On World Food Day, foodsheds offer hope in lockdown-stricken communities

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

When the lockdowns started in March 2020, a lot of families had to suffer immense hunger and poverty stemming from the closure of businesses and absence of reliable sources of livelihood.

In a pitch to help communities escape the cycle of pandemic poverty and hunger, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines introduced the Foodshed Farming System - a compact, protective, regenerative, and diversified food production system that adopts natural and green farming technologies to produce healthy and quality vegetables and poultry products for the community.

A foodshed model is pre-fabricated, modular, and made of locally available materials with a production area of 60 square meters. Built with the support of various partners including BPI Foundation Inc., WWF-Philippines was able to establish a total of 44 foodsheds throughout the country, bringing food and livelihood security for many communities.

Hunger remains a significant problem for the Philippines, made worse by the ongoing pandemic. A study from Social Weather Stations conducted between the months of April and May revealed that approximately 16.8% of Filipino families experienced hunger in 2021. According to projections from the Asian Development Bank, the pandemic likely pushed poverty incidence in the Philippines to 20 percent in 2020.

Through foodsheds, WWF-Philippines project manager Monci Hinay said communities can be assured of a stable food source while practicing ecologically friendly practices.

“As we celebrate World Food Day, we need to be reminded that as the pandemic continues, poverty and hunger are also prevalent among the poorest and remote communities. Through our foodsheds, we help change the bleak ending facing our kababayans by empowering them to become food secure in an environment-friendly way. Foodsheds represent the very best of our values - resourcefulness, helpfulness, pakikipag-kapwa, and bayanihan,” Hinay said.

Capable of growing a variety of crops with little cost to land or natural resources, each foodshed is an efficient and independent system. Employing technologies and practices like hydroponics, vertical farming and waste recycling, each foodshed provides communities with a wide variety of accessible food for less waste. An important feature of the foodshed program is the introduction of agri-business, which helps communities generate income from their own produce, which also addresses the lack of income of community members. Through foodsheds, WWF-Philippines is building sustainable food systems that stretch from farm to plate.

Cover photo: Community members pack crops from their food shed in preparation for the marketplace. Food sheds bring the promise of sustainable prosperity for rural communities. Photograph © Alo Lantin / WWF-Philippines

Youth artists hold “Art for Conservation Conversation” and virtual reality exhibit to bring back Philippine forests

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While nature sometimes seems far and detached from the daily lives of Filipinos living in urban centers, a group of young up-and-coming artists in the Philippines want to use their art to bring the beauty of nature back into the minds of people.

“The aim of ‘Project: KAGUBATAN’ is to use the power of art to make an impact for our watersheds and forests in the Philippines,” organizer Gab Mejia, National Geographic Explorer and World Wide Fund (WWF) Philippines National Youth Council (NYC) Member, said.

“It might not be immediately clear for most Filipinos, but forests have a multitude of benefits in many aspects of our life that we take for granted such as clean water, clean air, food, livelihood, and many more,” Mejia said.

The project will stage an educational webinar series at 5pm on October 18, October 30, and November 19 and a virtual forest exhibit that will be launched on November 10. At least 8 young Filipino artists from different mediums are collaborating on the project.

Funds raised from the artworks will be donated to WWF-Philippines’ reforestation project in the Ipo Watershed with a target of 1,000 seedlings. The funds will also support the Bantay Gubat in the Ipo Watershed led by the Philippine Parks and Biodiversity and the Bantay Danaos of the Agusan Marshlands led by Youth Engaged in Wetlands.

“The diverse young artists work on different mediums of art from photography, painting, to digital illustrations with subjects related to the interconnected relationships of people, nature and culture,” Mejia said.

“We hope this virtual forest exhibit and educational webinar series can inspire new artists around the Philippines to take on this journey of curiosity, creativity, and to ultimately drive positive impact for nature and culture, to create beyond themselves for the betterment of our environment,” he added.

The artists participating in the exhibit include:

• Issa Barte – Illustrator and Visual Artist; founder of For The Future 
• Javi Cang – Nature and Travel Photographer
• Sara Erasmo – Still Life Photographer and Multimedia Artist
• Chesleigh Nofiel (Alagá at Sining) – Painter and Naturalist
• Gab Mejia – Conservation Photographer and Environmental Storyteller
• Angelo Mendoza – Travel Photographer and Filmmaker
• Kara Pangilinan – Visual Artist and Muralist
• Ivan Torres – Filmmaker and Nature and Travel Photographer
• Pau Villanueva – Documentary Photographer

The virtual reality forest exhibit will allow audiences to immerse themselves in an environmental journey following a river that goes from lush mountain forests down through agroforests and eventually to wetland forests. It will showcase artworks by the artists showing forest landscapes, endemic flora and fauna, and people who depend on the forests.

Webinars dubbed “Art for Conservation Conversation” will feature artists along with WWF-Philippines’ Forest for Water program manager Paolo Pagaduan to engage and educate audiences about the importance of forests and the Ipo Watershed. In recent years, the watershed’s forest cover has dramatically dropped from 85% to just 40%.

“Water does not just come from the faucet. Most of Metro Manila’s residents are probably not aware that 96% of their water supply comes from the Ipo Watershed. The natural environment there reliably keeps water clean and fresh as a form of ecosystem service, so it is important that we protect and conserve it as much as possible,” Pagaduan said.

Mejia believes that art and storytelling are powerful tools to connect humans with nature and the Conservation Conversation series will be one way to bring the beauty and importance of nature closer to Filipinos.

“As we humans crave intimacy and relationships, art gives us a profound understanding and depiction of the world and the diverse environments we navigate in,” Mejia said.

“This exhibit sheds light on the forests of the Philippines and its invaluable role in providing solutions for these environmental issues. We hope it also empowers and inspires a new generation of local artists to create and pursue a career in the arts working for the conservation of nature,” he added.

Learn more about the Ipo Watershed and WWF-Philippines’ Forest for Water program here: https://wwf.org.ph/what-we-do/water/ipo-watershed/

CHAMP Cargosystems PH signs with PLDT Enterprise for ePLDT Calling activation

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CHAMP Cargosystems—the most successful global IT provider dedicated to the needs of the air cargo industry, providing integrated services for cargo carriers and their distribution partners worldwide —recently signed a strategic partnership with PLDT Enterprise, together with its ICT arm ePLDT, for services that would enable their international offices to be more operationally agile and connected amidst the changing demands of the new normal business landscape.


The IT solutions company is the first onboarded customer of ePLDT Calling for Microsoft Teams, a cloud-based phone system that allows businesses to combine their communication and collaboration systems in a single platform.

This hybrid telephony and video conferencing solution is designed by ePLDT highlighting the integrated features of Microsoft Teams, robustness of PLDT SIP connectivity and reliability of VITRO Data Center. Now employees, customers and stakeholders can call, chat and connect together real-time and seamlessly.

In over seven global offices of CHAMP Cargosystems with more than 450 employees worldwide, this solution will help ensure quality reliable calls with built-in security and privacy from Microsoft 365.

“This partnership with PLDT Enterprise will allow us to achieve our goals in providing accelerated IT solutions, services and support for our air cargo and aviation regulator customers. In the air cargo industry context, it is imperative to have reliable, fast, and secure connectivity and communication services that will allow us to collaborate faster and do our business optimally. We believe that PLDT Enterprise is the perfect partner for that,” said Philips Manalaysay, Managing Director of CHAMP Cargosystems Philippines.

CHAMP Cargosystems provides services to over 100 airlines and 200 customers worldwide, including GSAs and Forwarders, over 300 handling stations, more than 1,500 stations spanning across 100 countries, over 3,000 connected forwarders, and over 15,000 users worldwide. Members of the CHAMP community can exchange information securely using industry standards processes and formats, with over 300 million processed messages and 20 million shipments annually. CHAMP Cargosystems’ applications portfolio spans core cargo systems, enterprise systems and community and distribution services, compliance services as well freight forwarding solutions.

“We are pleased to kickstart this partnership with CHAMP Cargosystems Philippines. PLDT Enterprise always values the trust and support of our clients and we commit to providing excellent services that would propel them towards meeting their goals,” said Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and SVP & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.

With ePLDT’s ICT expertise and Microsoft 365 certifications, CHAMP Cargosystems is assured that its groundbreaking solution ePLDT Calling for Microsoft Teams is professionally implemented and supported and shall be continually enhanced.

“It is our aspiration to fortify our enterprise accounts of the best ICT and connectivity solutions that will maximize their business capabilities. Such is our dedication to CHAMP Cargosystems. We thank you for your patronage and trust, and you can anchor your long-term plans with PLDT Enterprise,” said Vic Tria, PLDT First Vice President and Enterprise Revenue Group Head.

For more information, visit epldt.com