First published on 01/05/2014, and last updated on 03/05/2018
By: Giovanni Reyes, KASAPI (Member)
The aid drive for the iconic ICCA in Coron Island mounted by the Koalisyon ng mga Katutubo at Samahan ng Pilipinas (KASAPI, National Coalition of Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines) gathered more support after participants in the 1st Climate Change Adaptation Learning Highway (ALH) Conference (November 24-29, 2013), endorsed the coalition’s relief drive for victims of Typhoon Haiyan. The ALH conference was organized by the Asian Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) and KASAPI with backing from the Philippine Association for Inter-Cultural Development (PAFID) and the Kalahan Educational Foundation (KEF). It was held with support from MISEREOR, the German Catholic Bishop’s Organization for Development Cooperation. Besides Kalahan indigenous leaders sharing their experience on traditional adaptation practices, key resource persons included Dr. Kristofferson Berse of the Office of the University of the Philippines Vice-President for Public Affairs and Ms. Floradema Eleazar of the GEF-UNDP New Conservation Areas Philippines Project (NewCAPP). The former is a disaster risk management expert specializing on climate-smart risk management, while the latter is Chief Technical Adviser of the UNDP-GEF project on Expanding and Diversifying the National System of Terrestrial Protected Areas in the Philippines (EDNSTPAP) also known as NewCAPP.
In a statement issued after the meeting, major indigenous peoples organizations (IPOs) coming from Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Nagaland, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines stated that: “little has been heard of the terrible destruction that typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda wrought on indigenous communities”. Earlier, Dr. Francis Richard Dorall, a world-renowned geographer, endorsed KASAPI’s appeal and aid drive after Coron Island was cut-off from the outside world. These included two appeals read and circulated at the Warsaw Climate Change Conference on November 12 and 16, 2013 through AIPP. AIPP is an umbrella organization of indigenous peoples’ movements in Asia and an NGO in special consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council. It has concrete working partnerships with major national and regional indigenous peoples’ networks in the Philippines.
In the aftermath of typhoon Haiyan, various indigenous peoples’ organizations and NGOs moved in with a flurry of aid relief. These include the Kalipunan ng Mamamayang Katutubo sa Pilipinas (KAMP) or National Alliance of Indigenous Organizations in the Philippines, BALSA-Mindanao, Rural Missionaries in the Philippines, PAFID and the Samdhana Institute. Christian Aid came in through the Alyansa Tigil Mina (Alliance to Stop Mining). Donors such as the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA) also added their support.
In press statements, KASAPI said its aid transparency policy includes identity of source of donations, amount donated, use of donations, description of goods and name of recipient of donations and relief goods to be published in websites and other means accessible to the public. The Asian participants affirmed that “for millennia the indigenous Tagbanuas of Coron Island have played a critical role in conserving land and sea environment through customary laws and traditional governing systems and that management plans based on such systems were the result of working with KASAPI and PAFID”. As an important step for the promotion and protection of indigenous peoples’ rights to govern their traditional territories, the participants resolved to “endorse KASAPI with whom we have trust to determine immediate rehabilitation needs not only in Coron Island but in surrounding Calamian Islands”. The participants earlier made a site visit to one of KASAPI’s climate change adaptation projects in a Kalahan ancestral domain (Caraballo Mountain Range, Nueva Viscaya Nov. 24-27, 2013).
Since 2010, KASAPI has identified 197 areas traditionally conserved by their communities. Banuang Daan and Cabugao (Coron Island), Maporac (Cabangan, Zambales), Banawen (San Felipe, Zambales); Portulin (Pangantukan, Bukidnon); Balmar (Kalatungan, Bukidnon); Sibuyan Island (Romblon); Maasin (Quezon, Palawan); and San Toribio (Esperanza, Agusan del Sur) are part of the first wave of such areas, documented and mapped as Indigenous Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs). KASAPI is currently preparing an initial schedule to mount rehabilitation planning activities with its member organization in Coron Island.
