03/08/2026
While the Church in Ireland commits to ecologically restoring its lands by returning 30% of all church land to nature by 2030, and several churches in the US have returned properties to their original inhabitants the indigenous people through the “Land Back” initiative, a local Church in the Philippines has adopted 60 hectares of barren mountains. In collaboration with the government and local organizations, these lands will be declared protected areas to initiate a massive forest restoration project. This initiative emerges not from an economic or business perspective, but from the Gospel’s demand to care for an interconnected creation characterized by harmony and reciprocity.
Today, the Diocese of Kabankalan—under the leadership of Bishop Louie Galbines, DD, together with the Commission on Social Action and Integral Ecology and with the faithful—inaugurated the adopted reforestation site, naming it the Laudato Si’ Protected Area and the Agro-ecology and Sustainable Agriculture Demo Farm.
It was a privilege to witness these local church initiatives in the context of our current climate emergency and biodiversity loss. Moving forward, it remains to be seen how this faith-based, Gospel imperative can sustain a model of care strong enough to withstand the human tendency toward development aggression that our common home is subjected to.
