Theme: Indigenous peoples' rights and protected area management

In the global policy arena, there is much attention for the relation between biodiversity conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples. Granting land rights to indigenous communities is now seen as an integral part to protect nature in developing countries. But this strategy is also questioned: Who is indigenous and who’s not? Are indigenous communities indeed the environmental stewards as is often suggested? Is it fair to pose environmental restrictions on indigenous land claims? Or does the struggle of indigenous peoples distract environmentalists from the real problems? In short, how effective is the alliance between indigenous peoples and conservationists? And how does it work out in practice at the local level?

The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park (NSMNP) is the largest protected area of the Philippines: it covers 360,000 hectares of tropical forest, mangroves and coral reefs. The protected area is home to a variety of flora and fauna, among which the endemic and critically endangered Philippine eagle and the Philippine crocodile. In 2001 the area was officially declared a protected area. The Protected Area Management Board, in which indigenous communities are represented, is responsible for the formulation of a general management plan, which specifies a complex zonation system and provides details on the rules and regulations.

Logging, hunting and agricultural encroachment are threatening the protected area. Rural communities in and around the protected area often earn less than a dollar per day and depend heavily on forest resources for their daily subsistence and income. In this context of rural poverty, the forestry department, responsible for the protection of the park, finds it difficult to enforce environmental legislation. A particular problem over the past years has been the inflow of immigrants from the Central Cordillera. These ethnic minorities (Ifugao, Itneg and Kalinga), settle in the buffer zones of the protected area to clear land where they cultivate bananas, rice and corn for subsistence. In several cases, this has lead to rapid deforestation, soil erosion, and land conflicts with local communities in the Northern Sierra Madre (Agta, Ibanag and Ilocano). Indeed, local people and politicians often pinpoint these immigrants as the main culprits of the ongoing deforestation in the protected area. This poses a set of serious challenges for protected area management and indigenous peoples’ rights: Are the immigrants from the Cordillera indeed the primary actors of forest degradation in the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park? What are the ecological effects of their slash-and-burn farming systems on endemic flora and fauna? Is it legitimate to stop these impoverished farmers to reclaim ‘empty’ forest land? Can these indigenous communities claim land rights in the Northern Sierra Madre under the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997?

The CML summer course 2007 will focus on the role of indigenous peoples in the management of the Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park. From 15 June to 31 July, 30 students from different disciplinary backgrounds (biology, anthropology, forestry, public administration, etc.) will conduct fieldwork in the Northern Sierra Madre. The summer course will take place in the framework of the Cagayan Valley Program on Environment and Development (CVPED), the academic partnership of Isabela State University in the Philippines and Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Program summer course 2007 CVPED

Requirements:
You have to be at the end of their Bachelor degree or already in your Masters degree
Be motivated and enthusiastic

Final grade and study score:
Full participation in this course, including successful completion of all assignments, will be equivalent to 10 ECTS. There is some flexibility for students who need a higher score in terms of ECTS: you can make an exam and hand-in more elaborate field report to increase the total number of ECTS. Before doing so, please contact the course coordinators.

Course venue and fieldwork sites
Most activities in the course will take place at the CVPED field station in Cabagan and its surroundings (Provinces of Isabela and Cagayan in the Cagayan Valley and Sierra Madre Mountain region, Northeast Luzon). The field sites will be visited during the field and accommodation will be arranged accordingly.