Aba

This is for Aba and her fight for the Sierra Madre.

Our friendship began years and years ago, at a time when she was a fellow at a prestigious institution in St. Petersburg. Our collaboration “The Wrath of Nature” was the first time that my writing and her art reached Russian soil.

A friendship forged around shared concern for the natural world has endured alongside her commitment to protecting it. Like the gemstones that inspired a piece of jewelry created in her honour, Aba’s dedication was formed under pressure, shaped by time, and much to my delight, resistant to erosion.

Gemstones endure because their structures remain intact despite immense forces. Conservationists endure for much the same reason. They persist through setbacks, public indifference, and the slow pace of environmental policies that have yet to grow teeth.

The Sierra Madre will ultimately depend on that persistence but the situation is more alarming now. The birds from the mountain range are giving us a stern warning.

At dawn, they appear where they were once rarely seen. They sit along electric wires, above schoolyards, beside sari-sari stores, and in the narrow streets of towns pressed against the southern reaches of the Sierra Madre.

Residents of Pakil, where Aba is from, have begun to notice the birds more frequently in populated areas, their songs often mingling with the sounds of motorcycles and morning markets.

The Sierra Madre stretches more than 500 kilometres along the eastern edge of Luzon and is home to some of the Philippines' most important remaining forests.

Scientists describe it as one of the country's last great biodiversity strongholds, home to thousands of plant species and a remarkable concentration of birdlife. The mountain range also serves as a natural shield against typhoons and protects watersheds that sustain millions of people.

Yet throughout much of the range, decades of logging, quarrying, mining, land conversion, infrastructure expansion, and forest degradation have steadily reduced and fragmented habitat.

Gemstone/s: Cubic Zirconia
Necklace Length: 45 cm
Base Metal: Copper
Metal Colour: Silver
Gemstone Shape/s: Feather and Pear
Lead Time: 5 days