A coastal Philippine farm offers a blueprint for farming with wetlands

- The Glinoga Integrated Farm in the Philippines’ Quezon province uses permaculture techniques to grow crops in harmony with the surrounding coastal ecosystem. - One study looking at permaculture farms across 11 provinces in the Philippines found that Glinoga had the highest level of crop diversity among the farms it surveyed. - Farm operator Ninieveh Glinoga converted the farm to a permaculture system after decades of incapacity by relatives and tenants had left the farms soil degraded. PITOGO, Philippines — The Glinoga Integrated Farm in Quezon province sits among brackish fishponds, some active, others long abandoned and slowly reclaimed by the landscape. About a four-hour drive from Manila, the farm in Pitogo municipality can be reached by land or sea. Both routes pass through mangroves. “We raised the embankment and kept the mangroves, because the lowest part often floods,” Ninieveh Glinoga, who manages the farm, told Mongabay during a visit in May. The farm’s coconut-covered slopes lead to tidal rice paddies below and wetlands beyond, reflecting the mosaic landscape found across many Philippine coastal communities. As coastal developments across the Philippines erase wetlands that once buffered communities and sustained marine biodiversity, the farm offers a different model: food production intertwined with the coastal ecosystem rather than apart from it. Working with water and natural topography Glinoga’s husband’s family has owned the land for generations. The coconut, cacao and sugarcane that once grew here abundantly sustained the family. But in 2008, the family visited the farm and found it nearly unrecognizable. Years of slash-and-burn farming by a tenant had stripped the land bare. Smoke rose from the ground. “The first thing the tenant fed us was native chicken. There were no greens, just salt,” Glinoga recalled. Her grandmother-in-law, who once managed the farm, could no longer visit due to old age. The relative who next took charge fell ill, leaving the tenant in control. As Glinoga and her husband resumed regular visits, the tenant disappeared without notice. Glinoga stepped in, applying experience from her own upbringing as a tenant’s daughter, blended with insights into permaculture gleaned from visits to weekend markets when their family was still living abroad. With just 1,000 pesos (around $16) in spare family money, she and her husband bought worms for vermicompost hoping to restore the depleted fields. The recovery was slow. For three years, they focused on reviving the soil, as well as on clearing overgrowth and building a bathroom and storage for tools. By 2011, the farm had hired its first staff, and in 2012 they installed a water pump for easier access. The investment took a decade to pay off. Present-day farm Today, coconuts dominate the farm’s higher grounds with their fruits processed into copra. “Coconuts like salt, just not in excess,” Glinoga said. Below, rice grows next to swamp grasses and forage crops where goats and cows graze alongside birds like the buff-banded rail (Gallirallus philippensis). A seasonal fishpond near the exit rises and recedes. Higher up on the opposite slope, vegetable plots and bamboo clusters stabilize the soil during heavy rains. On top sits a training school overlooking fenced livestock areas, with a production site for wood vinegar and tar behind. Along this slope stand simple houses where Glinoga and her staff live, outfitted with rain catchment systems, goat pens and an outdoor kitchen. A campground is available for overnight visitors. Cacao and coconut trees spread across the slope, while flowering plants line the trails, all leading to an intact forest along the ascent to the entrance. The farm reflects what researchers describe as the six permaculture zones: house, gardens, grazing, cash crops, food forest and wilderness. , which provided a nationwide overview of Philippine permaculture landscapes and their farming components, noted that Glinoga farm integrated mangroves into its wilderness zone: a space often beyond direct farm management yet offering significant ecological services. Of the 12 sites studied across 11 provinces, Glinoga showed the highest species richness with 65 plant species — 75-95% of which were perennials such as cacao, mango, banana and bamboo — within a 1-hectare (2.4-acre) sampling area. Tangled in the wild For outsiders, life on the farm tangled in the wild is hard to fathom. “You wouldn’t manage it,” a neighbor told Rosabel Cadiz when she was asked to be a cook a decade ago. Cadiz saw seawater flooding the farm’s low areas for days after typhoons, how the staff meals could be limited to what the farm grew, and that the lack of transport meant staff needed to travel the 20 minutes to and from town on foot in all weathers. Yet, Cadiz said, she realized she could thrive in this environment. She said she gained confidence through training and practice and now teaches farming techniques under the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Philippines vocational training agency. “As a working mother, I realized there was still so much I could do,” she said. Like Cadiz, the farm’s longest serving staff member, Reynaldo Oliveros, has seen his job role expand. In his case, his responsibilities have moved beyond carpentry to include planting and teaching fruit propagation methods and other permaculture techniques. He stays, he said, because the pay is steady and comes with government benefits, even though his monthly income covers only his family’s basic needs. Glinoga also brought her husband to a permaculture training site in the Philippines to help him appreciate keeping parts of the farm as is, while she pursued certification. Glinoga said all three recognize the protection mangroves provide and the need to protect them, noting that floods would be worse without the trees. Hydrology matters Maria Josella Pangilinan, senior program officer at the NGO Wetlands International Philippines (WIP), told Mongabay in a video interview that integrating mangroves in aquaculture farms or other productive landscapes can provide vital coastal buffering functions, but only if hydrology and tidal flow are properly understood. She warned that planting the wrong species in unsuitable areas, such as seagrass beds, mudflats or places without a history of mangrove habitat, risks degrading the very ecosystems meant to be restored. Conservation organizations, including WIP, have been pushing for a National Coastal Greenbelt Act, which would establish a 100-meter-wide (328-feet-wide) strip of natural or planted vegetation along coastlines, to reduce storm surges, flooding and erosion. WIP also promotes Associated Mangrove Aquaculture (AMA) where applicable — a system that requires giving up part of the pond to reintroduce mangroves along riverbanks and estuaries, unlike typical silvo-aquaculture where mangroves are planted on dikes or in ponds. In Pitogo, where Glinoga’s farm is located, mangrove ecosystems still line the Mayuboc River. However, local government records show that many coastal areas have been converted into fishponds. Glinoga said a fishpond tenant from a neighboring property encroached on her farm to expand, leaving a brown patch near the entrance where nipa mostly grew. Although the dispute was settled, her attempt to extend the mangrove cover near that area barely survived. The farm remains vulnerable to flooding, so Glinoga said she may eventually convert the rice paddies, where pigs were once raised, into a larger fishpond. Some areas are intentionally left untouched, like the hilltop, where any development could trigger erosion. The farm consists primarily of now-mature perennial plants, meaning the need for replanting is minimized. The farm now focuses on increasing value-added products — from wood vinegar and tar made from coconut shells to soap, vinegar and sauce derived from coconut fruit. The income arrives more slowly, but processed products earn more than raw commodities vulnerable to fluctuating farmgate prices as well as transport and oil costs. Glinoga said she hopes the younger workers will also embrace the same long-term goal. Today, only Oliveros remains a regular employee, while the seven others work on daily pay and manage projects within the farm that provide shared profits twice a year. That sense of mission has gradually shaped both staff and trainees, who see their TESDA National Certificate II (NCII) as a ticket to work abroad. According to Glinoga, she simply lined the entrance with mangrove fruits carried by the current, not as a conservation effort but because she admired the property across the water surrounded by them. She said she now hopes to deepen her knowledge of mangrove species as part of the farm’s wilderness zone. Banner image: Nipa is seen growing alongside mangroves, during low tide. Image by Mavic Conde for Mongabay. Philippines hosts new Asia-Pacific hub for sustainable agriculture, cuisine Citation: Flores, J. J. M., & Buot Jr., I. E. (2021). The structure of permaculture landscapes in the Philippines. Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity, 22(4). doi:10.13057/biodiv/d220452