This case study illustrates the challenges forest-dependent communities face as they are squeezed between growing local populations and new restrictions imposed by the creation of protected areas that restrict resource access. (
Note 29) The government of Lao PDR, working with The World Conservation Union (IUCN), has initiated a series of dialogues and planning exercises with residents to find ways to co-manage new conservation areas. With limited professional staff to monitor the new conservation areas and hundreds of villages of forest-dependent peoples in surrounding areas, local cooperation will be a key to successful protected area management. The challenge faced both by local communities and park planners is to achieve viable ways to balance the conservation goals of the country with the historic use rights and resource needs of the numerous villages that share forest areas within the protected area. More work is needed to solve use conflicts between villages using the same block of forest and in-allocating specific territorial responsibilities to individual villages in order to protect the larger conservation zone.Ban Khamteuy is located in southern Laos, on the inner edge of the Mekong River plain, at the base of a mountain wall. Katang people established Khamteuy Village in the early 1960s when they left their old settlement of Kaengping, along the Xe Bang Nouan River. For generations the Katang have been forest dwellers, practicing long rotation upland rice cultivation. Figure 9, based on a community sketch map, reflects the perspective of Khamteuy villagers toward their ancestral lands and settlement areas.
After the French were defeated in the late 1950s, Lung Saen, father of the current village headman, was invited to settle at the southwestern base of the Phou Tahnaem mountain range. He brought his family and eight other households to the area. Soon, other families joined them. At that time, the elders say the area was so densely forested that walking was difficult. Until five or six years ago, people were afraid to go far from the village for fear of tigers and elephants. Village families have faced frequent food shortages over the years. Soils are not very fertile and rainfed rice fields average only 8 metric ton during each annual harvest. During the dry season, villagers must climb a mountain wall in order to fetch water from a spring 3 kilometers from the village. Some elder villagers still return to their old fields near the village along the banks of the Xe Bang Nouan River to plant gardens with tobacco and vegetables, though these now fall within the boundaries of the conservation area.
The Katang are one of over 40 ethnic groups that inhabit Laos. In the Laotian society, the Katang are considered to be Lao Theung. One of three major cultural categories, the Lao Theung are groups that inhabit the midlands and practice long rotation agriculture. The Katang are fundamentally animist, though they have adopted some Buddhist festivals and traditional forest and village spirits and ancestors remain important aspects of daily life. A special village spirit house is located in the middle of the village, where two or three ceremonies are held each year, at which time buffaloes are sacrificed and much rice wine consumed. The village chief, Lung Thongdam, is a shaman who acts as a healer and medium of the spirit world. He is well versed in methods to blow, chant, and cleanse evil spirits from the body. According to Lung Thongdam: "The villagers faced many hardships when they were not acquainted with the spirits of the forest in this area. It took nearly 10 years for the Khamteuy community to be settled and at ease with the spirits." (
Note 30)Khamteuy Village is within two to five kilometers of five neighboring communities. Most are populated by lowland Lao families (Lao Loum) who tend to be wealthier and have larger, better agricultural lands. Khamteuy Village has 38 households of 200 people, most of whom reside in houses with bamboo and leaf walls, though some families have permanent wooden houses. Fertility and mortality rates are high, with 55 per- cent of the population being age 14 or younger. In March 1996, a cooking fire spread through the village destroying 18 houses and 10 rice barns. And because timber felling has become more regulated since the establishment of the National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) in 1992, only two families had been able to rebuild wooden houses by 1997.
Road and market access to the village is rudimentary. An unpaved road remains in good condition through the dry season but is closed for months during the monsoon. The village is not tied into an electrical grid, so lighting is dependent on yang oil torches and auto batteries, which can be recharged in a neighboring village. Two years ago a well and water pump were installed in the village which is used, however, only in the dry season when water shortages occur as villagers fear they may damage it through overuse.
The Katang have inhabited the area encompassing Xe Bang Nouan River and the Phou Tahnem Mountains for at least four generations. Before moving to their present Khamteuy Village, located south of the mountains, the Katang village was located nearby the Xe Bang Nouan River. Elders speak with great pride of the rattan gardens and forest product gathering grounds near their old village. "We feared and respected the elephants and tigers, and the deer would take shelter beneath our houses, but we did not hunt them." (
Note 31) There was limited agricultural land, however, and the families depended on Koi, a climber with an edible root dug from the forest floor, as a substitute for their meager rainfed rice harvest. They fished the Xe Bang Nouan River with line and spear, respecting the spirits of the deeper waterholes and leaving them as breeding spots. When they moved to their present village, the area was heavily forested and only recently have patches of forest been cleared to create new rainfed riceland.Although the Katang have moved their village from the northern border of the plateau to the south, the area that lies between the mountains and the river remains an important forest environment for gathering food and raw materials. Leaving Kamtheuy Village, one passes through dry dipterocarp forests currently being cleared for rainfed paddy fields. After crossing the forests dominated by mai kung (Dipterocarpus tuberculatus) and the cleared paddy fields, it takes about 90 minutes to climb the escarpment that rises above the village and enter the newly established Xe Bang Nouan protected area. Once atop the plateau, the first two and one-half kilometers are covered in dry dipterocarp forest, followed by another five kilometers of mixed deciduous forest before reaching Xe Bang Nouan River, with some evergreen forests midway across the plateau.
The area still retains a substantial population of large mammals. In December 1997, villagers reported sighting a herd of 20 elephants, including two large tusker males, only six kilometers from the village. The villagers had not seen elephants in the area for several years and were concerned the animals might create problems such as destroying banana groves in the forests, disrupting the undergrowth, and drinking yang oil left in trees. Four large deer, or gaur, were also seen migrating with the elephant herd. Villagers have also identified seven species of cat in their forest areas, including tigers that kill four to eight large livestock each year. Community members are concerned over the direct and indirect threats these large mammals pose to themselves and the forest. It will be important for protected area managers and villagers to work closely together to determine how to balance the needs of large, wild animals with an expanding human population.
Forest paths and the physical terrain define village territorial boundaries. Village forestlands are used for a variety of purposes and carry different restrictions. In Khamteuy Village, both funeral and spirit forests are strictly regulated by the community. In forests that are open to all for hunting and gathering, individual members of the community may control the oil harvesting rights to specific trees. Open access resources include fish, frogs, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, and damar resin, though there are rules on harvesting to better ensure sustainable use. For example, parts of the river are closed in order to protect fish and frog breeding areas. But disputes over open access resources have increased, indicating the need to negotiate use rights.
After the end of the French colonial period in the early 1950s, the Lao military patrols respected the rights of Katang villagers to use and patrol the forests of the plateau. During this period, neighboring Lao Loum villages tended to consolidate their nearby agricultural lands to enhance their own security. In 1979, a tentative agreement was reached among the local communities and the military over territorial responsibilities, though there was little dialogue with district or provincial government agencies. Over the last ten years, as the political environment has stabilized, the larger Lao Loum communities have begun encroaching on Khamteuy Village boundaries, clearing land for agricultural expansion. The Katang are understandably concerned about the loss of forest cover.
Due to the low productivity and limited availability of agricultural land, the Katang families of Khamteuy are heavily dependent on the natural forest for their livelihood. When rice stores are low, villagers eat forest tubers (goy or Dioscorea hispida). Other important forest foods include bamboo shoots and a range of forest vegetables including pak wan (Millientha sauvis) and pak nam (Lasia spinosa). Fish, turtles, and snails are also collected in the forests and streams providing supplemental protein to the diet. Village women value highly fibers for handicraft production; especially prized are bamboo, pandanus leaves, and rattan which are used to make sticky rice baskets, mats, and other marketable items. Men and boys value frogs and toads which can be sold in the local market as well as yang oil (collected from the yang tree, or Dipterocarpus alatus), rattan, and bamboo which are sold for cash to neighboring villages. In a study covering 28 villages in 4 provinces in Laos, it was found that non-timber forest products (NTFPs) provided families on average with 55 percent of their cash income. (
Note 32) Priority rankings indicated the top ten products as follows: bamboo shoots, fish, vegetables, wildlife, cardamon, rattan canes, kisi resin, frogs, mushroom, and yang oil.At present many of the forest product collection areas that the Katang have relied on for at least four generations are now within the conservation area. Virtually all Katang households derive approximately one-half of their income in cash and kind from the forest in the form of NTFPs. The diversity of forest products gathered is impressive with 42 plant species and 35 animal species listed by village members. Some species, however, are being greatly harvested by collectors, including teuy (Pandanus sp.), the leaves of which are woven into mats for sale in the local markets, and for use in the home (see Box 13).
|
Box 13 Yang Oil and Teuy: |
|
Forest ecologists have noted that certain natural forest species are 'key" elements within the environment which play important roles as habitats and hosts, nutrient transfer centers, and structural supports for a variety of other species, So, too, do certain forest species play a critical role in the economies of forest communities like the two species of the teuy or pandanus family among the Katang of Kamtheuy Village. Every family in the village makes between 10 to 20 mats from the fibrous pandanus plants that grow in the monsoon, dry, deciduous forests of the area. Teuy are harvested every one to two months, with three to four plants providing sufficient raw materials for a mat. The village headman is aware of the raw material available in the forest area and estimates that a sustainable yield would allow each family to increase production to 30 but no more than 40 mats a year. Teuy plants live for eight to ten years, but attempts to artificially propagate them in lands near the village have failed so far. Fire in the forest has diminished the population of teuy, a concern to the village headman. Kamtheuy villagers have agreement with neighboring communities regarding their exclusive harvest areas, some of which are within the NBCA, as well as areas they exploit in common. Yang oil is collected by cutting holes in Dipterocarpus alatus and setting fire to them to stimulate the flow of the oil. Yang oil hole fires are carefully tended to avoid harming the tree. Oil is used within the village to fuel kabong torches which provide lighting for homes. Yang oil has also become a commercial commodity in recent years, and villagers continue to collect it from groves near their old village on the banks of the Xe Bang Noaung River and on the plateau. Villagers from distant areas also tap yang oil in the area. In 1996, yang oil tapping was formally banned by the forest department. Kamtheuy villagers have approximately 50 productive yang trees along the Huey Lahang, deep within the NBCA, with collecting rights distributed among community families. The community's dependence on this economic keystone species does not allow it to follow the NBCAs prohibition on tapping, although the villagers have their own conservation policies that require trees be at least 80 cm. in diameter before they are converted for production. Kamtheuy has never extracted yang oil to sell as a major commodity and realizes the limitations of the productivity of the local forests. Community members do continue to rely on it for household lighting and as an exchange for small amounts of supplemental income. As protected areas are established, there is a critical need to define user rights between villages and in relation to government policies and management goals. Some species can be propagated near communities to provide more convenient access to raw materials outside protected areas. Other species can be sustainably managed within protected areas. To avoid conflicts, however, it is important to clarify rights, management responsibilities, and to determine sustainable levels of use. |
Like many ethnic communities in Laos, the Katang designate spirit or cemetery forests as protected forests. Timber felling, the collection of firewood, and livestock grazing are forbidden in these sacred groves although some forest products, like mushrooms, are collected. These local community forests are important habitats for biodiversity in proximity to the village since much of the once-dense, dry dipterocarp forest is being cleared for paddy fields.
Forests inside the conservation area are under less hunting and gathering pressure than those surrounding the village, because they are located beyond the steep escarpment of the Phou Tahnaem Mountains. Family members travel 15 kilometers across the forested plateau to the Xe Bang Nouan River and further upstream to collect a diversity of NTFPs, many of which are found within the Xe Bang Nouan protected area.
In the late 1980s, in response to the growing threat to natural forest environments and hoping to protect up to 20 percent of the country's land area, the Laotian government initiated a program to establish National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCAs). In 1992, the forested plateau to the south of the Xe Bang Nouan River area was declared a National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) with three designated conservation core zones. Based on an official Xe Bang Nouan River NBCA map, Figure 10 illustrates this new designated area.
Although initially the NBCA was established with minimal community dialogue, recently the Laotian government initiated a progressive program to allocate forestland to local communities (
see Part IV). In February 1998, a three-week land planning initiative was carried out in Khamteuy Village. The activity involved community members, staff from the Xe Bang Nouan protected area, and district and provincial government officials. Rapid rural appraisals conducted by the IUCN/NTFP project staff in 1996 and 1997 informed the government about the forest use patterns of the Katan people in the protected area. As a consequence, and perhaps for the first time in Laos, the community use rights of indigenous peoples within a protected area were given formal recognition during land allocation under a National Biodiversity Conservation Area program. And because only 330 hectares of village land are located outside the area, while they are economically dependent on an additional 3,000 hectares now inside the conservation zone, this was of immense importance to the community.During the land allocation negotiations with the NBCA planning team, government officials agreed that two stretches of river, one 400 and another 800 meters long, be designated for strict protection, areas already considered to be the domain of forest spirits and traditional conservation zones. Kamtheuy villagers are also concerned about working out clearer territorial authority with the eight villages that share its boundaries. The four northern villages are putting increased pressure on the yang oil forests and the fisheries near the old Katang settlement along the Xe Bang Nouan River, even though Khamteuy families continue to claim and use these resources. Since the northern villages are located in Savannakhet Province and the Khamteuy community is in Salavan Province, negotiations are more difficult because they require two sets of local government officials. Khamteuy elders hope that through the land allocation process and the dialogue with NBCA officials, they can reach a clear agreement with their neighbors.
|
|
|
Mr. Liang finds a freshly cut tree within Xe Bang Nouan National Biodiversity Conservation Area in Salawan Province, Laos. Mr. Liang is a member of the Ban Khamteuy militia, which works with government staff to patrol the protected area. |
While differences exist concerning land and forest management rights and goals among local communities, as well as with government managers, cooperative action is also apparent. Between February and March 1999, when forest fires occurred in the Phou Tahaem Mountains, Khamteuy residents fought the blaze for five days. After the fires subsided, the community requested the help of district officials, the NTFP project, and representatives from all user villages to form a fire control committee. The committee of village representatives now meets on the 25th of each month to discuss fire control activities, in conjunction with the district officer and the NTFP project coordinators. (
Note 33)Different views of the forest require villagers and government representatives to conduct sustained discussions in order to create a common language and a new framework for land and forest allocation agreements that will allow communities and the National Biodiversity Conservation areas to reconcile competing goals. The community sketch map of Ban Khamteuy (Figure 9) and the government map of Xe Bang Nouan NBCA (Figure 10) reflect the different perspectives held by villagers and officials regarding the forests of the area. Whereas the village map presents an area of dynamic interaction with the existing natural surroundings and a detailed knowledge of the sources of the various forest products, the government map draws linear boundaries that fail to take into account existing use and customary rights.
While many conservation areas existed largely only on paper, over the past decade, with assistance from IUCN, WWF, and other international organizations, protected area management systems have started to be put in place, putting government conservation staff and local officials in touch with residents. A separate process was initiated to allocate forests and land to local communities as part of a national land use planning and revenue base development activity. Both of these programs are being implemented in Khamteuy and neighboring villages with promising results.
Although the government has justifiably selected the Xe Bang Nouan for resource conservation purposes, achieving this objective has presented practical problems. Enforcing low or no use regulations is difficult with only ten rangers patrolling over 100 villages covering 1,300 square kilometers. It is unlikely that the government will be successful in protecting these natural forest environments without the active participation of local communities. Nonetheless, the participatory land and forest planning process in Lao PDR is one of the most innovative in Southeast Asia because of its flexibility and willingness to respect and acknowledge traditional institutions and communal tenure systems.
This case study demonstrates that there is considerable overlap regarding government and community management goals and that ongoing dialogue and participatory mapping activities have helped establish a framework for collaboration. The case study generates the following lessons:
In the Pantaron Mountains of east central Mindanao the indigenous Bukid-non and Manobo forest peoples struggle to maintain their way of life amidst political instability and social change. For centuries these communities have resided in the upper watersheds of the Pulangi and Agusan rivers. But now, lowland migrants, loggers, commercial farms, and conflict between the military and insurgent groups have led to the marginalization of these people. As the natural forest cover has withdrawn, so, too, have the Bukid-non and Manobo, who now number only 10,000. Yet, their survival, as well as the fate of the rich montane forests they inhabit, may well be linked, for the forest peoples of the Pantaron both depend upon and protect these critical watersheds. This case study describes both promising new initiatives that may help to stabilize the environment and the society and the forces that oppose them. It also reflects how the progressive ancestral domain policies of the Philippine government are being implemented, with their strengths and limitations.
One of the largest remaining old growth forests in the Philippines is located in the Pantaron Mountain Range of Central Mindanao. It covers 1.8 million hectares and stretches over 200 kilometres from the Province of Misamis Oriental in the north to the Province of Davao del Sur in the south (see Figure 11). The mountains are the source of the Pulangi and Agusan rivers and contain four critical watersheds serving the lowland agricultural and urban centers of Mindanao. The natural forests of the region support immense biodiversity and links important breeding sites of the Philippine eagle at Mount Kitanglad and Mount Apo.
In the mid-nineteenth century, the region began to open up as Dumagat settlers and ranchers moved into the area. By the late nineteenth century, small, scattered communities of swidden farmers were characteristic of Bukid-non and Manobo societies. Families also hunted and gathered in the forests, collecting forest products for trade with the lowland Dugamat. Tulangan, or settlements, were often located in river valleys and were under the leadership of a datu, a man who had earned the respect of the community for his ability to resolve disputes. Success as an arbiter or counselor required knowledge of customary law and oral history. The position of datu can be hereditary or by appointment (by another datu) but must always be confirmed by the community. While these communities tended to be autonomous social units, according to historical records from the eighteenth century, there were periods when the Bukid-non peoples united to repulse the Moro and other raiders from the North. (
Note 34)During the first half of the twentieth century, the American colonial administration began resettling the Bukid-non and Manobo communities, attempting to integrate them into lowland society. Following World War II, American logging companies began exploiting forests in north-eastern Mindanao under a parity agreement that gave U.S. firms equal access with Filipino companies. Weyerhauser, Georgia-Pacific, Boise Cascade, as well as local logging companies, moved rapidly to extract timber from the valuable commercial dipterocarp forests. (
Note 35) Logging in the watersheds of the Pulangi and Agusan rivers between the 1950s and 1970s resulted in massive upland erosion and downstream siltation, causing a series of severe floods that left thousands homeless in the 1980s and 1990s.Increasing numbers of Dumagat settlers, largely from the Visayan Islands, began pouring into the Mindanao uplands utilizing the newly constructed logging roads. From the end of World War II to the late 1970s, the population of Bukid-non Province increased 700 percent. Large multi-national agribusiness expanded, intensifying land use pressure and generating conflict between the indigenous peoples and the migrants. This case study explores how two relatively small but significant Bukid-non and Manobo communities are struggling to cope with encroaching resource exploitation and their efforts to secure certificates and management plans for newly declared ancestral domain territories.
Bendum and the neighboring Bukid-non sitios, or hamlets, of Tawan-tawan and Mahayag have a population of about 500 people, with another 50 families living in isolated forest clearings near their swidden fields. These families are connected by marriage and culture with other communities over the mountains and form an extended tribe. The people of Bendum define their territory around the micro-watershed they inhabit, an area of approximately 7,000 hectares (see Figure 12).
In the early 1960s, logging operations entered the area, opening the homeland of the Bukid-non of Bendum to an influx of Dumagat migrants from the islands of Bohol and Cebu. Migrants quickly acquired much of the more fertile valley lands from the Bukid-non, who were both generous to the outsiders and unsophisticated in understanding the long-term tenure implications of their actions. Investments in infrastructure development by the government have focused on the towns on either side of the ridge but with little regard for social or economic services to these remote upland communities.
Since the 1970s, the area has been plagued by the intermittent presence of the New People's Army (NPA) insurgency and other military groups, with periodic conflicts upsetting the social rhythm of the indigenous peoples and further aggravating economic instability. During the Marcos era, the military forced local Bukid-non communities to move away from their forest settlements. The people still suffer from these traumatic dislocations. In the case of the Bukid-non, 29 of the 30 sitios located on the western slopes of the Pantaron were forced to abandon their homes and move into larger communities. On the eastern slopes, people tended to retreat deeper into the forest.
The Bukid-non people began moving to the new site at Bendum in 1985 when Datu Nestor, an elder leader of the community, migrated to the area with his family. After moving repeatedly to avoid conflicts and migrants, the Bukid-non families of Bendum were distrustful of outsiders and anxious to stay in the new settlement. Having retreated to a site on the east bank of the Pulangi River valley, the new village was close to the remaining old growth forest and had good water sources. Yet the threats followed them to the new settlement; the insurgents were present, a logging lease still existed for the upper watershed, and Dumagat migrants were already entering the area and attempting to buy local farmlands. The social fabric of the Bukid-non community was badly frayed, as reflected in diminshed confidence, weakened leadership, and little solidarity.
To survive in a rapidly changing environment, the community had to learn to cope with economic and political challenges, to widen their horizons, and to come to terms with the outside world. Through a series of dialogues, facilitated by the Institute of Environment for Social Change (ESSC), Bukid-non leaders and community members decided that a strategy of avoidance was a mistake. Retreat was not a remedy. They came to realize that they would have to struggle to gain recognition and to reclaim their birthright and ancestral legacy.
In 1992, staff from ESSC began visiting the area. ESSC had been working with other indigenous communities in the Sierra Madre Mountains in Luzon, assisting them in articulating their concerns and developing strategies for action to respond to logging and mining threats in their area. They then decided to focus on the Bendum community. This was a strategic choice because of the connections and cultural links with other Bukid-non communities located along the Pantaron range. From these kinship and cultural ties, ESSC hoped that knowledge from the Bukid-non of Bendum could be shared with other Bukid-non and Manobo communities and contribute to improvement in the lives of many indigenous peoples. Working with Datu Nestor Bukid-non leaders, over the next seven years ESSC hosted a series of meetings so community members could gather and talk. After one such meeting, the Datus of Bendum issued the following statement:
When the Earth was created Magbabya chose to put us in this place called Bendum. Here we were born and inherited this land from our forebears. When their laws were not violated, we did not go hungry for much was harvested from our gardens. Our crops were protected by the spirits of the land. The entry of companies to get logs and rattan marked the start of our hardships. The land we inherited from our ancestors became but a skeleton of our beloved forest destroyed by logging. Our way of life has become more difficult, and because the spirits are angry we are forced to take action. And so we unite to protect and care for this land of our ancestors. (
With ESSC's help, the village established a primary school that used the Bukid-non language as the medium of instruction, developing a literacy program based on tribal cultural history. One method for participatory resource analysis, which ESSC had successfully used in the past, was community mapping.
Land control quickly became the focal issue of village discussions. In 1993, the community began a program to map the land that had been given to migrants. The sketch maps showed clearly that extensive areas in the new settlement had already been transferred to lowland migrants. The villagers also found that they retained control of most of the good forest, situated above the farmlands. Community sketch maps identified the territorial boundaries of each datu's authority, relying on natural landscape features like hills and small catchments. Map analysis discussions focused on ways to better manage and protect each area.
Community mapping proved an effective tool in allowing the Bukid-non to portray their perceptions of the world. The resulting maps depict a history of their activities in the watershed and the relationships between the communities. The maps have provided the communities with a clearer picture of resource and land tenure status, including where rights had changed hands, were they were in conflict, and where they remained relatively secure. Once conflict areas were identified on the map, it was easier for the community to develop a strategy to resolve them. The community mapping process created an activity around which communication channels could be opened, engaging the larger Bukid-non community, clarifying issues, enhancing the confidence of tribal members and leaders, and creating a stronger sense of unity. Sketch maps are also being used to formulate community policies, specifically on the extraction of resources, and community maps are used to develop a spatial inventory of resources, involving the recording the location of flora and fauna species and their uses. Maps also provide a common framework for discussions between the community and government technicians and officials.
In 1994, the community learned that a Cebu-based company had applied for a rattan-harvesting license in their area. Rattan, a major source of cash for the village, had already been exploited by the community and needed time for regeneration, not further extraction pressure. After suffering decades of timber felling by outside companies, the community decided to resist this new attempt by outsiders to capture their resources. The community wrote to the DENR asking them to refuse the license to the company and to award the license to the community instead. Despite the community protest, the Cebu company was awarded the license in October 1994 but so far, has not attempted to enter the area. In 1995, a man from the city of Malaybalay with a permit to cut logs, but not in Bendum, started cutting mahogany on the edge of the community area. The community stopped the loggers, dragged the logs back to their sitio, informed the DENR and requested that the logs be used to build a better school.
In 1995, disappointed that the government did not give them the rattan license, community leaders decided to formally apply for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC), since this would ensure that government would recognize their traditional tenurial rights. In 1998, the DENR approved the CADC for Bendum but not for the two neighboring Bukid-non settlements. The Bukid-non of Bendum, along with the neighboring settlements, have continued to elaborate their strategy for managing the 7,000 hectares awarded the group through the formulation of an Ancestral Domain Management Plan (ADMP).
While the Bukid-non of Bendum have made considerable progress in regaining their confidence and developing a strategy to deal with the outside world, their position remains tenuous. Neighboring communities want to cut rattan illegally in the community forest. Village leaders and ESSC staff are frustrated when they see government failing to follow through on implementing national CBFM policies. It is unclear whether the new Estrada government will have the political will to support the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) under the current round of constitutional challenges. In September 1998, the DENR was instructed to cease issuing or processing CADCs for the time being. Community forestry specialists are concerned that the new government has lowered the priority of programs to empower indigenous peoples and upland forest-dependent communities that took years to develop. Despite the fluctuations in political commitment on the part of the central government, the Bendum community is undergoing a transformation, with clear indications of a reawakened sense of unity and a greater consensus regarding directions for action.
Across the Panataron Mountain range lies the village of Kasapa, home of the 90 year old Datu Hawadon Tagleong Coguit and his Manobo community. In 1998, Kasapa and 13 other tiny Manobo hamlets scattered in the forested eastern foothills of the Pantaron mountains were issued a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC) for 51,000 hectares recognizing their legal claim to land that has traditionally been held by them (see Figures 12 and 13).
The CADC was issued in the name of Datu Tagleong who the government considers the Supreme Datu representing 400 Manobo tribal families inhabiting this comer of north central Mindanao. This CADC is important because it is the first of 38 pending CADC applications to be approved within the Province of Agusan del Sur, and by far the largest. While their claim has received recognition, the Manobo will not be allowed to take formal operational management of the land until they have an Ancestral Domain Management Plan approved by the DENR. According to Datu Tagleong:
We are the Manobo who live in this place since time immemorial. It is our hope and longing that we will be recognized as the rightful stewards of the forest which we depend on for our survival. (
CADC's boundaries follow traditions including rivers and hilly ridges, much of the catchment of the Mayan Three-quarters of the area falling within the CADC had previously been part of the Santa Inez Melale Corporation timber area whose lease expired in July 1998. Currently, 89 percent of the CADC area is covered by forest, largely early to intermediate phased secondary growth, though stands of the original dipterocarp old growth (narra, almaciga, etc.) are still present. Most of the remaining forestland is under rotational cultivation and planted with upland rice, corn, cassava, and other food crops.
|
|
|
Datu Hawudon Tagleong, the Supreme Datu of the Manobo people in Agusan del Sur, Philippines. |
The Manobo people of Agusan del Sur are part of the larger Manobo ethno-linguistic group that has for centuries inhabited the interior uplands of north central Mindanao. Until fairly recently, the Bukid-non Plateau and the densely forested neighboring mountain ranges presented a barrier for Arab traders and Spanish colonials, while alliances and strong leadership among the Manobo allowed them to resist foreign invasion of the area. Only towards the end of the nineteenth century did the area open up to trade and greater interaction with lowland communities. West of the municipal town of La Paz, the forests where Datu Tagleong lives were relatively isolated from development that was concentrated along the Agusan River Valley until the 1950s when logging activities expanded into the area. In 1958, Guillermo Ponce, a businessman from one of the leading political families in the province acquired a 20-year, 99,000-hectare logging license in partnership with American investors. The Santa Ines Melale Forest Products Inc. (SIMF) was later transferred to Rodolo Cuenca, a crony of then President Marcos, who frequently used timber license agreements (TLAs) as payoffs to business and political partners and family members.
The concession area covered much of the traditional lands of the local Manobo clans who relied on the forests for hunting, gathering, and clearings for swidden fanning. When logging began in the 1960s, conflicts arose between local residents and company workers resulting in several deaths. Company managers met with the local Protestant pastor who lived in La Paz. He recommended they contact Datu Tagleong, a traditional and respected elder for many Manobo families. Tagleong had inherited his position but his reputation as a skillful leader and negotiator had grown over the years. The logging company asked him to appoint 51 other datus to represent each of the formal felling compartments within the lease area
From the 1970s to the early 1990s many Manobo men worked for the logging companies. Manobo villagers used the logging trucks and traveled on the roads the company built in order to reach outside markets. Wage labor brought cash to the heavily subsistence-based families, allowing them better access to schools, health facilities and low-cost consumer goods. After the company changed hands in the 1970s the new owners pursued a more aggressive logging policy, in some cases, clear-felling areas. Under pressure from the DENR to reforest, the company persuaded local Manobo communities to plant industrial trees like Falcata albeiza in their fallowed swidden lands. In some areas, this gave rise to concern that the communities would lose control of their ancestral lands to the timber company. (
Note 38)After 25 years of commercial logging in the area, the Manobo culture, and its traditional datu leadership structure, has been undermined. On a recent field interview with Datu Tagleong, it was revealed that President Marcos had given him the title "Supreme Datu," a title not found within the Manobo language or culture. Tagleong stated that the awarding of his title and the appointments of the other datus has caused some dissension in the community. A former head of the Philippine government's Office of Southern Cultural Communities (OSCC) notes this kind of manipulation is commonplace among logging companies. "First, they hire the tribal chieftains or datus as concession guards and woo them to their side. Then they hire some of the tribal members as casual laborers, most of them not even appearing on the company payroll. Then, they abuse the grounds of the tribal communities and gradually take over." (
Note 39)The Manobos are currently under pressure to develop a management plan (ADMP) to make the ancestral domain land grant (CADC) operational, but no process exists at present to create a consensus-based set of goals and the mechanisms to achieve them. Due to their 20-year dependency on the logging company the Manobo have become accustomed to relying on outsiders to tell them how to manage their environment. To formulate an ADMP that reflects Manobo cultural values, the community will need time for redefinition. The opportunity to manage their ancestral lands as a CADC provides the Manobo with a chance to restore their culture, while addressing social, economic, and environmental problems.
At present, there is little sense of unity or effective leadership among the hamlets that comprise the CADC holders. Pressures to quickly finalize a plan may result in the process being controlled by outside investors and government technicians. An effective ADMP will require an ongoing dialogue within the community, one that has been under way for eight years in Bendum. Many Manobo want to preserve their traditional heritage but are also ready to discuss their future and gain access to better education, health services, and material goods.
Before the logging company entered the area, Manobo economy was based on rotational farming, hunting, rattan harvesting and abaca extraction. Now, community members are showing increasing interest in adopting the fanning techniques of migrants, but these require carabaos (water buffalo), pesticides, and fertilizer. They also need well-maintained roads and the means to transport their goods to market. Community members estimate that each household will need 10 hectares for farming and have proposed that the government allow them to develop the land by giving them a permit to cut the Falcata albeiza trees that were planted as part of the reforestation program. The timber income could be used as start-up capital for their farms. The Manobo also seek to protect the natural forest as a hunting reserve.
With approval of the DENR, a group of investors from New Zealand and Finland are helping to prepare a management plan for the Manobo. ESSC is concerned that these investors will only design a profitable forest production enterprise that pays little attention to the social and cultural needs of the community. Because their traditional values and resource use systems have deteriorated after decades of involvement with logging companies, ESSC believes that any model for future management should attempt to integrate modem practices and new technology within a traditional Manobo framework. Given the present fragmented condition of the Manobo community, the six-month period for management plan preparation is inadequate. Despite the difficulties, their CADC, if properly handled, could provide the Manobo with an important opportunity to revitalize their culture and restore their way of life and pride in themselves.
The forest plays a vital role in the lives of both the Bukid-non and the Manobo peoples. With DENR programs such as the issuing of CADCs and CBFM initiatives, new tenurial instruments are becoming available to formally engage local people and communities as natural resource stewards. Experience from Bendum and Kasapa provide important lessons regarding opportunities, strategies, and requirements to better involve communities in forest management:
29 The information in this study was collected by the IUCN—NTFP project team in Laos between 1996 and 1998. Team members included Rachel Dechaineux, Synoui Phomsoupha, Veomani Chanthanivong, Siphong Chanthavongsa, and Vongdeaune. The National Project Coordinator is Southone Ketphanh and the Senior Advisor is Joost Foppes.
30 NTFP Project, "Field Report Number 6: RRA of Bang Nongteh and Ban Kamtheuy," 7-10 August 1996.
31 NTFP Project, "Village Profile: Khamteuy Village," December 1997.
32 Joost Foppes and Sounthone Kethpanh, "The Use of Non-Timber Forest Products in Lao PDR," paper presented at Workshop on Sustainable Management of Non-Wood Forest Products, Selangor, Malaysia, 14-17 October 1997.
33 Personal communication from Rachel Dechaineux, Field Advisor, NTFP Project, April 19, 1999.
34 Ronald K. Edgerton, "Frontier Society on the Bukidnon Plateau, 1870-1941," in Alfred W. McCoy and Ed. C. De Jesus, Philippine Social History (Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998) pp. 361-390.
35 Eduardo Tandem, "Conflict over Land-Based natural resources in ASEAN Countries," in Lim Teck Ghee and Mark J. Valencia, eds., Conflict Over Natural Resources in South-East Asia and the Pacific (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 1990) p. 15.
36 Based on interviews conducted by ESSE field staff in the mid-1990s.
37 Ray Rodriguez, "Philippine Working Group Site Visit" (Manila: Philippine Working Group Secretariat, ESSC, 1998) p. 7.
38 Ibid. p. 141
39 Marites Danguilan-Vitug, The Politics of Logging: Power From the Forest (Manila: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 1993) p. 142.
