It is Saturday morning in a still quiet function room of the Almont Inland Resort in Butuan City, Southern Philippines. Four years of research are about to come to a close with the launching of the report “Addressing Land and Resource Conflicts: A Case Study of Bunawan Agusan del Sur.” The road leading here has been a bumpy one – with many delays, caused not only by the COVID-19 pandemic. Repeated flooding in the lowland area of Agusan del Sur – the site of the field research – meant that several interviews and research group meetings had to be canceled last minute. In one instance a flooded highway literally blocked our route to one of our interview partners. Floods, like many other climate change-induced natural disasters, have been getting worse all over the Philippines. They often lead to destruction of crops or a general decrease of arable land, thereby also adding to land and resource conflicts in many areas of the Philippines, including in Bunawan, Agusan del Sur. It is these conflicts that are at the center of the research study.
Bunawan is a municipality in the province of Agusan del Sur in the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao. Most of the land in the municipality is part of the ancestral domain of the Manobo, an indigenous people that makes up the majority of the population in Bunawan and other parts of Agusan del Sur. Indigenous peoples all over the Philippines have suffered from marginalization and displacement from their ancestral lands that began during the colonial period but continues until this day. Laws like the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act are meant to protect indigenous peoples’ control over their lands as well as the exercise of their self-determination rights but suffer from weak implementation and abuse by powerful actors.
Historical land dispossession is only one of the root causes for land and resource conflicts in Agusan del Sur and the rest of the Philippines. An overly complex titling system, weak land governance, overlapping titles and tenurial instruments, abuse by powerful actors such as local politicians and transnational companies, as well as the aggressive entrance of resource extraction ventures are among the conflict factors identified by the study. For indigenous peoples, the resulting conflicts are particularly grave as loss of control over their ancestral domain also presents a threat to the exercise of their self-governance and their cultural survival. Datu Alfred Barrios, a member of the Indigenous People’s organization PASAKK and partner of forumZFD, shared how conflicts on their ancestral domain have started with the implementation of a number of different titling instruments, including agrarian reform-related ones, and led to the stark shrinking of the Manobo ancestral domain in Bunawan.
Addressing land and resource conflicts
The study that is launched in the presence of community members, civil society representatives, and government agencies, not only identified the root causes of land and resource conflicts in Bunawan but also mapped out mechanisms to address them. Despite a variety of mechanisms available, community partners often expressed that they do not know where to go if they encounter conflicts. The research project thus identified the conflict resolution mechanisms offered by government agencies, assessed their implementation in practice, and explored potential entry points for forumZFD, its partner organizations, and other NGOs working on this issue.
Apart from our research partner PASAKK, our indigenous partners from Loreto and Esperanza also attended the research launch in Butuan. Together with them, we work on strengthening indigenous methods of conflict resolution, so called Manghuhusoy – including those aimed at addressing land and resource conflicts. Hearing about land and resource conflicts in Bunawan not only allowed them to reflect on their own experience but also provided a chance to engage directly with government agencies attending the launch. “Because they had learned more about the situation in Bunawan, some of our partners were able to identify potential new conflicts in their own areas and can now take measures to prevent them from escalating,” shared Lynette Tagalo, forumZFD Project Officer and in-charge of the Manghuhusoy project.
Addressing land and resource conflicts requires the cooperation of all involved actors, be it indigenous political structures, government agencies, or civil society. This was a sentiment shared again and again by those present during the launch. During the afternoon’s expert panel, Nikki dela Rosa, co-founder of the Council for Climate and Conflict Action Asia, stressed the need for NGOs to work on the whole conflict ecosystem and to share resources amongst each other. Breakout discussions further highlighted that addressing land and resource conflicts not only requires sufficient resources for those performing alternative dispute resolution, it also needs increased platforms for cooperation, respect for and recognition of indigenous conflict resolution, and a broadening of the understanding of land and resource conflicts. This was recognized by representatives of government agencies in their final sharing together with a call for increased cooperation not only among the line agencies but also with civil society actors.
As the program of the day closes and community members and government agencies alike are getting ready to return to their respective areas, it is clear that more follow ups will be needed in the future. Apart from facilitating discussions on the research findings, the launch event has laid the foundations for continuous exchange of ideas and much-needed platforms for cooperation between the civil society and government actors present. It has also become clear that none of this work can happen without the participation of those affected by the conflicts. These communities are not only those bearing the brunt of land and resource conflicts in the region, they also hold power and capacity to resolve them. As reflected by Bae Becky Barrios, former Secretary General of PASAKK, “These conflicts have long affected us greatly and we wish to finally be able to resolve them and to prevent future conflicts from escalating.”
The full report “Addressing Land and Resource Conflicts: A Case Study of Bunawan” can be accessed here.