Coping with climate change using traditional knowledge

TIWI, Albay–For Agta-Tabangnon tribe in Albay, the effective and best measures to acclimatize the extreme weather events due to climate change is to plant camote (sweet potato) and to dwell in a home called kurob for survival in times of bad weather disturbance.

 

Lydia Ariate, 53, mother of four children and a resident of Sitio May Harige, an upland tribal village of Misibis this town dwell in a house locally called by indigenous people as kurob made out of indigenous materials.

 

Kurob is a tribal home built before the onset of bad weather disturbance to ensure the safety of the family even the most horrendous typhoon like deadly super typhoon Reming in 2006 that killed 1,500 people.

 

Kurob is unique form of a house built by the aetas using coconut or nipa leaves constitute mainly as walls and roofing with gunting type (scissor) type of reinforcement of the structure.

 

It is a small enclosed structure, a one-room affair that serves as living and sleeping room, kitchen and dining room with wood flooring slightly elevated above the ground with several posts put in the ground with scissor type of frame.

 

This tribal house can withstand the howling gale-force wind during typhoons that ravage the country every year according to Erlinda Cereno, 47, tribal chieftain of Tabgon this town.

 

A unique feature of this house is the absence of iron nails for the entire framework as indigenous people used rattan and bakbak (dried bark of the abaca) to tie the posts, walls, roofing and the frame of the house itself. The aetas used special skill in tying the rattan and bakbak to ensure the resiliency of the kurob house.

 

To keep the structure safe and steady even with howling winds, sturdy hard wood scissor cut are placed on top. “Nipa huts were our original houses but in time or on the onset of bad weather events we build individual or community kurob in the mountain for our survival. Kurob house was proven structure since time immemorial according to our ancestors and this was confirmed effective during the occurrence of super typhoon Reming wherein only kurob withstood the deadly typhoon while almost all houses in the lowland were flattened to the ground,” Cereno said.

 

Felix Condeno, 55, Agta-Tabangnon Federation Tribal chieftain in Tiwi town said that even before the scientists, local officials and disaster responders adapt the adverse impact of climate change, the tribal communities here has instituted their adaptive capability long before as tutored by their ancestors.

 

“We read science through natural signs and prepare for our survival long before the bad weather disturbance like typhoon wallops the country. All my life kurob is our shelter and camote is our staple food as this is the ‘all weather crop’,” the Agta-Tabangnon Federation Tribal chieftain told Environews.

 

“We plant camote few months before the onset of bad weather events as this is the only root crop that could survive in all types of weather,” the tribal chieftain said. During typhoon and dry seasons, sweet potato could survive among all crops according to him aside from they continuously generate income for several months compared to other agricultural crops in a hostile climate.

 

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), locally known as ‘kamote”, is considered as one of the important food sources in the country specifically in Bicol region wherein from lowly and poor man’s crop, camote is now emerging as competitive staple food next to rice.

 

Camote is Albay’s second staple food as well as good source of income of local farmers here. Sweet potato considered as vegetable and staple foods especially during lean months and typhoon seasons with twice fiber content and higher source of potassium.

 

The short growing period of the crop, its high nutritive value, its adaptability in marginal and harsh environments, its low input requirements, and its suitability in many cropping systems, give sweet potato a well-defined advantage over many crops in this province classified as one-stop-shop or laboratory of natural calamities.

 

The Agta Tabangnon tribe of Bicol are normally nomadic. In Albay province, specifically in Tiwi town there are four tribal communities living in the upland villages of Mayong, Misibis, Tabgon and Joroan.

 

The Agta are found in the Bicol Peninsula living sporadically in the provinces of Albay; Camarines Sur, Sorsogon, Camarines Norte and Catanduanes.

 

They are living in far-flung barangays, slopes of Mt. Asog and Mt. Isarog as well as hinterlands throughout the provinces of Bicol region whose adaptive capacity for the changing climate is based on home-grown and proven effective employing indigenous practices.

 

But with the harsh and bleak climate due to global warming, the tribal federation chieftain Felix Condeno of this town admitted that the weather pattern is completely dismal and threatening to their children’s survival.

 

Text and photo by Rhydz B. Barcia