21st Century Filipina Nature Writing for Sustainable Development and Environmental Justice

这项研究探讨了21世纪世纪自然写作的潜力，以增强弱势群体的能力，恢复处于危险之中的环境权利，并改变全球保护议程。自然写作需要通过语言来记录自然世界的经验，包括个人反思和创造性表达，包括许多不同的格式：从诗歌，短篇小说，寓言，散文和期刊条目，到注释图纸，短剧，抒情作品，以及-在现代-通过各种数字媒体进行视觉和口头表演。虽然这种艺术形式在历史上一直与白色、西方、中上层阶级的男性联系在一起，因此往往会加强社会隔离和不平等，即使在鼓励对自然世界负责任的管理的同时，我们在这里重新设想它在菲律宾妇女手中作为可持续发展和环境正义的工具。研究的基础是对目前占主导地位的新自由主义全球保护框架的批评，这包括将自然世界货币化，并将其各种组成部分作为商品纳入全球经济。特别重要的是，越来越多的地方社区、环境非政府组织和发展中国家的社会运动，包括总部设在菲律宾的倡导组织，如Ibon International和环境关注中心，发现了一些问题。正如由Ibon International领导的民间社会组织联盟撰写的一封致联合国的公开信中所述，一千多名签名者认为，资本主义保护加强了企业而不是地方对自然资源的控制，从而危及生计，威胁到弱势社区的主权，并贬低了基于地方的知识。他们进一步描述了自然的节约加剧而不是解决现有的社会不平等，这反过来又加剧了资源开采和环境退化。这封信的作者呼吁环境决策者支持一系列替代知识和生态实践，作为真正以人为本的可持续发展的“基石”。我们的研究直接响应这一呼吁，以自然写作研讨会的形式进行基于实践的调查，与当地作家和社区领袖合作，并在两个当地倡导组织的指导下，分别在环境保护和妇女赋权领域工作。研讨会将自然写作作为传统、身份、实践、交流、宣传和遗产进行研究，同时致力于编纂一部21世纪世纪菲律宾自然写作选集。该项目还让数字人文领域的参与者参与制作一部独特的当代自然作品-视频散文，并将通过社交媒体传播，最终将菲律宾农村妇女的环境价值观、独特观点和未来抱负转化为具体的政策建议，提交给国家和国际主要决策者，包括菲律宾妇女委员会，以书面形式（以“政策包”的形式）以及通过现场表演。在项目的最后一个月举行的展示活动将由社区成员、自然保护主义者、应邀的地方代表和主要的国家政策行为者参加。它将以生动和令人信服的自然写作作品为特色，由参与者自己撰写和阅读，目的是教育观众，为地方和国家环境治理和政策提供信息，并促使各级决策者根据项目过程中揭示的故事和获得的见解立即采取行动。

This research explores the potential of 21st century nature writing to empower disadvantaged communities, restore environmental rights at risk, and transform the global conservation agenda. Nature writing, which entails personal reflection and creative expression through language to record experiences of the natural world, encompasses many different formats: from poems, short stories, fables, essays, and journal entries, to annotated drawings, short skits, lyrical compositions, and - in the modern era - visual and spoken word performance through various digital media. While the art form has historically been associated with white, Western, upper-middle-class men, and has thus tended to reinforce social segregation and inequity even while inspiring responsible stewardship of the natural world, we re-envision it here in the hands of Filipina women as an instrument of sustainable development and environmental justice.Underpinning the research is a critique of the currently dominant neoliberal framework for global conservation, which involves monetising the natural world and incorporating its various components into the global economy as commodities. Of particular importance are problems identified by a growing number of local communities, environmental NGOs and social movements in the developing world, including Philippines-based advocacy organisations such as Ibon International and the Center for Environmental Concerns. As laid out in an open letter to the United Nations, authored by a coalition of civil society organizations led by Ibon International, more than a thousand signatories contend that capitalist conservation reinforces corporate rather than local control over natural resources, thus endangering livelihoods, threatening the sovereignty of vulnerable communities, and devaluing place-based knowledge. They further describe that the economisation of nature exacerbates rather than addresses existing social inequalities, which in turn fuel further resource exploitation and environmental degradation.The letter's authors instead call for environmental decision-makers to support a range of alternative knowledges and ecological practices as the 'building blocks' of genuine people-centered sustainable development. Our research responds directly to this call by conducting a practice-based inquiry in the form of a nature writing workshop, delivered in partnership with local writers and community leaders, and under the guidance of two local advocacy organisations who work in the areas of environmental protection and women's empowerment, respectively. The workshop examines nature writing as tradition, identity, practice, communication, advocacy, and legacy - all while working towards the compilation of a 21st Century Filipina Nature Writing Anthology. It further engages participants in the digital humanities to produce a distinctly contemporary piece of nature writing - the video essay - which will be disseminated through social media.Ultimately, the project translates the environmental values, unique perspectives and future ambitions of rural Filipina women into specific and concrete policy recommendations, which will be presented to key national and international decision-makers, including the Philippine Commission on Women, in writing (in the form of a "policy pack") as well as through live performance. A showcase event held in the final month of the project will be attended by community members, conservationists, invited local representatives and key national policy actors. It will feature vivid and compelling nature writing compositions, written and read by the participants themselves, towards the aim of educating audience members, informing local as well as national environmental governance and policy, and moving decision-makers at all scales to immediate action in line with the stories revealed and insights gained over the course of the project.