First published on 02/19/2015, and last updated on 02/19/2018
By: Dario Novellino, Honorary Member and ALDAW
“Which development? For whom and on which purpose? How and where? And with which implications?” These are only few of the many questions raised by the victims of oil palm development in Palawan’s UNESCO declared Man and Biosphere Reserve, one of the most valuable ecological sanctuary in the entire Philippines.
On 29 September 2014, a delegation composed of farmers and indigenous peoples has conveyed to Palawan Vice-Governor Dennis Socrates, a petition signed by more than 4,200 individuals calling for a moratorium on oil palm expansion province-wide. The group belonging to the newly established Coalition Against Land Grabbing (CALG) said that, in addressing rural poverty, the Government of Palawan should focus on concrete and sustainable plans to improve production on farmers’ land, rather than pushing for massive oil palm plantations. As oil palm expansion continues unabated, the household economy of small farmers and indigenous peoples is now breaking apart.
“The expansion of oil palm plantations in Palawan is a blatant example of companies defying international law, state laws and the rights of communities through the connivance of unscrupulous and short-sighted government officials” says Marivic Bero (CALG’s Secretary General). One can only speculate why the Government of Palawan remains passive while huge expanses of land, forest and fertile grounds of the “last Philippine Frontier” have been given away for agribusinesses. However at least, we know the official explanation: oil palms are only planted on ‘idle’ and ‘abandoned’ land to enhance the province’s economy while increasing job opportunities and transforming unused areas in productive plantations.
But are such lands really ‘idle’ and ‘abandoned’? A recent study carried out by ALDAW (Ancestral Land/Domain Watch), a member of the global ICCA Consortium with the support of the Non-Timber Forest-Exchange Programme and the Broederlijk Delen, has clearly proven the contrary. The study, further supported by additional documentation obtained by the author during his Darrell Posey and Paul Feyerabend fellowships, points out that most of these so called ‘idle’ and ‘unproductive’ lands include areas that have been used since time immemorial by IPs societies. The removal of natural vegetation and of previous agricultural improvements by oil palm plantations is leading to the total collapse of traditional livelihoods, thus fostering communities’ impoverishment and increasing malnutrition.
What the Government has failed to consider is that most of the so called ‘idle’ and ‘underdeveloped’ lands include areas that are being utilized by the rural and indigenous populations for different purposes (gathering of non-timber forest products – NTFPs), medicinal plants, widen cultivation, etc. A direct relationship exists between oil palm expansion, the impoverishment of people’s diet, the progressive deterioration of traditional livelihood and the interruption of cultural transmission related to particular aspects of people’s local knowledge.
In some oil palm impacted communities, the most common plant species used in basketry have dramatically declined. Overall, if massive land conversion for oil palm plantation will be allowed to continue, this may cause the additional exhaustion of plant material and fibers which are essential to sustain people’s cultural practices, artistic expressions and daily needs. The depletion of useful wild palms is directly connected to land conversion into oil palm plantations. Palms yield multiple types of products and provide both food and cash income. Pala’wan indigenous communities exploit wild plants for their edible cabbages (the tender meristematic region found in the growing tip and enclosed by leaf bases). Calamus spp. and Daemonorops spp. yield very little, but Arenga spp. and Oncosperma spp. might provide buds that are up to two-three kilograms. Certain palms such as bätuq (Caryota mitis), bätbat (Arenga undulatifolia), busniq (Arenga brevipes), and nangäq have been traditionally exploited for their edible starch. Undoubtedly, palm food in Palawan may still play an important role in view of the dramatic changes that peoples are experiencing in their livelihood (e.g. increasing crops’ failure due to attack of pests and unpredictable weather patterns). There are evidences, in fact, that during various El Niño events, several Pala’wan communities have been able to counter famine and crop failures through increasing collection of starch from both wild and cultivated species. It may then be anticipated that the alarming decline of starch palms caused by oil palm expansion could further deprive entire Pala’wan communities from an important emergency food (palm starch), thus leaving them with no food options during periods of food shortage and crops failure.
Surprisingly enough, oil palm expansion and massive land conversion in Palawan is taking place with neither serious monitoring by the concerned authorities nor existing maps. It is therefore impossible to systematically determine the ownership, elevation, land classification, etc. of the areas in which oil palms are being planted. So far, oil palm plantations have covered an area of about 6,000 ha. across six Municipalities in Southern Palawan and their aim is to expand to a total target area ranging between 15,000 to 20,000 hectares.
Oil palm development in the Philippines is bound to become a major issue. The country, in fact, aspires to become one of the key exporters of oil palm kernels and palm oil in Southeast Asia, after Malaysia and Indonesia. Indeed, this is not such a remote possibility, considering that, recently, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje has proposed the conversion of some 8 million hectares of ‘idle’, denuded and unproductive lands across the country into oil palm plantations.
| Evidence clearly indicates that the disappearance of useful plant species in favor of oil palm expansion is extremely alarming. For instance, in one particular area of Palawan, in Barangay Iraan (Municipality of Rizal), interviews of local inhabitants lead to the conclusions that out of the overall amount of species that cannot longer be found in the proximity of people’s settlements: – 32 of them are plants for medicinal and ritual uses, – 27 of them are plants used for making artifacts, objects of daily use as well as for house material, – 13 are palms having multiple uses and – 7 of them are rattan palms, – 4 are useful bamboo species. – 9 species were used as fish poison, – 3 species provided the poison for the blowpipe darts and – 15 are plants used as food/condiment. |
