Story and photo by Henry Empeño | Correspondent
MORONG, Bataan—Ayta tribesmen in the remote upland communities of Morong town will receive full support from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) in a conservation project designed to protect and preserve their indigenous environment and culture.
SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma T. Eisma gave this assurance during the launch last Saturday of the Indigenous Communities Conservation Area (ICCA) project here under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The project, which seeks to preserve spaces that are de facto governed by indigenous peoples or local communities and to promote the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, places the Magbukun Ayta tribe at the forefront of conservation efforts, since they live in the conservation site, which forms a part of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
The project will be implemented with the support of the local government unit of Morong and the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, but the SBMA said it will provide support like it did for the Ambala Ayta tribe also located at the Hermosa, Bataan, side of the free port.
“We will be giving our all-out support to this endeavor, not only because the project will be implemented within the Freeport Zone but also because we at the SBMA consider environmental protection our fundamental advocacy,” Eisma said at the sidelines of the ceremony.
The SBMA official recalled the Subic agency has initiated the social-fencing concept at the free port to make residents of upland areas in the zone be part of the overall strategy to preserve Subic’s natural environment.
She noted the SBMA has been so successful in its development program with the Subic Ayta tribesmen that it was recognized recently as the best in social-responsibility initiative.
“What we have successfully done for the Pastolan Ayta tribe, we also hope to do with the Magbukun folk,” she said.
Under the ICCA program, residents living within or nearby the conservation area will serve as protectors of the environment, while the local government unit will take the lead in implementing conservation and protection activities.
The ICCA concept provides for the classification of the Magbukun territory as a sacred area or ritual ground for the indigenous community and may include forests, mountains, shorelines, wetlands, fishing areas and other bodies of water that the tribesmen use or inhabit.
The indigenous conservation areas under the UNDP concept may be situated in remote ecosystems with minimum human influence, or may encompass areas of various regulations and magnitudes within regions strongly affected or modified by human occupation.
The ICCA program is expected to result in the continuation, revival or modification of traditional practices, or even new initiatives for the protection and restoration of natural resources and cultural values in the face of new threats or opportunities.
Image credits: Henry Empeño