Member of the Council of Elders
Based in the Philippines. Dave is the Executive Director of the Philippines Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), one of the earliest and most active Members of the ICCA Consortium. His work has consistently focused on defending the rights of indigenous peoples and cultural minorities in an environment where political murder and disappearances are unfortunately all too common. With PAFID, Dave has helped indigenous peoples secure hundreds of thousands of hectares of their ancestral domains (land and waters) as collective property, by implementing the IPRA law. He is currently advising the Senate of the Philippines regarding a possible ICCA Law that would strengthen the IPRA Law as it applies to many communities that conserve their environments. Dave has received international recognition and has earned the deep trust of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines.