Cara Durano
Cebu
Cebu
Cara is an entrepreneur from Cebu. Having been exposed to adventure and travelling growing up (with her father being the former Department of Tourism Secretary), she has been a witness to the beauty of the natural world, and the devastating damages of human actions to it. Because of this, she has been inspired to be an advocate to protect nature and wildlife because it has become such a big part of her life, and she is committed to doing what she can to help in their conservation.
Growing up, I was always surrounded by nature. Back then we didn’t have as much technology; my childhood was filled with days at the park or just running around our garden. So, nature has always been a part of my life.
But, it wasn’t until I was older that I actively sought out and craved to be around nature. My story with nature really began in 2016 when I was going through a difficult period in my life and I fell back deeper into my depression. It was then that I decided to go on a hike – it was the Kibungan Circuit – and I completely fell in love. It helped me slow down and process everything I was going through. My life completely changed and I had this renewed spirit. My world was no longer full of gloom and doom but bright and colourful days. Since then, hiking – or just being outdoors and surrounded by nature – has become an outlet for managing my mental illness.
Beyond this hiking and traveling to exotic places has helped me put things in perspective and has allowed me push beyond my limits giving me a sense of empowerment. And because of this, I have slowly healed over the years and have become so inspired to continue these adventures to be closer to myself and to nature.
Through my walks with nature, I realised that one of my purposes in life was to protect nature. Hiking and being outdoors played such a big role in helping me build myself and heal that I became so inspired to make sure that future generations could continue to experience all this. Every hike and adventure I went on, I was continually exposed to both the positive and negative effects that we humans can have on nature. And I just really want to share how nature is such a big part of our lives and we are taking it for granted. Nature gives us everything for free but if we keep continuing our destructive patterns, we will eventually lose all this and more. I want to help make a difference and make people realise that we need to act now. And so, I partnered with Eco Explorations.
I’m looking forward to a lot of things. There are just so many possibilities and opportunities to help make a difference. But, the top three things I’m really looking forward to are: Actively taking part in the developments of eco tours – I love field work; getting to see more of my home town & learn more about it’s people and their cultures; and being able to share all these stories and conservation efforts with everyone else. And third, I just really hope to inspire others, even if it’s just one person, to protect and preserve nature and wildlife.
I’ve traveled to different countries, but my first love will always be the mountains of the Philippines. There is so much beauty and nature to protect here in our home, but we need more people – we need you.
With all the articles and photos you see about the destruction of nature and the extinction of wildlife, how can you just turn a blind eye and act like nothing is happening? That we are not contributing to this damage? It’s time that we make a positive change and contribute to the conservation and protection of our environment rather than it’s harm.