A Maryknoll sister leads reforestation and long-term solutions to climate change.

Near the summit of the Sierra Madre mountains that shield the heavily populated island of Luzon, Maryknoll Sister Marvelous “Marvie” Misolas continues the Maryknoll Sisters’ century of mission in the Philippines. She is helping rejuvenate a forest that will protect both the natural environment and the Indigenous peoples who make their home there.

“We’ve planted a lot of trees,” Sister Misolas says. Yet, she adds, the work goes further. “We’re helping the inhabitants of the forest find new ways to not just survive on their land, but to thrive.”

Sister Misolas directs the Environmental Studies Institute at Miriam College in Manila. Originally founded by the Maryknoll Sisters in 1926 as a teacher training institute, the school expanded in size and mission over the decades, in 1953 becoming Maryknoll College. In 1977, after the Second Vatican Council, lay leaders assumed the management of the school, and in 1989 it was renamed Miriam College.

The school has long integrated care for creation into its curriculum, as shown by a two-hectare park on the school’s main campus in Quezon City. A sanctuary for various species of birds and trees, it became a venue for lessons on biodiversity, recycling and water quality, as well as a place for quiet reflection.

Sister Misolas, who was born in the Philippines and served in Taiwan, Costa Rica and the United States before being assigned back home, has sought to guide the university into an even deeper commitment to environmental stewardship.

“We already had a very strong program of advocacy in the classroom. Miriam College is known for that,” explains Melinda Medina Lamorena, associate director of the Environmental Studies Institute. “Sister Marvie wanted to push us into deeper involvement with local communities and networks, to work for sustainable change beyond the school campus and not wait for governments to solve problems.”

Given its location and topography, the Philippines is widely considered a canary in the coal mine of a changing climate.

“Melting polar ice means the seas are rising, and we live on islands. Big sections of Manila will be under water within a few decades,” Sister Misolas says. “Where are we going to go?”

The climate crisis is exacerbated in the Philippines by a legacy of injustice, she adds.

“To say we need to relocate people is obvious, and it sounds simple, but we’re dealing with decades of unjust social structures that pushed people into the marginal, easily flooded areas where they live now,” the missioner says. “Handing out food packets, what the government does after communities are flooded, is simply not enough.”

Rather than waiting for official responses, Miriam College is taking action. In recent years it has helped residents of the Kaliwa River Forest Reserve find alternatives to the indiscriminate logging and slash and burn agricultural techniques that have devastated huge swaths of forest in the Sierra Madre mountains.

In the mountain community of Laiban in 2004, the college joined with the Forest Foundation of the Philippines and the governmental Department of Environment and Natural Resources to reforest 180 hectares of denuded forest. Cebu Pacific, the country’s largest airline, became a corporate sponsor. The project, named Empowered Community for the Forest, trained local residents to plant and monitor thousands of new native trees.

However, without widespread community support, the missioner explains, the trees alone won’t produce lasting change. “Without a livelihood, people often turn to illegal deforestation to survive,” Sister Misolas says. “Even though it’s officially a protected area, the people will cut down the trees to make charcoal or to sell the lumber.” She has enlisted other partners from Miriam College to join the work.

When she started a reforestation project in the Indigenous village of Mamuyao — the college’s fourth such partnership — Sister Misolas brought students from the business school to conduct research about local products that could be profitably marketed. Students from the college’s tourism department visited the area to research opportunities for ecotourism. In both cases, students returned to share their findings with local residents, who ultimately make the decisions about livelihood projects.

Reynaldo Jorda, a senior professor of tourism management at Miriam College, says tourism amounts for almost 13 percent of the country’s economy. Even isolated communities such as these can be integrated into this sector. Because the land is considered their ancestral domain, Indigenous communities can block any economic projects they see as potentially harmful. For example, residents of both Laiban and Mamuyao have opposed a government proposal to construct a giant dam in their valley, a project that would force them to move elsewhere.

Jorda says everyone benefits from the connections forged by Sister Misolas.

“There are a lot of possibilities to be found in collaboration between these communities and the private sector, but we in the academic community can’t make that happen. We don’t have the connections or the network to link everyone up,” he says. “We need somebody who can connect everyone together. That’s where Sister Marvie comes into the picture.”

Melinda Medina Lamorena says the results are palpable.

“The people in Laiban say it was much hotter before they planted all the new trees. There was more erosion and flooding. But now those trees are taller than the people, and biodiversity has improved,” she says. “There has been no fire in the forest. It’s a testament to what growing a forest can do.”

Loreta Castro, a former president of Miriam College, says that Sister Misolas’ push for environmental activism fits well with the 100-year legacy of the school’s founders.

“We are proud of our heritage, and we’ve tried to carry on the mission that the Maryknoll Sisters started. We feel the spirit of those sisters come alive in the school today,” says Castro, who today directs the Miriam College Center for Peace Education. “Our emphasis on promoting peace, justice, and the integrity of creation, we got all that from them. We have built on what they started.”

Sister Misolas attributes that emphasis to Mother Mary Joseph Rogers, founder of the Maryknoll Sisters. “Mother Mary Joseph studied zoology. She knew about the natural sciences,” Sister Misolas says. “If she were present today, I’m confident she would want us to address the environmental crisis that is harming so many of God’s children.”

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’, strengthened the missioner’s resolve to defend the forests and people of the Philippines. “The cry of the poor and the cry of the earth are the same,” she says, quoting the encyclical.

She compares caring for the earth to a previous mission assignment when she worked with homeless women.

“Nature is our common home, and as our home planet is slowly dying, we are all becoming homeless — not just people, but all created beings, all species,” Sister Misolas says. “Just as those women were able to turn around their lives, I believe we can turn this environmental crisis around. There’s hope precisely because God gives us the strength we need to save our common home.”

Featured image: Maryknoll Sister Marvelous “Marvie” Misolas, who is herself from the Philippines, connects students and faculty from Miriam College with local communities to seek long-lasting solutions to climate change. (Paul Jeffrey/Philippines)