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

本研究探讨了21世纪自然写作在赋予弱势群体权力、恢复处于危险中的环境权利和改变全球保护议程方面的潜力。自然写作需要通过语言进行个人反思和创造性表达，以记录自然世界的体验，包括许多不同的形式：从诗歌、短篇小说、寓言、散文和日记条目，到注释图纸、小品、抒情作品，以及在现代通过各种数字媒体进行的视觉和口头表演。虽然这种艺术形式历来与白人、西方、中上层阶级的男性联系在一起，因此往往会加剧社会隔离和不平等，尽管它激发了对自然世界负责任的管理，但在这里，我们把它重新设想为菲律宾女性手中的可持续发展和环境正义的工具。支撑这项研究的是对目前占主导地位的全球保护新自由主义框架的批评，该框架涉及将自然世界货币化，并将其各种组成部分作为商品纳入全球经济。发展中国家越来越多的当地社区、环境非政府组织和社会运动（包括Ibon International和环境关注中心等菲律宾倡导组织）发现了一些特别重要的问题。伊本国际（Ibon International）领导的民间社会组织联盟在致联合国的一封公开信中指出，一千多名联署者认为，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，威胁到脆弱社区的主权，并贬低了基于地方的知识。他们进一步指出，自然的经济化加剧了而不是解决了现有的社会不平等，这反过来又加剧了资源开采和环境恶化。相反，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”。我们的研究直接回应了这一呼吁，与当地作家和社区领袖合作，在两个分别从事环境保护和妇女赋权领域工作的当地倡导组织的指导下，以自然写作研讨会的形式进行了基于实践的调查。工作坊检视自然写作的传统、身份、实践、传播、倡导和遗产，同时致力于编纂21世纪菲律宾自然写作选集。它进一步吸引数字人文学科的参与者制作一种独特的当代自然写作——视频文章——并将通过社交媒体传播。最终，该项目将菲律宾农村妇女的环境价值、独特视角和未来抱负转化为具体的政策建议，并将以书面形式（以“政策包”的形式）和现场表演的形式提交给菲律宾妇女委员会等主要的国家和国际决策者。在项目的最后一个月将举行一个展示活动，社区成员、环保人士、受邀的地方代表和主要的国家政策参与者将参加。它将以生动而引人注目的自然写作为特色，由参与者自己撰写和阅读，目的是教育观众，为当地和国家的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所揭示的故事和所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.