‘Tap IPs to lead environment, conservation initiatives’

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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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A native Tagbanua fisherman uses a spear to angle fish in Coron Island, Palawan. Sen. Loren Legarda cites the indigenous Tagbanua community as a prime example of IPs aiding in preserving the environment.PHOTO BY JACOB MAENTZ
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MANILA – The government has been urged to tap the country’s indigenous peoples to lead the conservation initiatives in protected areas.

They employ “age-old traditions” in protecting and preserving the environment, according to Sen. Loren Legarda.

“Indigenous peoples communities have always played an important role in the conservation and preservation of the country’s protected areas,” said Legarda, who authored Senate Bill No. (SBN) 1185.

“It’s about time that the national government give due importance and role to the indigenous communities as partners in the conservation of protected areas found within their ancestral domains,” she added.

Her measure seeks to oblige the state to recognize and promote indigenous peoples’ rights to their ancestral domains and the indigenous communities conserved areas (ICCAs) including their right to maintain, protect and regulate access and prohibit unauthorized intrusion in such areas.

“There are ICCAs, which are areas within ancestral domains including lakes, coastal seas, forests, and watershed imbued with deep spiritual and cultural values for IPs,” said the chair of the Senate committee on climate change and the United Nations Global Champion for Resilience.

An example of a community conservation area is the ancestral domain of the Tagbanua people in Coron Island, Palawan, where only traditional fishing practices are allowed within its surrounding waters.

Under the Legarda bill, government agencies shall give indigenous peoples “full and effective assistance” in the management of their conservation areas, as well as the preservation, restoration, and maintenance of ecological balance and biodiversity.

Indigenous peoples will have a fair and equitable share in the commercial profits of users of well-defined and confirmed ecosystem services provided by ICCAs, in recognition and respect of their right to benefit and share in the profits from the allocation and utilization of natural resources found in their ancestral domains, the proposal said.

SBN 1185 is also known as the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities Conserved Areas Act./PN

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