National Geographic Live hosted a two-part conversation with Explorer KM Reyes on January 14th and 21st about the Political Scientists’ important conservation work in the Philippines. As the co-founder and co-executive director of the Center for Sustainability Philippines, KM Reyes has received two National Geographic grants to help protect the island country’s last natural rainforest.
Moderated by Production Director Dominique Hogue, the lively conversations with KM Reyes led to discussions about visiting each other someday. With Dominique based out of Orlando, she hopes to take KM to Walt Disney World when international travel is safe again. Likewise, she hopes to see the areas of the Philippines that KM is working hard to protect.
KM Reyes’ mission is to protect the last remaining 3% of natural rainforests on the island of Palawan in the Philippines. They are currently threatened by illegal logging, land grabbing, wildlife poaching and mining. The work she and her team at the Center for Sustainability Philippines are doing is all in an effort to protect this area and preserve it as a naturally wild biodiverse region.
Palawan is one of the last wild places in the Philippines and is a popular tourist destination for its coasts. Known as the “Coral triangle,” a lot of divers frequent the area, but they had an almost 75% decline in foreign tourism in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Most tourists don’t know about the incredible wild forests on Palawan, which has a species of pangolin unique to the island, the most poached animal there.
According to KM Reyes, there are three steps to protecting an area. First is community organizing, which involves convincing local leaders that the area is worth protecting. Another step is scientific research, documenting the region so that you have scientific data that shows that it is significant to the environment or biodiverse. The third step is political lobbying, convincing politicians that the area needs to be protected so they can work to make it a law.
Thanks in part to the grant funding provided by National Geographic, KM Reyes and her team were able to spend ten-days exploring the rainforest as part of the scientific research step to protecting the Palawan rainforest. With just two pairs of clothes, one for day and one for night, she and her colleagues lived in tents under tarps during the rainy season. They documented all aspects of the forest, including the not so pleasant ones like leeches and thorny plants.
Although she is of Philipino descent, KM Reyes was actually raised in Australia and didn’t visit the Philippines until seven-years ago. She wrapped herself up in the culture and learned the language, one of five that she speaks. Before moving to the Philippines and becoming an environmentalist, KM lived in Europe, North Africa and Latin America working on housing rights, women’s rights and education issues. She’s no stranger to fighting to make the world a better place wherever she goes.
While the main focus of her work is now on the environment, she also shared a unique worldview of the Black Lives Matter movement. It had a big impact on her as she recalled her upbringing in Australia, giving her words like microaggression to describe her experience growing up as an Asian woman in a largely white area. Within Australia, the indiginous community became active with public protests and demonstrations in the wake of the death of George Floyd. The aboriginal people were mostly wiped out, making up just 3% of the Australian population but 29% of incarcerated people, an alarming disparity. Dominique shared her own experience visiting Australia as a Black woman and being treated differently until she spoke and people realized she was American. Relating back to the Philippines, KM Reyes also talked about the country’s colonial history with the Spanish and Americans and how that shaped the current culture there.
National Geographic Live events are a great way to widen your worldview, learn about important topics, and gain new perspectives. Most of them are available at no cost and you don’t even need to be a National Geographic Magazine subscriber to participate. Both conversations with KM Reyes were broadcast on the official Facebook page. Click here to see the calendar for all future live events.