First published on 02/23/2013, and last updated on 04/15/2017
The ICCA Consortium in the Philippines was formally established during a three-day meeting among representatives of indigenous peoples from all over the country called for this purpose in Quezon City on 19 – 22 February 2013. The meeting was jointly organized by KASAPI and PAFID with support from the UNDP-GEF and the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation (PTFCF).
In a unanimous decision, the participants in the meeting adopted the name Philippine ICCA Consortium for the new organization expected to promote the appropriate recognition of and support to ICCAs in the Philippines. The Philippines ICCA Consortium will develop a national program for ICCAs in the country, which is hoped will serve as a framework for cooperation among agencies, donor institutions and support organizations interested in advancing the ICCA agenda in the country. The establishment of this national Consortium fulfils one of the calls expressed in the Manila Declaration developed and signed by indigenous peoples during the First National Conference on ICCAs in the Philippines held on 29 – 30 March 2012.
A 7-member steering committee comprised of representatives from all “ethnographic regions” in the country was created in February 2013 to work on the other details and organizational concerns of the Consortium. The first meeting of the committee will be on 23 – 26 June 2013 to finalize the Constitution and By-laws of the Consortium, and other legal requirements. The meeting will also discuss the details of the proposed national program on ICCAs. To support the steering committee, an interim secretariat led by the KASAPI Secretary General was also created. The interim secretariat includes representatives from several organizations that are Philippines Member of the global ICCA Consortium such as the NTFP and AnthroWatch, and the UNDP-GEF supported DENR-PAWB-NewCAPP Project. In addition to the IP representatives, a number of organizations, agencies, and institutions participated in the conference. These include the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), the national commission on indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
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