Biodiversity Conservation Network

13. Rattan and Resin from the Tropical Forests of Palawan

---

Location:	Palawan Island, Philippines
Partners:	World Wildlife Fund - Philippines (WWF-P) Nagkakaisang mga Tribu ng Palawan (NATRIPAL) Tanggapang Panligal ng Katutubong Pilipino (PANLIPI) Tribal Filipino Apostolate
Project Title:	Community-based Conservation and Enterprise Program for Indigenous Communities in Palawan, Philippines
BCN Funding:	$627,698
Partner Contribution:	$92,034
Grant Period:	January 15, 1995 - January 14, 1998

---

Project Overview

The island of Palawan is often described as the last environmental frontier in the Philippines, as it contains some of the country's largest remaining areas of primary rain forest and some of its more intact and diverse coral reef systems. Palawan has an abundance of unique flora and fauna, including numerous endemic species, and accounts for a significant portion of the entire biological resources of the Philippines. Palawan is also home to a large number of indigenous peoples whose territories, natural resources, and cultures face growing threats from legal and illegal destructive logging and fishing practices, mining activities, and the rapid encroachment of immigrants from neighboring islands.

To counter these threats, the project team is developing new non-timber forest product (NTFP) enterprises and alternatives to the traditional marketing system. The project's short-term focus will be on rattan, almaciga resin, and honey, but over time it will also explore the potential for marketing other NTFPs. NATRIPAL, an association of 53 groups of indigenous peoples representing a majority of the indigenous communities in Palawan, hopes to simultaneously reduce the pressure on the natural resource base and improve local peoples' well-being through these projects.

The success of a community-based conservation and enterprise program like the one on Palawan will help to establish the credibility of local resource management in general. To further this effort, WWF-Philippines and NATRIPAL are working to obtain the most binding certification of ancestral land rights for two pilot project sites currently available in the Philippines -- the recently promulgated Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC). Partners are also helping project partners to establish a credit program and marketing unit that will assist indigenous cultural communities in the pilot sites to obtain greater, more sustainable benefits from the sale of NTFPs.

1996 Accomplishments

The major accomplishment of the project was that two Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claims (CADCs) were awarded by the Department and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to the indigenous people of Palawan in February 1996. The CADCs were awarded to the Tagbanuacommunity in barangay Cabayugan (5.000 hectares) and the Tagbanua and Batak community in sitio Kayasan (7,500 hectares).

The project has produced GIS-generated base maps of Kayasan, Cabayugan and Campung Ulay depicting rivers and creeks, elevation, land use and non-timber forest product (NTFP) concessions which overlap with the CADCs.

Success Stories

The biological resource inventory team has been working with the indigenous people of Kayasan since 1995 in conducting the inventory. Despite the many problems and delays encountered by the inventory team, the GIS Officer of NATRIPAL (United Tribes of Palawan) is touched by the support of the community members. Community members are keen on pushing through and seeing the inventory to its completion, realizing the community's need for the information and how they can use it in preparing and implementing their Ancestral Domain Management Plan.

NATRIPAL has also become aware of their need for integrated projects in support of their existing projects. NATRIPAL has realized that non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are not enough to support their economic and subsistence needs. They are now sourcing out funds and developing other projects in support of the NTFP enterprises being funded by BCN.

Challenges

The biggest challenge faced by the project is to make the CADCs mean more than just a piece of paper. Two of the four project sites have been awarded the certificates. But the project could not launch the NTFP enterprises because NTFP concessions have not been turned over to the indigenous communities. The CADC mandate provides that the existing concessions will be allowed to operate until the concession expires. In the meantime the extraction of resources from the concession areas is accelerating, to maximize profits from the concessions while the concessionaires still have time.

The processing of the other two CADCs in Campung Ulay and Punta Baja is difficult. The different stakeholders have different interests on the sites. The indigenous peoples seek tenure on their ancestral land while the local government and migrants support agricultural development, which in several cases means the conversion of forests to agricultural land. The application for the CADC in the Municipality of Rizal, Palawan was started in 1994, and so far the boundaries of the CADC still continue to shift.

WHY BIODIVERSITY   FIELD STORIES   PARTICIPATE   RESULTS   MARKETSPACE ABOUT THE NETWORK   WHAT'S NEW   LEARNING MATERIALS   SEARCH   LINKS   SITE MAP   HOME