Environmentalists who refuse to have anything to do with market economies,,

I know ~*capitalism*~ is a bad word but omg you really can’t overturn a system without knowing anything about it

I also don’t want to seem that I’m defending capitalism. It is a deeply flawed system. I offer no concrete alternatives at the moment.

Instead, allow me to talk about my case study, the center of my focus since November: Brgy. Concepcion in Kabasalan, Zamboanga Sibugay. 1/

Let’s start w my core framework (if wer being honest, my lifeview, my pillar in gen): institutions are shaped by resources. Wars are waged for power of resources. Civilizations were founded on agriculture. Always at the core of indigenous institutions is their envi endowment. 2/

I won't go into detail but Wade (1987) is my go-to profile for natural resources. The most important feature for our purpose is that the water of Kabasalan is small enough to be well-protected, naturally very nutritious, and well-loved deeply by its users. https://jstor.org/stable/3986384 

This is Ka-Dodoy. He is the leader of the fisherfolks there. He is one of the best entrepreneurs I know, and he lives and breathes their three pillars: Environment, Enterprise, and Empowerment. He says you can't have one if you don't have all. 4/

Anyway, what's their connection to capitalism? It's a tool they use to improve their lives. One of their core business practices, inviting fishers to share purchase orders, can only be fostered bec of the cooperative nature of protecting their resources. 5/

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?? Your membership fee is a transplanted mangrove tree, your duties are to patrol the waters every night, and EVERYONE, no exceptions, does it. 6/

And when a buyer comes in and asks for x kilos of fish, the purchase order is shared with the whole group. EVERYONE gets to sell a portion of their catch, no one hoards the orders. If you are caught, you are booted out. That's how STRONG their cooperative institutions are. 7/

But they are only able to do this because Kabasalan is endowed with healthy and manageable resources, hence a steady supply for everyone, AND a healthy market with a long history of seafood trading (as a result, they enjoy selling at the highest prices in the region). 8/

That's their endowment, their privilege. What did they do with it? They shared the endowment. They protected it (and it was easy to protect bec it was small enough and close enough to where they live).

But the rewards my friends, they enjoy for themselves. 9/

THAT is cooperative capitalism (I think that's the term). It is NOT COMMUNISM (where the rewards from your indiv efforts are taken away and distributed to everyone). 10/

So though capitalism is a deeply flawed system, I truly believe that, when done the right way, it really can be an efficient tool to amplify its users' privileges and aspirations.

With Ka-Dodoy's permission to tell their story :) he's amazing :)