Anthrowatch and Ancestral Domain Delineation

AnthroWatch, has been engaged in assistance to AD delineation since it was founded a decade ago. Since that time, too, it has been involved in IP community development planning through assistance in preparing or evaluating development projects for IP communities. It has a strong focus on capacity-building, especially with regard to cultural sensitivity as a key ingredient in development interventions for IPs.

Furthermore, AnthroWatch has been involved in a similar collaborative arrangement for a similar purpose. In 1999, AnthroWatch was contracted by the World Wide Fund for Nature to assist, in the AD delineation of the Sibuyan Mangyan Tagabukid in Romblon Province as well as in the formulation of its community development plan, which were completed in 2001. This partnership has been termed the “convergence approach”, wherein NGOs utilise their unique capacities to realise a common goal or to implement a joint project.

In 2000, AnthroWatch with the Inter-Peoples Exchange Program (IPEx), an NGO composed of IP staff, commenced the Ancestral Domain Support Program (the ADSP – with the support of the International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs or IWGIA). The goal of the ADSP was to provide support so that IP communities (10 in all) have their rights to their AD secured through the completion of the delineation processes, as well as self-determination upheld through community empowerment and capability-building programs.

In a smaller scale, such partnership has been entered into by AnthroWatch and the Non-Timber Forest Product-Task Force (NTFP-TF), within the ADSP. From 2001 to the present, we have been jointly assisting several IP communities also for AD delineation, ADSDPP formulation and advocacy of related IP issues.

Advocacy includes current active participation in the National Coordinating Committee on the Formation of the IP Consultative Body, Steering Committee of the Mindanao Scoping Conference, Coordinating Committee of the IP Land Rights Project, Steering Committee of the Philippine branch of the Global Call Against Poverty, National Council of the Rural Women’s Congress to head the IP cluster, and Inisyatribo which is a coalition of IP support groups.

These experiences have bolstered AnthroWatch’s work principle of active cooperation with multiple stakeholders whenever possible.