Delikado

The title of this documentary from Australian filmmaker Karl Malakunas doesn’t mean what you probably think it means despite its similarity to the word “delicate”. In the Philippines the word means “dangerous”, which is highly appropriate for a film which shows the potentially deadly threats environmental activists face in the country.

Right from the start there is tension as we watch a team from Palawan NGO Network Inc (PNNI) tiptoeing their way through one of the Filipino island’s lush rainforests. “If the look out spots us, we’re dead,” one man notes. You can tell by the look on their faces, this isn’t an exaggeration.

The organisation, spearheaded by attorney Bobby Chan, is doing its best to protect the island of Palawan’s trees and marine life. Its team, including “Kap” Ruben Arzaga and Tata Ballardares, who himself was once an illegal logger, perform citizen’s arrests and confiscate chainsaws. Initially, they handed these in to the government, until Chan realised they were making their way back into the hands of the loggers, so now they hang or are stacked like works of art - a reminder to the community it’s possible to do something

The scale of the task in hand is illustrated as Tom Bannigan’s camera captures the teeming insect life on the forest floor as well as the immense majesty of trees that are several feet in diameter. With this much natural beauty it’s no wonder tourism is booming but when one potlician says they want Palawan to “become the Hawaiian Islands of the Philippines”, it's hard not to consider all the problems that island state has thanks to various types of over-exploitation. (Those interested should seek out the documentary Cane Fire).

Among those working for better environmental husbandry is mayor Nieves Rosento, who wants to restrict indiscriminate development in favour of more careful ecotourism, but she’s up against tough opposition. Malakunas puts his journalistic background to good use as he allows the film’s case to build. After we see the extent of the problem, the documentarian begins to illustrate that the illegal logging is not just one or two rogue operators but intricately connected with a political chain. Gradually we see how this - as so often with films about the Philippines - leads right up to then-president Rodrigo Duterte, who is, not for the first time, using his bloody “war on drugs” for self-serving ends.

Although the fishing policing carried out by PNNI is obviously a key element of their work, Malakunas’ brief segment on this sits rather awkwardly. He might have been better just to let the team talk about this rather than take a diversion from the main thrust of the film, which is land exploitation. As with Alex Pritz’s Brazillian environmental doc The Territory, the risks these campaigners are taking are shown to be extreme and worsening as the film progresses.

Globally an average of four land defenders a week have been killed since the Paris Climate Accord of 2015 - a reminder that it is not just the environment that we should be looking to protect.