practice or are thinking of shifting to organic agriculture. This is reflected in the limited funding directed to organic farming, despite the presence of a national law that specifically advances it.

For 2023 alone, the fortified organic fertilizer development program only received 3 million pesos (about $54,000), representing 1.2% of the total 250 million peso ($4.5 million) budget of the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority. If the budget were increased, advocates say, funds could be channeled toward building farmers’ technical capacity and improving food processing technology and market networks to help sustain and scale up community-based organic farms across the country.

A couple holds freshly picked kale and mustard leaves bought from the Kiday Farmers Community Association’s organic communal farm in Quezon province. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.

In Quezon, the Philippines’ leading coconut producer province, coconut trees grow along Agos River, which flows from the Sierra Madre, the country’s longest mountain range. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.

Dam risks

Meanwhile, the flood risks associated with a nearby dam are worrying Kiday and other farming communities in Quezon province. A Philippine government project funded through a $211 million loan from China, the Kaliwa Dam aims to provide 600 million liters (159 million gallons) of water daily to crisis-prone Metro Manila. It’s set to be built within a protected watershed and ancestral domain upstream of Kiday in the town of General Nakar. Project construction has been underway since December 2022, and the dam is projected to be completed in 2026 and operational the following year.

Living on the typhoon path, Nazareno says they fear a repeat of the 2004 calamity, which could be amplified if the dam releases floodwater, especially during the storm and monsoon season. “The dam will flood our farmlands, a huge amount of water will be captured, that’s why, as women, we see it as an imminent danger,” says Nazareno, whose group joined a nine-day protest march covering 150 kilometers (90 miles) from Quezon to the Philippine president’s office in Manila in February 2023. “We will not cease in our call to stop the Kaliwa Dam because it is not good for our livelihood.”

Buena says this concern warrants government attention: “We cannot simply set their worries aside, because they have past flooding experience as a basis, and they are the ones living in that community. They were the ones who experienced the tragic impact [of the typhoons] and they are also the ones who can say how it can possibly affect them.”

If a catastrophic flood happens again, Edaño says, organic farmers would have to spend years reconditioning their soil, especially if forced to relocate to marginal lands. Their access to water during the dry season would also be affected, she says, as capturing water in the reservoir could limit the water flowing to downstream farmlands.

For Buena, concerns about the dam don’t just touch on environmental or tribal concerns. They’re also an issue for marginalized rural women who are increasingly making themselves heard in the sustainable agriculture sector to ensure the future of their families.

“The society’s issue is a women’s issue, and women’s issue is the society’s issue,” she says. “You cannot really separate them because we know that women, especially during these times, are really the ones doing many roles in the family. They’re making a living, taking care of the family, even providing food, so all the issues with the dam are their concerns as well.”

Banner image: Members of the Kiday Farmers Community Association’ proudly show a variety of heirloom seeds they store to support organic farmers in their riverside hamlet in Quezon province. Image by Keith Anthony S. Fabro for Mongabay.