‘It's what we call a visibility to protection strategy’
🌐 On environmental defenders, in conversation with Jon Bonifacio of Kalikasan.
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Dropping out wasn’t exactly the plan.
Jon Bonifacio was in medical school when the pandemic struck. As life in the Philippines came to a standstill, one thing led to another—and after a chance encounter, he just knew his work needed a whole new direction.
Having traded medicine for full-time climate and environmental activism, Bonifacio is now national coordinator for Kalikasan—the People’s Network for the Environment—a campaigning organisation that works with people and grassroots groups across the country.
They are what we call environmental defenders: those who campaign against major projects—in mining, land reclamation, energy—that often come with environmentally and socially destructive impacts.
It’s life-threatening work. According to a recent report by the international NGO Global Witness, one land and environmental defender was killed every other day for the past 10 years across the world.
Speaking to me from Manila—in an interview edited for length and clarity as usual—Bonifacio talks about his shift from science to activism, the risks of pushing for environmental protection in the Philippines, and simple acts of international support that can help keep defenders in safety.
How did you get started—what motivated you to follow this line of work?
I started off in the Youth Climate movement here in the Philippines. During that time I also helped start the Fridays for Future school strikes with the Greta Thunberg movement. That was back in 2019. I was really aware of what was happening in the Philippines—I mean, it's hard not to be aware of the typhoons hitting the Philippines every single year. So much chaos and damage and lives lost. But I think it was more during the pandemic, exposing myself to climate scientists and other climate activists around the world. Towards the end of 2020 I stumbled on this article that showed how the medical school [where] I was studying at that point would be underwater by the year 2050. And I realised that I might as well put my life into this because it was such an urgent issue.
It's quite a big shift that you made.
You know, [it was] taking that step back and realising that I didn't see myself becoming a doctor—curing people and then just sending them out in the same world that would send them back into the hospitals for one reason or another because of the climate crisis. So here I am, doing what I do.
What are the key issues you are focusing on right now?
Here in the Philippines, the main ones popping up recently would be issues around mining. There are several areas in the Philippines having very strong mining campaigns [by local communities]. We're trying our best to give them support, to bring their calls to the national level. Another issue is land reclamation. A lot of fisherfolk and people living in coastal areas are impacted by reclamation projects that are essentially cutting down mangrove forests and depriving people of their livelihood as well as displacing people directly.
And of course, it's hard to separate [this from] the discussion on environmental defenders because more often than not, the people who are campaigning against these projects are being attacked. In the Philippines we have this known practice of ‘red tagging’ in which the government or institutions brand activists as terrorists, specifically communist terrorists—a Cold War era sort of approach. And by branding people like that, they're shrugging off their genuine concerns or demands for change. That's happened with our organisation, that's happened with our partner organisations. It's particularly bad with communities on the ground. We've had people we work with just have their names plastered all around the villages, [with messages] saying ‘Don't talk to this person, they're a terrorist’. Unfortunately it's normalised. And, of course all these accusations are completely baseless.
“They're just finding ways to keep people silent, and to have this culture of fear.”
At the launch of the latest Global Witness report last September you brought up some examples of defenders who were murdered in the Philippines. I imagine those cases are the tip of the iceberg.
Definitely, the people who are working with communities on the ground, they're really the prime targets. So illegal arrests, trumped up charges. Right before the new Marcos Jr. administration was put into power, after the elections, there was an arrest of a senior citizen, a 69-year old environmental activist who was protesting against the hydropower project in their community. A very violent arrest: she was dragged out of her home and charged with rebellion. During the first State of the Nation Address of our new president, two indigenous brothers were arrested at a protest and then charged with human trafficking. [That was] related to their work around [an] indigenous community school. They're just finding ways to keep people silent, and to have this culture of fear. Even recently, actually, there is an arrest warrant filed for seven indigenous rights and environmental activists in the northern Philippines. The list goes on.
We've had our fair share of that as well. The most recent one around the time of the elections—because we were campaigning for environmental groups and calling out some of the candidates whose track records are problematic. Of course, we can’t directly [link it to] what happened, but some people threw written threats over our office gate, calling us and people we work with ‘terrorists’.
How are you dealing with that on a personal and organisational level?
We try to work with the commissioner on human rights here in the Philippines, which thankfully, is relatively neutral. Then we also try to explore international procedures. It also helps to work with organisations in other countries, as well as here in the Philippines. Usually that helps, at the very least to counter the narrative of the police, in case they come in and plant guns or bombs—they do that, unfortunately.
On a personal level, it helps to have community. It helps to be in a situation where the people I work with understand the risk, and yet we all continue. For one reason or another. It's very empowering and very inspiring.
“Putting a spotlight on the cases does help a lot.”
What else or who else could help?
I think definitely putting a spotlight on the cases, such as what’s happening here in the Philippines, already does help a lot. It's what we call a ‘visibility to protection’ strategy. It does have this layer of protection where it's a bit harder for the government or institutions that wish us harm to put up these narratives saying that [we’re] not doing legitimate work. Of course, any form of support, politically or materially—[for] groups like us working in the Global South in the forefront of the climate crisis [and] also in the forefront of state repression.
I want to go back briefly to your shift from medical school to environmental activism. Did you find that shift challenging—in terms of going from a world that values objectivity, and distance from taking a clear point of view, to the advocacy side of things?
I've been an activist since I was a student in university. Since then, I've come to realise that a lot of the things taught in the classroom are the tip of the iceberg, really, when it comes to how we should engage or approach the ‘real world’, for lack of a better term. It was my experience, though, that made it a bit easier to make that shift. Because I realised that the things I was studying wouldn't lead me to the place I felt was necessary to address the problem [that’s] one of the most urgent, if not [the] most urgent problem of our century, which is ecological collapse. A few years in, I wouldn't have it any other way. This is where I'm meant to be.
“The technical data crunching is very helpful, but it's not enough.”
Let me flip that and ask—because I gather you're interested in using science in the service of climate and environmental issues—how are you bringing that background into what you do now?
My background before I went into medical school was molecular biology, which you can imagine is the complete opposite of what I'm doing—from the very, very small all the way to this macroscopic, society-level thing. [But] I think having that background initially did allow me to understand and parse through a lot of the natural-science basis of why we understand the climate crisis as a crisis.
But then, with the amount of time I spent in the advocacy side, I think the most important part is really engaging with the communities and learning from them. You start to realise how there's a lot missing when it comes to how science is presented or broadcasted internationally. A lot of the discussion is around [the] 1.5°C [climate target], or how much carbon dioxide can we still emit—but then when you talk to an indigenous person, these discussions are very far from their main concerns. The very technical data crunching is very helpful, but it's not enough. We really have to match this with what people are experiencing on the ground. I think that's the challenge of the day.
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