By Raleign Pia Camarillo, Rafael Angelo Del Prado, and Nirel Lia Ortega

Class suspensions, work from home, and limited access outside of our homes一as humans isolate, some animals enjoy the public spaces as their own ‘Freedom Park’.

The first case of COVID-19 in the Philippines was recorded in January of 2020. To prevent the spread of the disease, several protocols were implemented. We were required to wear masks, practice social distancing, and disinfect products we buy. Travels were restricted. We were advised to stay at home with only one household member allowed to go out for necessities.

In Los Baños, these protocols led to closure of resorts and other businesses. Dormitory and apartment owners also faced problems since all their usual tenants, students of University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), left due to indefinite class suspension. The reduced human presence in the municipality also came with observable presence of another species in the said university.

Cattle egret, or tagak in Filipino, were seen roaming the Freedom Park of UPLB during the pandemic. These birds were usually seen at the Dairy Training and Research Institute (DTRI) where only a few people pass by.

“They (cattle egrets) were concentrated there (DTRI), because of less human interaction, there were only cows there for a time.You would notice observable movement of natural flows that we don’t naturally see in the environment,” this is according to Dr. Edgar Reyes, current faculty member of UPLB Department of Community and Environmental Resource Planning under the College of Human Ecology.

He also stated that it is natural for another species to take over an area with the absence of species that was there before. But as the restrictions were lifted, classes resumed, and students were back, the egrets went back to DTRI in avoidance of humans again. Despite their reunion with the cows, Dr. Reyes claims the birds will be back once classes are suspended once again.

This phenomenon of reduced human activities is called ‘Anthropause’. Discussions and in-depth studies about its impacts are yet to be done. Although, there are a few, the discourse of Anthropause during the pandemic needs more time to be fully constructed, especially, when it comes to its impact to nature.

Did nature really ‘heal’ because of Anthropause? What are the other impacts that need to be tackled? Is the presence of other species an advantage? If yes, to whom?

From the Terrains to the Atmosphere

Humans coexist with the living organisms around them, especially with those who share the capacity of mobility which is wildlife. Many changes around the habitat of animals occur due primarily to the increase of human population, land conversion, vehicles, and resource extraction. More than changes with habitats, these activities and human-induced hazards have caused animal extinction and animal health degradation.

A study in Colorado, USA was conducted in 2023 where human leisure activities such as motorized biking, hiking, and cycling that are commonly done in nature recreational trails and sites in the city have various effects on the pattern of activities of animals. Some animals like foxes, skunks, and squirrels exhibited no response or change in their pattern of activities around the human trail. However, time shifts were made by animals that are active during twilight and day by being less active during those times and active during the night in the trail. Those animals didn’t avoid the trail altogether, however, some animals such as mountain lions and bobcats were highly sensitive to human activities and disturbances, resulting in the complete avoidance of the trail and sites.

Upon observation, most of these animals that are highly sensitive to humans were carnivorous animals- that were long seen to be “antagonists” to humans.

As mentioned in Los Baños, tagak or cattle egrets were seen to be settling in the UPLB Freedom Park during the pandemic. Due to less concentrated human activities inside the campus and less pollution brought by vehicles, animals arose within the vicinity with solitude granted to their species.

In a different study, it claims that birds are seen to be great environmental indicators because of their mobility, enabling them to encounter various pollutants such as agricultural, industrial, persistent organic pollutants, and metals via water, air, and food. The cattle egrets distribution, colonial breeding, and high numbers has considered it to be ‘the best candidate’ to oversee terrestrial pollution. Some notable indicators of that are concentrations of organochlorine found in the cattle egret eggs and the fact that these birds search for food within 15 kilometers from their breeding colonies, limiting the places where they might encounter pollutants in their food while they’re breeding.

“That’s the reason why birds are often used for Environmental Impact Assessment, because they’re the easiest [biological indicators],” says UPLB Museum of Natural History Bird Curator and Professor 11 of Zoology Dr. Juan Carlos Gonzales.

Dr. Gonzales explains that the easy sighting of birds, compared to other animals, makes it easy and convenient for conducting environmental impact assessment. Through the lens of binoculars, it’s easy to see and count the birds in nature, they’re not as costly compared to other animals. Moreover, sounds in bird calls could easily aid the assessments. According to him, birds also serve as criterias and indicators of how good and rich the place is.

“If there are a lot of endangered species of birds in your area, it’s called a hotspot, so your place is seen to be great” He explained.

However, Dr. Gonzales explained beyond the bird’s reclamation of areas in UPLB as a phenomenon of greater disturbance in the places where they are supposed to be, which is the Makiling Rainforest.

“Why will they come down, what will they do here? There’s no forest here. Yes, there are trees. It could not be about food because there is a lot of food for them there. It could also not be about overpopulation. We don’t know, nobody’s doing a study. But for me, I think there is something wrong up there that’s pushing them down here” He exclaims.

Dr. Gonzales assumed that it was possibly caused by drought or poaching. During the pandemic, it is no denial that many people were stranded and starving because of the halt in the economic activities resulting in the very poor financial conditions. Due to this matter, Dr. Gonzales explained that many people would rely on illegal hunting or bird poaching to have something to eat. As a result, birds did not feel safe in the rainforest anymore.

Moving from terrestrial areas, anthropause manifested in the global environment through the observable improvement in the quality of air. The restriction on travel and mobility alongside the halting of industrial activities significantly impacted the quality of air.

Air quality is measured through the concentration of pollutants present in the air. Air Quality Index (AQI) is used to report the daily air quality at a particular location or country. The AQI is measured for five major pollutants; ground-level ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, particle pollution, and sulfur dioxide.

Ground-level ozone, commonly known as smogs, forms when pollutants mix with sunlight. It is not directly emitted in the air but rather formed when nitrogen (NOx) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) react in sunlight. Its sources are from power plants, vehicle exhausts, and industrial facilities, among others.

Carbon monoxide are chemicals found in fumes or in burning fuels such as gasoline, cars, engines, or even small-scale burning at home like fireplaces and furnaces. Nitrogen dioxide is sourced from the combustion of non-renewable sources of energy such as fossil fuels. Particle pollution or commonly known as particulate matter is a composition of particles, solid or liquid that are found in the air. Burning activities and dust pollution are common sources of particulate pollution. Lastly, sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas or liquid that is sourced from natural sources such as volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and phytoplanktons and also burning of fossil fuels.

In a 2022 article, Levels of nitrogen dioxide , sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter have dropped compared to the levels from previous decades during the pandemic.

According to Professor Casper Agaton who specializes in environmental economics, there is a significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and less demand on energy sources during the pandemic.

“On a Global level, the impact of the pandemic is the significant reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from direct combustion from the transportation sector. In terms of energy production, demands are low for energy during that time because of the significant decrease in economic activities. There is a decrease in the energy production coming from fossil fuels and almost all countries reduced their greenhouse gas emissions,” He explained.

However, not everything came with an advantage from the concentration of human activity inside the household. Solid waste ramped up from the household since people spent most of their time at home during the pandemic. A study in 2022 mentioned that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) announced that the country had actually produced more than 600,000 metric tons of healthcare waste from June 2020 to 2021, this exceeded the prediction estimates of Asian Development Bank of 280 tons of healthcare wastes in Metro Manila per day.

Many Filipinos relied on food deliveries and online shopping which further contributed to the increased number of plastic wastes through excessive packaging that are eventually thrown back to our environment.

From Professor Agaton, the anthropause could be further studied from an economic lens of degrowth. According to him, this refers to the total opposite of economic growth, there is a decrease in the economic activities that will result in the degrowth of the consumption and distribution of goods and services. It is all about reducing everything, and only taking what we need from our environment.

Do these human activities really hinder the advocacies for a better planetary health? Is the anthropause phenomenon the solution for a better environment?

Reevaluating the human-environment relationship

After a three-year ‘battle’ with the onslaught of the pandemic and as cases of infected individuals slowly decrease with stringent restrictions being lifted, humans are able to resume ‘normality’ in their daily lives. However, natural scientists are still on the verge of discovering and reevaluating potential lessons from the ‘anthropause’ phenomenon.

The human-environment coexistence can be described as constant ‘push and pull’ where wildlife activities and needs directly affect humans and vice versa. In a 2022 study about the possibility of a peaceful cohabitation of humans and animal and plant species, it was stated that existing studies on the field focus on the impact of population and economic expansion at the expense of animal and plant species. They shed light on the impact of the population-forest-biodiversity model for resources-based economies which stimulates an equilibrium for human-environment relationship.

Sefi Mekonen’s case study on the other hand offers the realities of achieving this so-called co-existence in the human wildlife conflict around Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia. His study concludes that wildlife conflict not only causes loss for the animals but also to the economic gains of the people in the area. With this in mind, he proposed to approach the case by proposing a space for both wildlife and human habitats. For wildlife conservation, he proposed to reduce human activities and settlements around protected areas and provide alternative means for the residents such as planting their own trees for their utilization.

In an attempt to provide a novel perspective on the human-environment relationship post-pandemic, an article in the Nature and Space journal argued that the global crisis may have opened a pandora’s box in uncovering the interconnected realities and factors which affect the human-environment relations.

It pointed out that the critical approach to the anthropause provided a spark for a wider conversation to environmental concerns such as climate change. The ‘absence’ of humans in the environment has made it easier for us to digest how the environment functions with or without the presence of humans.

“With that I agree, and at the same time we saw the importance of the internet flourish as we were forced to be cocooned in our own houses. We became familiar with information regarding our own environment, the planetary health, which increased the people’s environmental awareness,” Marie Bernadette C. Apayor, instructor at the Department of Social Development Services, explains how the anthropause impacted human-environment relations.

She further explains that despite this ‘positive’ and immediate impact on the environment, other human activities still continue in some areas. “So, if you look at the bigger picture, there is an impact but is not directly felt. For example, the consumerist lifestyle we have from online shopping, we don’t physically shop but online. Where do we source the materials? Where do we extract the raw materials [to create things] ? In its production so and so forth,” Apayor exclaims.

She further added that this is an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ situation where individuals might see an absolute hault of activities in the environment but not in the aggregate. This notion is also supported by Fiske’s study which says that nature did not ‘heal’ with the sudden pause of human activity but the threat of climate change, contaminations, and rampant socioeconomic inequality continue to persist in the pandemic.

Another perspective to think about is the doubt of difference during pre-pandemic, the lockdown phase, and today. Dr. Gonzales questions the change of wildlife presence due to the pandemic restrictions. “Because there’s no people to disturb so they (the birds) go out or you just notice them more because you’re in one place. You’ll notice them more everyday rather than when you often go out (of your house).” He also added the trend of urban birding on social media where people post birds they see in their households or backyard.

When asked about the presence of cattle egret, he had the same answer, “They were already there before. Now, they get used to people so they don’t leave anymore. Maybe it’s also the food. The grass areas in the campus were not mowed for a long time.”

The Anthropause caused people to notice what’s already there. The wildlife does not dislike human presence but rather the actions of shooing them, ridding of their food sources, and threats of killing them are what pushes them away, not the activities that cause harm to their environment but directly to them.

Ways to move forward

So how can we achieve and improve planetary health if anthropause seems not to be the answer? How can we foster real coexistence? The solution seems to point to one aspect all scientists seem to agree about, reframing power.

In Fiske’s study, she underlies the centrality of power in the COVID-19-human-environment equation, human activities such as economic growth which are directly powered by rapid industrialization results in air pollution and accumulation of waste. Institutions such as the government, hold great power in regulating and making the corporations accountable for their environmental effects.

Agaton suggests that governments should implement strict restrictions on environmental protection and policies. “If in that aspect, we can impose those kinds of restrictions, why not we can do it for battling climate change. Which we can experience now, canceled classes and exams and without pandemic we transformed from normal F2F classes to online,” he further explained.

In relation to human-environment interactions, Apayor offers a perspective on the cultural dimension on how to integrate a more sustainable approach with the environment. “We have to rethink the things we value in life and what type of moderate living we need to propagate or spread,” she said. This shift from a consumerist lifestyle to a more eco- conscious thinking will be her ways forward.

As a diverse country with different cultures and backgrounds, each individual may interact with the environment differently. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a collective experience that caused a shift to how we see the environment. Despite being a small phenomena, the anthropause has brought to light new discussions about the realizations and realities of the planet.

In Los Baños, the anthropause may seem like a minute part of the sudden realization we have during the pandemic but it offers a glimpse of what changes can be initiated even with small steps.

“During the lockdown we saw how we became dependent on the convenience of everything due to technological advancements…the mundane activities we did not think much about before the pandemic. But then, we became vulnerable to the after effects and the uncertainty of our complex system: that one small rapid change can affect us all.