A Permanent Bioregional Learning Center to Prepare for and Mitigate Future Disasters

Puso means “heart” in Tagalog. In Visayan, puso refers to ritual hanging rice offerings woven with coconut leaves forming a diamond shaped heart, a part of Cebu island’s biocultural heritage. While not directly the root word for pusod, which is Visayan for navel, we still draw inspiration from it. It roots back to the ancient Proto-Malayo-Polynesian word pusəj which also means navel or the center of something. Pusod is used to describe depth or a central core —such as pusod ng dagat (bottom/heart of the sea) or pusod ng lungsod (center/heart of the city). Puso Sanctuary holds these sacred meanings - puso of the pusod = the heart of the center, as it hosts a bioregional learning center for regenerative resilience in the Philippines.

How might we transition from refuge to sanctuary?

For the last 7 years, Green Releaf Initiative, a non-profit organization developed micro learning sites for regenerative resilience after conflict and climate related disasters and displacement all over the Philippines. This time, Living Story Landscapes is continuing its legacy by developing a permanent bioregional learning center called Puso Sanctuary where frontline communities and their advocates can learn vital knowledge and practice for mitigating disaster risk and prepare for them ahead of time.

The sanctuary belongs to the watershed of the Central Cebu Protected Landcapes where a mere 1% of original forest cover is left due to centuries of colonization, modernization, and agricultural expansion.

When Typhoon Kalmaegi (locally named Tino) devastated communities with catastrophic landslides and floods in 2025, the urgent need for watershed restoration became undeniable. Puso Sanctuary is stepping up to protect vulnerable communities through ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation.

Our vision extends beyond a single facility. We've also launched a multistakeholder ecosystem fostering collaborations between government, civil society, and business sectors to scale watershed solutions across the region called Handuraw Panaw.

This fundraising campaign launches Puso Sanctuary’s foundations so it can meet the requirements for emerging financing in the present and near future. We're seeking support to complete our site assessment, analysis, and curriculum design work which we will invite impacted communities, local governments, and universities to design and learn together through Handuraw Panaw.

We are also raising some basic systems to enable a working living classroom to complement a separate fundraiser that would enable infrastructures for water, energy, waste, and a bamboo communal space for transformative learning activities.

In the process, we also aim to develop this as a living museum for Cebu’s biocultural heritage. Together, with your support, we can restore not only Cebu's ecological health and build regenerative resilience for generations to come for the rest of the Philippines.

Photo gallery images are from Green Releaf Initiative’s work from 2017-2025.