Publisher's Synopsis
Twenty-seven women living at the environmental margins of Philippine society share their perspectives on pressing environmental concerns. Their creative writing - in the form of essays, stories, poems, and prose - articulates their particular environmental challenges, appreciations, priorities, and aspirations. They write with inescapable awareness of a changing climate, in the face of a persistent flood hazard, insecure land tenure, inadequate access to vital resources, and the constant strain of a degraded environment. The book honours a rich oral tradition and presents a distinctive form of 'nature writing' that speaks to global concerns about degradation and climate change. It is an expression of cultural environmental values at a time when conservation is increasingly framed in the detached language of economics. The creative authors in this anthology make their mark on a long tradition of literary expression that has not historically represented diverse experiences of the natural world, and they offer the global environmental movement a critically important perspective on justice in environmental protection. Their environmentalism is not one that can be expressed on balance sheets through economic valuation; it is one that can only be captured through creative expression. And an environmental movement that concerns itself with inclusive representation, must recognise the value of the perspective they offer.
