TABUK, Kalinga — , especially those living in the mountainThe uphill battle of the global community to combat the effects of global warming and climate change has gotten the support of various communities in the hinterlands of the countrys and near rivers because they know that they are the first ones to encounter its serious negative effects in the near future.

Previously, these communities believe that they have all the things nature could provide to spare them from the effects of global warming, thus, they initially did not care for the worldwide concern to preserve and protect the watersheds and forests.

However, indigenous cultural communities and indigenous peoples nationwide are now actively involved in caring for the environment since they have already learned their lessons when natural calamities struck them and left devastating effects on their lives, properties and habitat.

This was evident in the desire of the Cogawe tribe to actively participate in the government’s effort to preserve and protect the environment by planting and caring for trees and raising animals in their area.

The tribe planted 1,000 fruit tree seedlings which is a component of a Church-based group’s livelihood activity that aims to improve the environment and produce fruits for the benefit of the community.

Aside from maintain a forested area established by Fr. Bernard Erkins, a Belgian Catholic priest, the Tabuk Lumin-awaan Center – a Church-based organization, which is the benefactor of the tribe, seeks to encourage the establishment of a source of livelihood for the people while sustaining and improving the environment.

At the same time, the community established a forage area and is engaged in mass propagation of grass for their animals which will help maintain oxygen balance produced from both sources for the atmosphere.

Furthermore, the community organized themselves into a group that would further improve their sources of livelihood while helping improve the state of their environment to combat the effects of climate change.