Culture Lockdown, Nature Freedom: Respite for Biodiversity during the COVID Pandemic – A Limited Case Study in La Union, Philippines

Abstract

In dealing with treatment regimes for planetary health, a more nuanced approach to isolate the dialectics of nature-humanized and humans-naturalized may be possible by looking at case studies and areas of interest where the interregnum in human activities (culture lockdown) may have become an opening for biodiversity recovery. Such a recovery may best be characterized as nature freedom– a true instance of freedom in the Anthropocene. As quaternary consumers, the Kali or Brahminy kite serves as a beacon, signaling areas with intact biodiversity pyramids. The presence or absence may be a cue to the state of illegal wildlife trade and habitat loss in an area. The paper will present Kali or Brahminy kite observations logged using consumer off-the-shelf remotely piloted aircraft systems (COTS-RPAS) and compare this data with easing COVID-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions in La Union Province in the Philippines. As our communities transition to the new normal that looks a lot like the old normal, subordination of nature is once again the gameplay of autonomous humans.