Workshops for the people of Anda. Education in full swing!

The mission of the Kahibalo Foundation is ‘to improve the level of environmental and conservation awareness among Filipino citizens through multi-dimensional education and thorough research’. Nothing illustrates this mission more than our actions in January – workshops for the people of Anda! But let’s start from the beginning, as not every reader is following us on social media or has just started.

Student grant

The history of the endeavour dates back to 2023. Or, more precisely, July of that year, when our Julie got a ‘tip-off’ that the Foundation for the Philippine Environment (FPE) had issued a call for applications for a grant for young Filipino citizens. This coincided with the completion of Phase I of our research programme in the municipality of Anda on Bohol. Our students, writing their undergraduate theses with us, conducted a total of… Almost 700 interviews! In one month only! Pretty impressive, isn’t it? There were three projects – two focused on Philippine tarsiers and one on Philippine colugo. All were aimed at understanding the knowledge of locals about these species and capturing what they think about them and their conservation.

The interviews provided us with a tremendous amount of interesting insights. Some of these are already covered in a scientific publication that is at the review stage (keep your fingers crossed for acceptance!). We now have, among other things, data on the population distribution of tarsiers and colugos in Anda. Phase II assumed more rigorous ecological surveys in areas to be identified by residents. Thus, the call for grant proposals was timely. We did not wait and started writing the proposal, mentoring our students to write the best document.

The objectives of the project

The overarching goal of the planned project was to obtain the population size of the Philippine colugo. A species that receives ZERO interest from researchers. But not from us! We decided to pay more attention to this species. Based on Phase I, we knew that the biggest colugo populations are found in 5 villages of Anda. For the grant, we chose the villages of Lundag and Katipunan. We made the choice based on statements made by locals, but also because of their distinctiveness. Lundag is the village with the most forest cover in Anda, while Katipunan is of more agricultural landscape. It is therefore an amazing opportunity for researchers – you can compare a lot of things! We decided to investigate the size of the colugo population and how it differs between villages. 

But yes, research… over and over again. Here comes the surprise! We didn’t just want to get answers to our research questions. We wanted to repay the local community for all their help and also use their own answers for… EDUCATION! ‘Kahibalo’, after all, means “knowledge”, “awareness” in the Cebuano language. In summary, our grant application involved doing research first, and then carrying out educational workshops among the locals. We are aware of the complexity of conservation issues. They do not understand age. So we decided to involve teenagers as well as adults! Because EVERYONE has an impact on the environment around us and the animals living in it! The proposal was sent out in August 2023.

Grant awarded!

We waited in uncertainty for a long time. In the meantime, our students attended meetings with FPE and the application had to be revised a little. Months passed… The first winners were announced, our project was not among them. It turned out that more projects would be funded and the announcement of the results was spread over time. Having already accepted defeat… Unexpectedly, we received the news that the project was among the winners! In March 2024! Thus, the preparations started in full swing.

What have we already done?

We have talked a lot about this year’s research, so we will not go into detail here. We will just remind you that we conducted surveys in the villages of Lundag and Katipunan. What did we do?

• We established 14 line transects of 500 m in length
• They were walked a total of 56 times looking for animals!
• We took an in-depth look at the vegetation cover over 5600 m2
• We conducted more detailed interviews with more than 100 houses

How many colugos are there in these villages? You will have to wait a little longer for this information as we are analysing it. The fieldwork took place in June, but before we left the villages, we did something else. We discussed organisational matters with the village heads regarding an educational workshop for the residents. The venture was planned for October, but for a number of logistical and organisational reasons, it was postponed to January 2025.

Aim of the workshops in Anda

Through the workshops we wanted to achieve several things. One was to explain the residents how our nature works. It can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle, which is made up of many pieces and each fits in its own way with another, creating a beautiful result in the end. It is the same with an ecosystem, which is an interesting network of connections between organisms and their environment. What’s more, we wanted the audience to understand what biodiversity is and its benefits. But what’s all the fuss about? Well, you can’t be a cardiologist or a dermatologist, for example, without knowing how the entire human body functions. It is the same with animal species – to protect them, we first need to know how they function, where they live, what they eat, how they behave and when. And this all depends on the environment around them.

OK, so the first part of the workshop programme was about biodiversity in the broadest sense. Knowing all this, we could move on to our star – the Philippine colugo. From our research, we found that knowledge about these animals is not satisfactory. Therefore, our aim was to introduce the local community to the life of these animals and their role in the ecosystem. What do they eat? Where do they occur? How do they live? What do they do that is useful in the environment? What threatens them and why should we protect them? These were the points we wanted to bring to our listeners. And all this so that the people of Lundag and Katipunan will start to give these animals some sympathy!

A ZERO Hour – the workshops in Anda are about to begin!

Six of our students – past and present – travelled to Anda at the end of January to conduct workshops for the locals. First, the girls conducted a workshop in the village of Lundag – on 25 and 26 January. Then, they went to the village of Katipunan, where they met the locals on 27 and 28 January. Although the programme was the same, one day dedicated to teenagers and the other to adults. First, the students conducted the theoretical part, and then there was time to test participants’ knowledge in various tasks. The whole workshop lasted about 4.5 hours.

Importantly, the workshop was held in the Cebuano language – so that every participant had a good understanding of what was going on. In addition, most of the theoretical part was more of a discussion than a ‘dry’ lecture. It is well known that the more involved one is in a subject, the more one remembers about it. But there is also a second purpose to this. Nothing about the locals, without the locals. We wanted to get to know their perspective even more deeply in order to be able to plan our activities better.

Did we succeed?

Judging by the warm welcome from the locals and their high level of activity during the workshop – YES! The girls were also awarded as a thank you for their time and effort put in. But did all this produce real results? This is also what we wanted to find out. In order to do this, we decided to evaluate the workshop – whether there was anything left in the heads of the audience. We tested their knowledge the day before the workshop, the day after and we will go back three months later. This will allow us to see the short-term and long-term effect of our educational activities. It will also help us determine what we could improve in the workshop programme.

Thank you!

We would like to thank everyone involved in this project. FPE for donating funds to the students so that we can write about it at all! To the village authorities of Lundag and Katipunan for their cooperation and invaluable support in organising the workshop. To the students (Tal, Pia, Cine, Nat, May and Jashymine) for overcoming all the difficulties and bringing the project to life. And most of all, we thank the villagers – for their help with the research, their warm welcome to their home area, their willingness to share their knowledge, and their active participation in the workshop and willingness to like colugos. Because the colugo is worth liking, in fact it is a must! For it ensures the proper functioning of the ecosystem!

Author: Filip Wojciechowski (Kahibalo Foundation)