2024-09-30
8 分钟The American Movie star Leonardo DiCaprio has more than 61 million followers on Instagram.
So when in July he posted calling for the protection of a nature reserve in the Philippines, it made headline news.
It wasn't just that Leo was mentioning the Philippines on his socials.
It was also the fact he was accusing the government's environment Department of putting putting this nature reserve at risk, which they denied, thanking him for his concern.
Meanwhile, on Facebook, news outlets posted about the story too, and readers made their feelings known on the comments.
Some of them didn't seem completely happy with the actor's intervention.
But there was something unusual about these comments.
They were posted by accounts with very few friends, very few interests beyond the Environment Department.
Which made me wonder, could there be more to them than met the eye?
This is the Masungi Georeserve, an area covered in lush rainforest to the east of Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
The job of running it falls to two sisters, Ann and Billy Dumaliang.
The project actually started more than 25 years back.
Billy and I are coming and building on the work that our dad started when he had this area as a development project of his.
We grew up going there on the weekends to look at the place, to enjoy the area.
That's why we always say it almost feels like a little brother who we grew up with.
But the Masungi from Ann's childhood looked very different.
It was barren, and all that I could play with were goats because that was all the biodiversity that was there.
But after two decades of reforestation work, much has changed.
As time went on, it was nice because then you'd notice that there's a new kind of tree that's popping out, a new kind of animal that's gone back and has seen the place now as a sanctuary and a refuge that's now a very lush forest that's home to a lot of different forms of life.
But over the years, Misungi has had to contend with various threats.