• Services
• Activities

National Land Tenure Program for Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines
A partnership initiative supported by MISEREOR
Project No.

PAFID has been implementing the LTP for the past 18 years. The aim of the initiative is to assist Indigenous Communities regain and secure their ancestral lands/domain. The LTP is funded by the MISEREOR, which has generously provided support for the PAFID operations since 1989. Other partners such as the FORD Foundation, Asia Foundation, the Biodiversity Support Program of the WWF and the USAID have also been instrumental in supporting the activities of the Program through various grants and other form of material and logistical support.

Through the LTP, more than 500,000 hectares of Ancestral Domains including waters have been secured through the Issuance of available tenurial instruments. Moreover, the program has also assisted various communities in the identification, survey and delineation of nearly a million hectares of traditional lands. To date more than 1 million hectares of ancestral domains and has reached more than 100 Indigenous Communities composed of at least 25,000 families. The LTP has assisted its partner communities in a diverse array of issues ranging from re-establishing land occupation of ancestral lands, securing access to natural resources, gaining legal recognition of legal claims and others. The program is implemented on a nationwide basis through PAFID's 3 regional offices.

Health and Literacy Program

PAFID has undertaken a number of Health and Literacy related initiatives since its inception. Among which are the Appropriate School for the Hanunuo Mangyan in Bulalacao, Or. Mindoro jointly implemented with the Provincial Government of Oriental Mindoro and the De La Salle University and was funded by the Philippine Australian Community Assistance Program.

In the Field of Sanitation, in partnership with various communities, PAFID has built 47Potable water systems, which has greatly reduced the incidence of water-borne diseases of community members. These projects which are of the Spring Water Development type can be located in Bulalacao Oriental Mindoro, Canawan, Morong Bataan, Imugan Sta. Fe Nueva Vizcaya; Cogon, Malay, Aklan;, Manibukyot, Tarlac; Subic, Olongapo; Dibut Aurora, and Gonzaga, Cagayan among others. Support for these initiatives were secured from partners such as the UNICEF, the Australian Government, the UNDP and the Belgian Government.

Currently, the PAFID is implementing the Agta Dumagat Comprehensive Development Project (ACDP) in partnership with the OXFAM-UK and the TAGPUAN a coalition of the Agta-Dumagat communities in Northern and Southern Aurora. Among the components of the ACDP are the provision of health services to the partner communities and the development of at least 10 local volunteer Literacy Workers through trainings using a health and livelihood approach. In the long-term, the project aims to establish a culture-based primary school using the local-Dumagat language. At least 600 families are expected to benefit from the project.

Biodiversity Conservation through Sustainable Management of Agta/Dumagat Ancestral Domain in Aurora
Supported by the UNDP-SGP with counterpart support from MISEREOR and PAFID

The project intends to enhance Agta capacity to identify, have recognized, assess biodiversity resources and sustainable manage their ancestral domains in Aurora Province. Moreover, this project recognizes the community's primary role as repositories of resource management regimes evolved by the people who lived in such a close proximity to, and with such sensitivity to, the health of local ecosystems that threats and damage to the latter have translated into an alarming dip in population that has put them, together with other endangered species, well on the road to extinction.

Mapping Ancestral Domains in Northern Mindanao
Partnership project with IFAD
Resource Management Project No. 214

Although the Government, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), has already recognized some ancestral domain claims in Northern Mindanao, the boundaries of these domains have not been properly identified and mapped. This situation has caused extreme frustration within the communities whose claims were considered, while other communities saw their ancestral domain claim applications either rejected or ignored for nearly a decade.

The overall goal of this ECP project is to bring about full recognition of the rights of indigenous communities over their ancestral domains. The project will support the initiatives of nine indigenous peoples' organizations in the Caraga region of Northern Mindanao, which are negotiating for the legal recognition of ancestral domain claims or seeking to defend, secure or reoccupy their ancestral domains. The three-year project covering approximately 100 000 ha of ancestral domains will have three components: (i) participatory community mapping; (ii) ancestral domains management planning; and (iii) capacity-building.

PAFID will be responsible for the implementation of the project, which is complementary to three IFAD projects in the Philippines, namely the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Project, the Western Mindanao Community Initiative Project, and the newly approved Northern Mindanao Community Initiatives, and Resource Management Project (NMCIREMP). Indeed, it is expected that the methodology to be adopted in the ECP project will be replicated in NMCIREMP by other agencies and NGOs. To this effect, provisions have been made in NMCIREMP to train other partner institutions in the use of this methodology.

Capability Building for a Community-Based Health Program for Indigenous Peoples in South-Central Bukidnon

This is a 2-year project supported by the Catholic Organization for Relief and Development or CORDAID. It aims to strengthen the capabilities of indigenous people's communities to uplift health and living conditions by enhancing culturally-appropriate approaches in the promotion of curative and preventive health measures.

It has provided a number of trainings and capacity building activities for thirty (30) Tribal Community Health Workers (TCHWs) from 10 various peoples organizations. The TCHWs are now responsible for the provision of health services to their own communities. They are engaged in herbal processing and soap-making. They have also been given the opportunity to serve for one (1) week at the German Doctors Hospital in Valencia, Bukidnon. The 10 organizations put up own tribal health centers and herbal gardens as counterpart to the project.

Indigenous People's Participation in Watershed and Forest Conservation and Management in Portulin, Pangantucan, Bukidnon

This project is funded by the UNDP. It aims to secure and develop the ancestral domain of the indigenous Talaandig community by strengthening and promoting their participation in watershed and forest conservation and management through an integrated area development approach reinforcing the role of tribal peoples as natural resource managers.

The Portulin Tribal Association or PTA has established its nursery and formed its own "Bantay - Lasang" or forest guards. The guards have already made two arrests and confiscations of illegal loggers and their chainsaw equipments.
(see related story).

The community has also completed the survey and delineation of their ancestral domain. They will soon formulate their Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP).