5.1

The first decade of the 21st century could be characterized with collapsing financial markets, rising unemployment rate, shrinking middle class, and deeper inequalities. Not only that, said decade is also hounded with extreme indebtedness, inability of governments to force through reforms, scarcity which lead to the challenge on the availability of resources, and of course, climate change (Steger, 2014). According to Beck (1986), the main reason for the problems of the first decade of the 21st century has been the inability of modern societies to produce enough stability and sustainability.

 The term Stability is associated with firmness in position, performance and resistance to change especially in a disruptive way. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) describe it as avoiding large swings in economic activity, high inflation and excessive volatility in exchange rates and financial markets (International Monetary Fund 2012). Studies manifest that within a few years, every economy moves through periods of rapid growth with rising demand, higher inflation and dropping unemployment, followed by depression with reversal phenomena (Knoop, 2009). The challenge is that excessive highs and lows should be avoided. In other words, extreme bubbles of economic activities must be calmed down before they burst. The fluctuations themselves are unavoidable. But a clever stabilization policy could flatten and shorten them without changing significantly long term trends of growth (Steger, 2014).

Sustainability should not be seen as different from stability, although at first sight the overlap seems obvious. A well known definition of sustainability comes from the Bruntland Report (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987) prepared for the United Nations in 1987. It says that sustainability refers to a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In other worlds, it is all about the responsible use of resources (Steger, 2014).

Economics has had certain problems with sustainability, analyzing mainly the questions of long term growth. At a certain stage of development of economic theories technology became a fantastic escape from the sustainability dilemma (Steger, 2014). Yet, in Visayas State University, In Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines, a technology was initiated in the early 1990s that was designed to promote sustainable development, and at the same time, address the call to save Mother Nature. This technology was referred to as rainforestation. As a technology, rainforestation came into being as a response to the rapid biodiversity loss in the Philippines.

As a fact, biodiversity in the Philippines is one of the richest in the world. It is part of the 17 mega diverse countries which collectively claim two thirds of all global species. Yet, 70% of Philippine forests have vanished from the 1930s to 1988 (Haribon Foundation, 2016). There have been two major causes of Philippine forests loss. They refer to the conversion of primary forests to secondary forests by both legal and illegal logging as well as the removal of secondary forests cover by expansion of upland agriculture (Fernando, 2005). Because of this, massive reforestation has been initiated by the government. However, though the Philippine government has introduced programs to rehabilitate denuded lands, the efforts of both government and private sectors have not been enough to abate the rapid deforestation rate of the Philippine forests (Kalikasan People's Network, 2011). Not only that, decades long reforestation efforts using fast growing exotic species has led to the alteration of Philippine rainforests into simply forests plantation which failed to bring back ecosystem functions (Haribon Foundation, 2005). After all, exotic trees cannot replace Philippine native trees because they are not suited to Philippine climate (Ranada, 2014).

Hence, to answer this problem of rehabilitating denuded lands, the Visayas State University (VSU) introduced rainforestation in the early 1990's. Rainforestation is a technology designed to make use of unproductive lands by planting native tree species which are not widely used in the Philippine government's reforestation program (Milan and Ceniza, 2009). This technology found its way to Visayas State University since in early 1990, the Philippine-German Applied Tropical Ecology Project started to look into possibilities of rehabilitating former forested areas to get back the ecological functions of the degraded areas needed for poverty alleviation through sustainable rural development. This program was directed for the promotion of biodiversity rehabilitation, conservation of remaining primary forests and natural resources, and the development of a closed canopy and high diversity forest farming system called Rainforestation. The directives of the program were formulated so that Rainforestation could replace the wide spread slash-and-burn practices and protect and enhance biodiversity by using indigenous trees only. In 1994 the hypothesis was formulated that a farming system in the humid tropics is increasingly more sustainable the closer it is in its species composition to the original local rainforest (Goltenboth and Tropentag, 2005). With this, the ecological functions of a given ecosystem were re-established while subsistence farmers were provided with a stable and long-term income. 

Since its introduction, rainforestation was disseminated by Visayas State University and was declared one of the official reforestation methods of the Philippines' Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in 2004. As mentioned earlier, rainforestation was also designed to provide a staggered income from high-value timber, fruit trees, spices, and medicinals. To add to that, the technology had also increased biodiversity in rainforestation sites since it helped restore soil productivity and protected the watersheds on degraded sites (Schneider, Ashton, Montagngini, & Milan, 2013). Hence, at the start of the early 1990's, a number of rainforestation sites had been established in the different parts of the country. In the case of actual rainforestation adopters, for individuals from the different parts of the Visayas have shared their experiences on how rainforestation has affected their lives.

We start with the case of Mr. Manuel Posas of Barangay Marcos, Baybay, Leyte. Among the four adopters, he was the first to adopt rainforestation in 1995. Mr. Posas had successfully converted an idol and denuded grassland into a small forest full of Philippine native trees. Aside from Mr. Posas, this study would also look into the case of Mr. Rene "Tatay Eti" Vendiola of Barangay Liptong, Bacong, Negros Oriental. Mr. Vendiola's rainforestation farm had served as an inspiration for many Negrense to also adopt rainforestation since his rainforestation farm had given him the opportunity to venture into eco-tourism.

The third adopter is Mayor Eufracio "Dodong" Maratas of Pilar, Camotes Island, Cebu. As a public servant, Mayor Maratas acquired his interest in rainforestation way back to the years when he was still a councilor in his municipality in the year 2000. Mayor Maratas was convinced with the idea of rainforestation since he perceived it as a way to save and sustain the watershed areas in his island municipality. The fourth adopter that this study is Mr. Romeo Gutang of Pilar, Camotes Island, Cebu. Mr. Gutang is school teacher at Dadap Elementary School in Pilar, Camotes. As an educator for very young pupils, Mr. Gutang has realized that one of the ways to encourage people to care for Mother Nature is to start the advocacy for nature conservation by starting it himself. According to the four rainforestation adopters, rainforestation has facilitated to enable them to achieve development that is sustainable since it gives them things that are very beneficial to their lives such as a source of clean air and water, economic benefits, political benefits, and personal fulfillment.

Looking at the technology as an escape from the sustainability dilemma, rainforestation serves as an alternative in order to ensure that resources have to be used responsibly. However, society has to invest human capital in attaining this end. In the case of rainforestation, the adopters from the different parts of the Visayas have demonstrated that development that is sustainable may be difficult, yet it is very possible and doable. The results of their efforts may contribute to educate the younger generations and give them inspiration that it is not yet too late to save and conserve of what is left of the natural environment. According to Garret Hardin (1968), if the use of the common is below the carrying capacity of the land, all users benefit. However, if one or more users increase the use of the commons beyond its carrying capacity, the commons become degraded. The cost of the degradations is incurred by all users. Hardin calls this "The Tragedy of the Commons". Hence, unless environmental costs are accounted for and addressed in land use practices, eventually, the land will be unable to support activity (Hardin, 1968).

Hence, in the case of rainforestation, such technology has to be owned so that people who would adopt the technology would take it as his personal commitment in order to contribute to the thrust of nature conservation. If nobody owns the technology, people will just use and exploit it and would not think of for the technology's well-being since it is open and accessible to all. This is the reason why Hardin (1968) had asserted that non-regulated access to fisheries have quickly lead to empty seas and have caused the collapsed of the fishing industry in many countries (Hardin, 1968). This is also true to many of the Philippine forests which people just take for granted for many years since it was then open and accessible to all.

Sustainability Problems in Environmental Issues and Resources

Rising awareness of the sustainability problem in environment issues and resources translated also into international cooperation (Steger, 2014). In the case of Visayas State University, in Baybay City, Leyte, Philippines, rainforestation has been implemented not only by Visayas State University alone but with the help of foreign partners – the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in the 1990s and Yale University's Environment Leadership Training Initiatives (ELTI) starting 2008 and has continued to support rainforestation implementation until the present. In fact, one of ELTI's outstanding alumnus of its leadership program is Mayor Eufracio "Dodong" Maratas of Pilar, Camotes, Cebu, who after being trained to be one of the rainforestation adopters in the Philippines and even in Nepal has applied his knowledge on how to take good care of the environment in his island municipality where he intend to protect the remaining watershed areas and mangrove forests. Not only that, Mayor Maratas have also succeeded in convincing Mr. Romeo Gutang and Mr. William Cabonegro, both public school teachers, to get themselves involved in the thrust of nature conservation so that they could also disseminate the necessity to protect Mother Nature to their elementary and high school students. At present, Mayor Maratas has claimed that rainforestation has become an instrument in mainstreaming water, soil, and biodiversity conservation in his island municipality that led to a bigger constituency among the citizens including youth and children. It has also paved the way for Pilar's upstream and downstream collaboration in such a way that it teaches stakeholders --- fishermen who double as farmers ---- not to destroy what are left of the trees in their mountains during the times when the seas are unfavorable for fishing so that they could sustain the source of water in their locality.

In the international stage, there have already been various conferences on climate change and framework agreements like the Kyoto Protocol on the reduction of greenhouse gasses. Yet, their effectiveness has not been very high. Many countries have viewed such global actions against climate change as posing a threat to their vital economic interests especially those of the developing countries. Nevertheless, sustainability perspective started to be visible not only in the environment area. The issue on population imbalances such as over population in many Asian Countries and the problem of ageing population in many industrialized countries also fall on the realm on the issue of sustainability (Steger,2014).

Towards a Sustainable (and more stable) Economic Model

There are three areas of economic models that ought to be re-thought and redesigned. Such economic models are the following:

1. New clarification on what an efficient market is. ; 2. There are many different institutional ways to efficient economic systems. ; 3. What is economic growth and what kind of growth is compatible with the idea of sustainability (Steger,2014).

The complexity approach to markets, in one way or another, asserts that there have been difficulties with efficient economic policies that provide stability and sustainability. There should be formal concepts of markets which would dominate modern economics. Yet, market assumptions are like rocking horses.: No matter the reason, horses with blinkers will move in an expected way. However, the pluralism development model put emphasis on the convergence of National Economic models. This paved the way for rapid expansion of neo-liberal ideology together with its corresponding problems. First, it leads to increased exposition of the world economic systems on crises and contagion effect, second, it has problems in relation to efficiency, and third, it has to deal with the legitimacy of market based solutions (Steger, 2014). As Dani Rodrik (2007) puts it: "Markets are the essence of a market economy in the same sense that lemons are the essence of a lemonade pure lemon juice is barely drinkable to make a good lemonade, you need to mix it with water and sugar."

There are varieties of capitalism. One important aspect of it refers to firms which are construed to be the most important actors for welfare creation. What follows are the resources which take the form of the capital, labor, and skills. Hence, aligning firms with the theoretical model of liberal market economy would pave the way for their dynamic access to resources, capital from stock markets, hire and fire labor force, as well as skilled workers. Moreover, if firms are put in line with coordinated market economy, they would be lead to transactions which are stable and long-term oriented, access to capital from banks, labor are based on long-term contracts, and skills are produced in companies (Steger,2014).

Hence, as the economy is managed, it is more geared towards growth. With this, approaches to growth have been identified which started with the Roll-over Effect. This approach to growth is more dominated by the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) index in the measurement of the performance of national economies. Another approach to growth is referred to as the More Growth Approach which is mainly characterized by the principle that the more goods produced, the better it is for the economy. Amended Growth is construed as another approach to growth. This emphasizes the fact that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is just one important index. There are many other important indexes like the Human Development Index (HDI) among others which refer to the several aspects of the quality of people's life and sustainability (Steger, 2014). The last approach to growth is referred to as the End of Growth approach. According to Tyler Cowen, a professor at George Mason University is Virginia, USA, "the world economy is moving towards a time of great stagnation (Cowen, 2011). According to Cowen, there are no low hanging fruits anymore. By this he means that the day of the inexpensive access to resources is already over. Hence, the extreme increase in productivity following from migration of the labor force and global competition is close to exhaustion (Cowen, 2011). Hence, a slower pace of innovation is a crucial point in explaining lower rates of productivity rise. The above arguments are of course speculations, and it is not difficult to find opposite optimistic views. However, dreary visions contain enough credibility to encourager ideas about a new concept of growth and development, and thus, new concepts of stability and sustainability (Steger, 2014). 

Conclusion

The notions of stability and sustainability often overlap with each other. Yet, the two concepts are not necessarily the same. While stability in the economic sense refers to the avoidance of large swings in economic activity, high inflation and excessive volatility in exchange rates and financial markets (International Monetary Fund 2012), sustainability gives more emphasis on to a development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Steger, 2014).

In this chapter, sustainability is more given emphasis since it primarily considers the long-term capacities of a system to exist and gives due importance to a kind of Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Hence, in the Philippines, one of the things given due importance is the carrying capacity of the natural environment to support the people for a longer period of time. Moreover, this chapter also emphasizes that the way to growth is neither uniform nor static. It is very dynamic in essence that it mentions different economic growth models. Though said models are only speculations by experts, it simply gives one idea of the movement of this present generations path towards progress, development, stability, and sustainability.