Indigenous people’s rights and sustainable livelihoods programme

General

This project forms part of CAFOD’s indigenous people's land and livelihoods programme which aims to support the empowerment of indigenous communities in the Philippines to lead their own development, and improve their quality of life, through increased control and more sustainable management of natural resources within their ancestral lands. The Subanen people who live in the Zamboanga Peninsula, Mindanao, are among the poorest and most marginalized people in the Philippines. Most Subanen communities are located in remote but resource-rich areas, but Subanen people have little, if any, effective representation in decision-making bodies, and indigenous women have even less say. This project will support two indigenous organisations to apply for land rights and develop land use plans for the ancestral lands. Pigsalabukan Gukom de Bayog is a traditional council of the Subanen People of the central region of the Zamboanga Peninsula representing the Bayog Indigenous community. This project will support the community of Bayog to secure their land rights and to undertake a land use planning process in order to reduce resource related conflicts and to ensure the natural resources within the domain will be managed sustainably PDSI is a Subanen women’s network representing the Kumalarang indigenous community. Through this project CAFOD, and will support the community of Kumalarang to secure their land rights and undertake a land use planning process. This process will also ensure that Indigenous women can participate in community decision-making particularly with regard to the management of ancestral lands, maintenance of peace and order, and resolution of conflict.