Indigenous communities conservation areas”

FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY
Ka Iking Señeres

It’s a wonderful combination of two concerns that is both logical and practical. The idea behind the “Indigenous Communities Conservation Areas” (ICCA) approach is to empower indigenous communities so that they will be able to conserve the natural resources that are within their immediate localities.

As the Americans would say, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread! I can understand why I am so thrilled and fascinated about this two-in-one idea. Indigenous peoples and nature conservation are two of my most favorite advocacies, among others of course.

I was born in the land of the Mandaya Tribe in SitioLiloan, in the barrio of Nabunturan, then part of the former Compostela town in the old Province of Davao.

Since then, Nabunturan has become a town, and it is now part of the new Province of Compostela Valley. I was too young to remember the details of my youth, but my siblings told me that the Mandaya people walked among us, often coming to our house for food and water. I would rather say that we walked among them, as we became kindred with them, due to the friendship that my parents formed with them. Well, I would like to think too that it was from them that I inherited my love for the indigenous peoples.

When I was five years old, we moved to Butuan City, the land of the Butuanons, the present day descendants of the Lapaknon Tribe. It is said that the Lapaknons are the lowland cousins of the upland Manobos, and that seems very likely, because the Butuanon language is closely related to the Manobo language, even if it has strong similarities also the Tausug language, but that is another story. It was only later on when I was already an adult that because of my fluency in Butuanon, I could communicate not only with the Manobos, but also with the other highland tribes such as the Bagobos and the Mandayas.

Due to my friendship with them, I was adopted as an honorary Datu by the Talaandig Tribe of Bukidnon, and was given the Lumad name DatuManbahandiMakadiyaw, roughly translated as “a good provider of wealth”. The same name was also given to me by the Lapaknon Tribe. It is a double honor indeed, but the title is more important for protocol purposes, because with that recognition, I am now able to deal with the other LumadDatus on an equal plane, being kindred to them now as one of their own, being a brother to them now.

At the outset, the ICCA concept seems to be good for the indigenous communities only, apparently self-serving for them. The truth however is that the concept gives them the opportunity to take on a major role not only in the conservation of our national patrimony and our natural ecology, but also in the preservation of our natural heritage and our native flora and fauna. The latter role is critically important also for our food security, particularly in the aspect of growing natural and organic foods that are also safe to eat.

After more than a hundred years as a Republic, we could not yet say that we have done well in uplifting the well-being of our indigenous tribes. They are the first people who have settled in these islands ahead of us, and it is only right that they should also have the first priority in the development of their own communities. With the introduction of the ICCA concept, it could still happen that they will become the first people to be successful in protecting their own natural environments.

In a recent ICCA conference, I had the opportunity to meet Datu Vic Saway, a leader of the Talaandig Tribe. As I expected, he confirmed the lack of public services in his tribe, particularly in housing and education. There are many services that we could deliver to them, but we agreed that housing and education would be a good place to start. As we talked, I noticed that he had a cell phone. I asked him about the quality of signal in his community, and he said that it was good. In my mind, I thought that it was good too, knowing what information could do to help in community development. For feedback, email iseneres@yahoo.com or text +639083159262