1

Message to our Stakeholders

The work of the Foundation for Philippine Environment is into its eighteenth year.
Let me share some reflections as the outgoing chairperson.

The first is about the trusteeship of the FPE funds. Through the ups and downs of
the local and global market, FPE has managed to preserve the original endowment funds
and even grow it. From the original fund of approximately PhP 569 million, the total FPE
fund stands at PhP 746,770,562 by end of June 2010 (as of July 26 run date). In the same
period, we have approved PhP 587,852,722 (also as of July 26 run date) to various partners
and projects.

But in the last five years, there has been a decline of our annual earnings, and our
fund managers expect this downward trend to continue. Since we do not want to adopt a
more aggressive and, therefore, more risky investment strategy, FPE faces the challenge of
finding other ways to increase the funds that we can disburse to project partners.

Fortunately, FPE has some positive experiences on raising funds beyond the earnings
of our endowment. FPE has accessed EU grant funds, in partnership with local and foreign
organizations, and there are other prospects.

The second is about the disbursement of grant funds . At the start of the current
fiscal year, we projected a shortfall of income for the targeted grant disbursements. But by
the second half of the year, the recovery of the market covered this projected shortfall, and
even gave FPE a small surplus.

Ironically, as we end this fiscal year, we have the opposite problem of not having
disbursed the targeted amount for partners and projects. This poses a number of questions:
Why did we not receive enough quality proposals? What further improvements are needed
in our processing of proposals? How can FPE be more proactive in seeking prospective
partners, and assist them in developing their proposals?

The third is about the outcomes and impact of our grant-giving. What species have
we helped protect? Or more appropriately, what ecosystems have we helped protect?
And since our chosen approach to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development
(BCSD) is "community-based," to what extent have we helped increase the capabilities of
communities, especially indigenous peoples' communities, for BCSD?
 For the 15th anniversary of FPE, the write up of various partnership projects gave
some ideas about the outcomes and impact of our grant-giving. Our 18th year is a good
time for FPE to design a process of assessing in greater depth the outcome and impact of
our grant-giving.

Since FPE has adopted the CARESS! framework, there have to be added indicators
and measures of outcomes and impact. Before the CARESS! framework, our large grants
were given only to priority sites projects. The so-called action grants were relatively small
and were not subject to a strategic framework or assessment.

But now that FPE can give large grants to non-site specific projects e.g. advocacy,
we need to develop a strategic framework that will guide our approval of such non-site
specific projects, and our assessment of their outcomes and impact.

The fourth is about knowledge management. Other than the funds we hold in
trust and disburse to project partners, FPE's major asset should be the knowledge we help
generate and disseminate, about BCSD in general, and about community-based approaches
in particular. While FPE has taken steps to systematize and computerize the data and
information we have collected over the years, this is one task that needs much more work.

Finally, in addition to its role in grant-giving, FPE has two other strategic roles, as
fund facilitator and catalyst for cooperation.

Fortunately, FPE has been considered by other funding agencies as a potential

manager of their grant funds. This has expanded even further to asking FPE to help in the
co-implementation of projects. This development poses a new challenge to FPE, since it is
not geared to directly implement projects.

Based on partners' feedback, there are also expectations for FPE to play a greater
role as a catalyst for cooperation, especially for advocacy. Again, this is a new challenge,
since FPE sees its role as supporting partners and other stakeholders as the front line
players, not only in site-specific projects, but also in advocacy and other activities under
CARESS I.

Edicio de Ia Torre
FPE Chairperson
July 2008- June 2010
Grants Projects 6-65

Building Sustainable Communities 8

Strengthening Partnerships 20

Restoring Habitats 26

Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change 36

Understanding Mining 40

Linking Population, Health and the Environment 44

Enhancing Environmental Education 46

Upholding the Rights of Vulnerable Sectors 53

Addressing Issues on Pollution and Wastes 56

Environmental Defense 58

Policy Advocacy for Environment and Development 64

Institutional Updates 66-77

Governance 68
National Environment Agenda and the CARRESI 68
leadership Changes 71
RAC National Assembly 72
Partners' Forum 73
Knowledge Products 74
Staff Training and Development 77
The Way Forward 77

Board of Trustees 78-79

Permanent Members 80
Regional Advisory Committee Members 2004-2010 80-81
FPE Management and Staff 81

Projects Supported 82-98

Year 2005 83
Year 2006 87
Year 2007 89
Year 2008 91
Year 2009 94
Year 2010 97
Summary of Project Status 98
 Monitoring Station in the Marine Protected Area in Caramay Island, Green Island Bay, Palawan . (F. Ramirez/FPE)

6
 The year 2010 marks the
Foundation's 18th year. From 1992
to June 2010, it has given out
PhP 587,852,722 in grants to more
than a thousand non-government
organizations (NGOs) and peoples'
organizations (POs) for their small,
medium or large projects. The
fund was drawn from the national
environmental fund amounting to
PhP 569,809,065 established by
the FPE, the Philippine government
and the US Agency for International
Development. The endowment fund
now stands at PhP 746,770,562.

Grants Projects 7
 BUILDING SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

The heart of the mission to build sustainable communities is

IInot just to gather data, but help people protect their treasures, in
II

the words of a scientist FPE has worked with, and benefit from their
II

use."

Working with communities is a cornerstone strategy of the

Foundation. The first step in this work is building the capacities of
the organized communities- in terms of governance, technical and
organizational strengthening, and installation of financial systems-
in order to enable them to continue their undertakings beyond the
project life.

Continuing Community-Based Resource

Management Projects

Luzon

Fisherfolk Integrated Self-Help for Empowerment and

Regeneration (FISHER) Project for Honda Bay and
Green Island Bay

The FISHER Project is a marine conservation project aimed at

protecting the rich biodiversity of Honda bay in Puerto Princesa and
Green Island Bay in Roxas, Palawan . The alliance coordinates closely
with the LGUs in the area and Haribon Palawan, which started the
project in 1997 and helped in the strengthening of the fisherfolk
alliance.

Location: Palawan Province- Honda Bay, Puerto Princesa City;

Green Island Bay, Municipality of Roxas
Partner: Palawan Community-Based Fisherfolk Alliance, Inc.
(PCBFAI)

Bolos Point Community-Based Resource Management

Project
Most of the communities in the environmentally-critical
areas in the country still depend on resource-based
livelihood to sustain them, like this IP woman and her
The Bolos Point Community-Based Resource Management Project, child selling farm produce in the streets of Cotabato.
begun in 2000, aims to conserve and protect the biological resources (D . De Alban!FPE)
of the Cagayan Corridor through the Biodiversity Corridor Strategy.
It seeks to empower the local communities, including the indigenous
groups and migrant farmers for effective management of their marine
and forest resources. CAVAPPED in partnership with the Provincial

8
Government was instrumental in passing an Executive
Order declaring the Cagayan Sierra Madre Biodiversity
Corridor as a Protected Landscape and Seascape under
the National Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS).

Location: Barangay Bolos Point, Municipality of

Gattaran, Cagayan Province
Partner: Cagayan Valley Partners in People
Development (CAVAPPED)

Upland fa rmers in the community-based fo rest management area

Community-Based Resource Management in Paranas, Western Samar. (Fel Cadiz)
of Buasao Watershed and Mount Poswey
Vi sayas

Paranas Community-Based Forest

Management Project

The project aims to protect a portion of the forests of

Sama r Island through the efforts of a federation of
people 's organizations in two mun icipalities .

A measure of the project's effectiveness is shown from

the recognition it has received. It was recognized as a
model village conservation project by the Samar Island
Biodiversity Project and nominated in the FAO's " In
Search of Excellence" Exemplary Forest Management
Organic Livestock raising is one of the resource-based livelihood projects in Asia and the Pacific in 2005. It was also hailed as
of TIPON.
the Most Gender-Responsive Project in the Philippines
awarded by the Department of Environment and
Launched in 1996 in partnership with the Concerned
Natural Resources (DENR) in 2003 for incorporating
Citizens of Abra for Good Governance (CCAGG),
gender and development in community forestry.
the community-based resource management project
of the Buasao Watershed and Mount Poswey aims
Location: Municipality of Paranas, Western Samar
to conserve the ancestral domain of the Maeng and
Province
Masadiit subtribes of Tinguian tribe. It revived and now
Partner: Katatapuran nga Pederasyon han Parag-
uses an indigenous set of practices called /apat as a
uma ha Samar, Inc. (KAPPAS)
resource management tool. TIPON, the tribal-based
organization strengthened by CCAGG is pursuing the
finalization and adoption of the Ancestral Domain
- Integrated Area Conservation and
Susta inable Development and Protection Plan (ADSDPP)
Resource Enhancement (I-CARE) Project
as harmonized with the watershed management plan
of the two areas . ADSDPP is a core component of the
Begun in 2002, the project aims to rehabilitate and
Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title.
conserve the resources of the North Negros Natural
Park. It started as a partnership between Multi-sectoral
Location : Municipality of Tubo, Abra Province
Alliance for Development (MUAD)- Negros and the
Partners: CCAGG and Tipon iti Umili para ti
FPE and was turned over to TDDARMI in 2009.
Panangsaluad iti Nakaparsuan (TIPON)

9
 Location: Negros Occidental Province
Partner: Third District Development Alliance of Resource Managers, Inc. (TDDARMI)

Mindanao

Dinagat Island Community-Based

Resource Management

Initially intended as a conservation project using the community-based resource

management as a strategy, the project proponents realized that because the site is a
declared mineral reserve that spans 756 square kilometers with ten barangays, their efforts
would be more fruitful if they shifted to advocacy work instead. MAGKUNO was able to
encourage the residents to turn away from small-scale mining and illegal fishing activities
to more sustainable livelihood alternatives, such as trading, crab fattening and other
sustainable aquaculture activities.

Location : Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte Province

Partner: Malahutayong Aksyon sa mga Gumagamit sa Kinaiyahan Uban ang mga
Nagpakabanang Organisasyon (MAGKUNO), Inc.

II Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development Project in

SK Pendatun, Maguindanao

Ligawasan Marsh is a premier but critical wetland ecosystem in Mindanao where a number
of endangered endemics can be found. The project was developed in 1999 to conserve
the wetland through active community participation anchored on the synergy of religion,
culture and environment.

Location: Municipality of SK Pendatun, Maguindanao Province

Partner: Maguindanaoan Development Foundation, Inc. (MDFI)

Biodiversity Conservation Project for Mount Malindang Natural Park

The project was established by the NGO, Pipuli Foundation, Inc. in 1996 to help address
the threats to Mount Malindang, the highest natural landmark in the Zamboanga
biogeographic region . It is now KAMAS, a PO of mixed Subanen tribe and migrant settlers,
which undertakes conservation activities in the park and has completed the ancestral
domain management plan and facilitated the awarding of the Certificate of Ancestral
Domain Claim to Pekompongan, another PO.

Location : Municipalities of Bonifacio and Aloran, Misamis Occidental Province

Partner: Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma sa Sinampongan (KAMAS)

10
 Lake Mainit Biodiversity Conservation Project

The project aims to form and capacitate gender and culture responsive community
organizations to enable them to implement the biodiversity conservation and sustainable
development programs in priority areas in Lake Mainit, the deepest and fourth largest lake
in the Philippines.

Location: Municipalities of Jabonga and Kitcharao, Agusan del Norte Province; and
Municipalities of Mainit and Alegria, Surigao del Norte Province
Partner: Caraga Consortium for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development
(CCEPSD)

Arakan Community-Based Project for Forest Corridor Development

The project aims to conserve the remaining primary forests in Mount Mahuson, Mount
Sinaka and in the Kabalatian-Binoongan-Kulaman (KABIKU) forest reserve, and rehabilitate
the critically degraded areas in the range through the forest corridor concept. It also
supports the ancestral domain management plan of the tribal communities in the area .

Location: Arakan Valley, North Cotabato Province

Partner: Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. (PEFI)

Terrestrial Development Alternatives and Environmental Governance for

BUHITA Ancestral Domain (TALEGBA) in Upper Pulangi Watershed

The project, which started in 2000

was undertaken by the Philippine
Eagle Foundation, Inc. to conserve the
forests in the watershed, which is
home to the Higaonon and Bukidnon
tribes and the habitat of the Philippine
Eagle. Now on its last year of PO-
managed initiative, the project has
strengthened BUHITA such that it now
sits in various special bodies of local
government and, through consistent
assertion of rights, was able to share
Lake Malingling in Bukidnon Province. (J. Suazo/FPE) with the LGU's water-system's income
coming from the watershed - or the
more recent name on resource-based income sharing, "payment for environmental
services" (PES). This benefit now provides the resources needed by the PO to sustain
conservation work .

Location : Municipality of Cabanglasan and Malaybalay City, Bukidnon Province

Partner: Bukidnon Higaonon Tribal Association (BUHITA)

11
 Completed Community-Based Resource
Management Projects
II Strengthening Community-Based Resource
Management (CBRM) Practices
in Mount Bulusan
The Bulusan Volcano Natural Park (BVNP) was the
site of a CBRM project begun in 1995 by the NGO,
Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan, Inc.
(LIKAS), that set out to conserve the natural resou~ces
of the park and build the organizational capacities
of POs in the areas to eventually federate them
as the on-site protector of the park. Under LIKAS
tutelage, the POs built their capacities and finally
federated as Pederasyon ng Nagkaisang Samahan ng
Bundok Bulusan, Inc., which began implementing the
conservation and development project in the area in
2002. The project was completed in 2008, with the
federation successfully managing livelihood activities
while conducting bantay-gubat patrols, with funding
from several LGUs.
Science Institute of Miriam College, initially planned a
simple awareness-raising project for park visitors in
1997, but eventually worked with the local
communities to develop the park as a model eco-
historical tourism destination.
Seven years later, after vigorous community organizing,
research, park management, awareness campaigns and
networking, the project was turned over to BUNDUK.
The federation not only cooperated with the
government's park superintendent in managing
the park, but also took on the powerful industry of
marble quarrying, to protect the park's resources,
especially its water. The end of the CBRM project in
2008 saw BUNDUK officers engaging national and
local government officials to seek their assistance in
the struggle against quarrying. They also spoke at
different forums to enlist the support of schools, civic
organizations, and communities in other areas around
the park, as well as other Manila based supporters and
donors, such as Miriam PEACE and FPE, to drive away
those activities that would harm the park.

Duration: 1996-2008 Duration: 1997-2008

Partner: Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan, Partner: Miriam Public Education and Awareness
Inc. (LIKAS) and Pederasyon ng Nagkaisang Campaign for the Environment (Miriam PEACE)
Samahan ng Bundok Bulusan, Inc. and Buklod Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa
(PNAGSAMA) Kabundukan (BUNDUK)

Biak na Bato National Park Protected Area Management Board

Conservation Project (PAMB) Capacity-Building and
Strengthening and CBRM for Mounts
The Biak-na-Bato Banahaw-San Cristobal Protected
National Park Landscape
Conservation Project
was another CBRM The project, started in 2000, is another example of
project initiated by partnership between a strengthened PO and an NGO
an NGO and turned for the conservation of a protected area . Collaborators
over to a PO in project implementation were Luntiang Alyansa
federation. Miriam ng Bundok Banahaw (LABB) or Green Alliance for
PEACE (Public Mount Banahaw, a farmers' coalition that had been
Education and strengthened by an earlier FPE-supported project
Awareness implemented by CO-TRAIN in mid-1990s, and
Campaign for the Tanggol Kalikasan ng Timog Katagalugan (TK-TK)
Environment), the or Environmental Defense for Southern Tagalog, an
Madlum River in Biak-na-Bato National Park, outreach arm of the alternative law group. LABB took charge of community
Bulacan. (FPE Luzon)
Environmental
12
organizing and natural resource management; TK-TK,
on the other hand, handled the strengthening of the
park's protected area management board .
Together, the two organizations helped the POs
secure two water rights for the local households
and conducted an active tri-media campaign and
lobbying that led to the closure of the park for five
years to allow it to regenerate. Two years before
the end of the project in late 2008, appreciation for
and protection of the park was boosted with the
publication of a resource book on the rich biodiversity
and high endemism of the park, made possible by the
research of the Southern Luzon Polytechnic College
(now University). On December 12, 2009 the Banahaw
Protected Area Bill was signed into a law, the Republic
Act 9847, establishing Mounts Banahaw and San
Cristobal as protected landscape.
Duration: 1996-2008
Partners: Luntiang Alyansa sa Bundok Banahaw
(LABB), Tanggol Kalikasan sa Timog
Katagalugan (TK-TK), Southern Luzon
Polytechnic College (SLPC), and Community
Organizing, Training, Research, Advocacy and
Institution Building (CO-TRAIN)
Integrated Biodiversity Conservation and
Sustainable Management of
Ancestral Domains Project- Zambales
Mountain Range
The project was undertaken as a prelude to the PhP
50 million UNDP-Medium Size Project being requested
for GEF funding, wherein forty-nine (49%) would be
cofinanced by at least six major partners including
the Aytas themselves. Started in 2002, the project
enabled the training of the federation officers on
leadership, organ izational management and advocacy,
while assisting in the livelihood projects of the PO,
Pederasyon ng Aytang Samahan sa Sambales.
FPE funding ended in 2007, one year after the GEF
decided that its funding priorities had changed.
Duration : 2002-2007
Partner: Pederasyon ng Aytang Samahan sa
Sambales (PASS), Inc.
Mount Talinis-Twin Lakes Biodiversity
Conservation Project (MTTLBCP)
Mount Talinis, the
highest peak in
the Cuernos de
Negros (Horns of
Negros) range in
Negros Oriental,
was the site of
a CBRM project
that featured the
collaboration of
two sets of NGOs
and PO federations
in two different
Siit Arboretum in Negros Oriental. (Fe/ Cadiz) areas of the
mountain: the Silliman University Center for Tropical
Conservation Studies and Pederasyon sa Nagkahiusang
Maguuma nga Nanalipod og Nagpasig-uli sa Kalikupan
in the twin lakes site, and the Rotarian "Ting" Matiao
Foundation and Mount Talinis People's Organ ization
Federation in Mount Talinis. In 1996, when the project
began, the two NGO implementing partners began
to establish one people's organization in each of the
16 communities, and trained them on basic ecological
principles, biodiversity conservation and CBRM, and
encouraged them to set up livelihood projects, such
as establishment of nurseries and tree-farms that
promoted conservation.
By the end of the project in 2007, the POs, with the
support of the LGU, had already begun biodiversity
monitoring by themselves and were tending their
agroforestry projects.
Duration: 1996-2007
Partners: Silliman University Center for Tropical
Conservation Studies (SU CenTrop), Rotarian
Martin "Ting" Matiao Foundation, Inc. and
Pederasyon sa Nagkahiusang Maguuma
nga Nanalipod og Nagpasig-uli sa Kalikupan
(PENAGMANNAK) and Mount Talinis People's
Organization Federation (MTPOF)
13

Matutum Integrated Conservation and
Development (MICADEV) Program
The Matutum Integrated Conservation and
Development (MICADEV) Program is a multi-sectoral
effort coordinated by the Consortium of Development
NGOs that envisioned Mount Matutum as "a premier
watershed that is able to provide quality of life
for the people of SOCSARGEN (South Cotabato,
Sarangani, General Santos City) through genuine
community participation, and sustainable and equitable
development." Begun in 1995, it was then handled
by four NGOs until 2003, when it was turned over
to the PO, the Linan Protected Area Multi-purpose
Cooperative. In 2005, the PO-managed project was
completed, ending a 10-year CBRM intervention .
Duration: 1995-2005
Partners: Linan Protected Area Multi-purpose
Cooperative, Matutum Integrated POs and
Mahintana Foundation, Inc.
Exploring and Opening New Sites
II Delineation and Biological Fencing of the
Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
National Park (PPSRNP) and Cleopatra's
Needle
The project aims
to delineate natural
networks of
interconnecting critical
areas of the PPSRNP
through biological
fencing and delineation
of ancestral domain in
order to protect the
biologically and culturally
significant park.
Collecting wildlings of apitong baboy to
use as biological f ence in the boundaries
of PPSRNP. (Haribon Palawan!PCFBAI)
14
Location: Barangays Cabayugan, Marufinas,
and Tagabinet covering Puerto Princesa
Subterranean River National Park
Partner: Haribon Palawan, Inc.
Community-Based Co-Management of
Resources towards Sustainable Ecosystem
for /log Hilabangan Watershed Forest
Reserve (CoMaReSE)
The Hilabangan Watershed Forest Reserve is the
eleventh largest watershed in the Philippines with an
area of 10,400 hectares. The project's overall goal is to
have a peaceful, progressive, well-conserved and well-
sustained watershed ecosystem co-managed by vibrant
and committed communities.
Location: llog Hilabangan Watershed Forest
Reserve, Barangay Buenavista, Himamaylan
City; and Barangays Tan-awan and Carolan,
Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental
Partner: Negros Economic Development
Foundation, Inc. (NEDF)
Natural Resource Inventory and Resource
Management Assessment
for the Islands of Sicogon-Gigantes
Sicogon and Gigantes Islands are identified as the
home of four endemic and endangered species, i.e.,
these animals are confined to a small, threatened,
and continuously being degraded, habitat. However,
while several groups have conducted various studies
on specific aspects of the islands' natural resources,
there has as yet been no effort to undertake a
comprehensive profiling of t he biological resources
of the islands. The Natural Resource Inventory and
Resource Management Assessment for the Islands of
Sicogon and Gigantes of PROGRESO aims to gather
baseline information on the islands for the possibility of
undertaking future conservation action .
 Location: Sicogon and Gigantes Island, Municipality of Caries,
Iloilo Province
Partner: Panay Rural Organizing for Reform and Social Order,
Inc. (PROGRESO)

Mount Gurain Biodiversity Conservation and

Watershed Preservation Project

Rock formations in the lagoons of Sicogon Island.

The project was aimed at conserving and protecting the
(FPE Visayas)
biodiversity and watershed in the Piagapo side of Mount
Gurain, the tallest mountain range in between the two provinces of Lanao, by creating awareness among
the community residents. Through the initial grant of FPE the project proponent launched an advocacy
campaign and conducted educational activities geared towards responsible management of the natural
resources in the site.

Location: Municipality of Piagapo, Lanao del Sur Province

Partner: Tapucan Farmers Multi-purpose Cooperative

Lake Lanao

Lake Lanao in Lanao del Sur is the second largest freshwater lake in the Philippines and one of the
fifteen ancient lakes of the world. It is one of 36 key biodiversity areas in Mindanao and has been
identified as an important bird area . A 1960 study revealed that the lake had 18 endemic species of
fish. A later study reported that it is also home to 41 endemic freshwater crab species and supports a
large number of waterfowl. However, the lake is affected by soil erosion due to indiscriminate logging
and extensive agricultural expansion in the surrounding areas. In 2006, a study of the Mindanao State
University discovered massive algae contamination in the lake due to poor sewage and agricultural waste
management. Because of the precarious state of its biodiversity, the lake has been categorized as an
extremely high critical site for conservation by the Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Priority Program.

The lake is now being assessed as a new priority site for FPE in Mindanao.

Location: Lake Lanao, Lanao del Sur

Marilog Forest Reserve

Marilog Forest Reserve, found in the Bukidnon-Davao boundary, is part of the Davao River Watershed
that provides water for household and agricultural use. It is also a wildlife habitat and is part of the
ancestral domain of the Matigsalog Lumad . Because of its cultural, economic and ecological importance,
conservation of the reserve is imperative.

FPE Mindanao is scoping the reserve for a possible priority site.

Location: Marilog District, Davao and Davao del Sur

15
 Standardizing Baseline Research in FPE Project Sites

Accurate baseline information is an important prerequisite in

any project. It describes the prospective project site before any
intervention is begun. While FPE-supported projects had always
been preceded by rapid site assessments, it was only in 2007 that
baseline research began to be standardized . Such standardization
would enable FPE to compare conditions across sites, but also track
these conditions through time. FPE called on various academic and j

research institutions to assist in the assessment of FPE's priority sites.

Eight organizations were named as national research partners,
namely:
1
Resource assessment in Lake Mainit. (Fel Cadiz)

National Research Partner

Resources, Environment and Economics Center

for Studies
Central Luzon State University- Environmental
Management Institute
Palawan State University- Center for Strategic
Policy and Governance, Inc.
Silliman University- Institute of Environmental
and Marine Sciences
People Collaborating for Environmental and
Economic Management in Davao Foundation
Xavier University- Kinaadman Research Center
Mindanao State University- Southern Philippines
Research and Extension Foundation
Ateneo de Davao University- Social Research,
Training and Development Office
Site
Bolos Point, Cagayan; Balbalasang-Balbalan
National Park and Buasao Watershed and Mount
Poswey; Biak-na-Bato, Bulacan; Mount Banahaw,
Laguna and Quezon; and Mount Bulusan,
I
Sorsogon
Zambales Mountain Range
Honda and Green Island Bays, Palawan
Paranas, Samar; Guiuan and Salcedo Coastal
Area, Eastern Samar; Northwest Panay Peninsula
Natural Park, Antique and Aklan; Mount Talinis-
Twin Lakes, Negros Oriental; and North Negros
Natural Park, Negros Occidental
Mount Malindang Range Natural Park, Misamis
Occidental
Lake Mainit, Agusan del Norte and Surigao del
Norte
Pulangi Watershed, Bukidnon and Arakan
Valley-Mount Sinaka, North Cotabato
Mount Matutum Protected Landscape, South
Cotabato; and Ligawasan Marsh, Maguindanao

Each site assessment looked into the biodiversity,

sociocultural, economic and geopolitical profile of a particular
location . The data gathered from such assessments are used to
improve project design and development plans, w ith the ultimate
goal of making such designs and plans tailor-fit to the
community.

Members of the community are also encouraged to participate in the

resource assessment. (FPEfile)

16

Members of the POs participating in strategic planning workshops held by
FPE in all its 19 priority sites across the country. (FPE.file)
Strategic Planning Workshops for
Site-focused Projects
From its establishment, FPE has been supporting
community-based resource management programs
in 19 site-focused projects throughout the country.
However, quick assessments in some of the sites
indicated that the biodiversity conservation and
sustainable development initiatives and the operation
of the organization might not be sustained once FPE's
support is completed.
With the intent to comprehensively assess the
results of initiatives undertaken in these sites and guide
the respective partner NGOs/POs in the development of
a more outcome-oriented strategy on which to anchor
their operational plans, the Board of FPE approved the
conduct of strategic planning processes for FPE site-
focused projects.
This was undertaken in all the site-focused
projects. FPE also saw this as a crucial step for assessing
the results of the initiatives and activities undertaken in
these areas.
The strategic planning provided opportunities
for the members and officers of the PO/NGO to develop
a five-year plan that would help them undertake a more
focused and sustained management of their site and
the natural resources found there as they move toward
independence from FPE in the next few years.
17
 Respect for common property forms backbone of
watershed protection in the Cordilleras

In the highlands of the Cordilleras, one indigenous tribe keeps the spirit of respect for community
property alive. The Banao tribe has traditionally been stewards of an ancestral land that is now
identified as part of the Banao Watershed area of the Balbalasang-Balbalan National Park (BBNP).
Covering an area of 93,800 hectares in the municipalities of Balbalan, Kalinga and Malibcong, Abra
in the Northern Cordilleras, the area is acknowledged to have one of the most extensive tracts of
forest remaining in the country. Recent data on the distribution of the remaining old growth forest
areas in the country support this claim.

The Banao tribe has kept the area's biodiversity and culture intact long before the establishment of
a formal government in the region by ascribing to their own unique system of management called
lapat. The concept of lapat is part of the tribe's indigenous knowledge systems and practices that has
been incorporated into their daily lives. It forms the backbone of the tribe's management and use of
their ancestral domain, and it has kept the natural resources of the area largely intact even through
the onslaught of modern, exploitative extraction technologies. The application of lapat covers all the
natural resources of the area and enjoins all members of the tribe to abide by its laws pertaining to
the cutting of trees, hunting of wildlife and fishing, and the gathering of non-timber forest products
(NTFPs). The lapat system is systematically structured to regulate the use of land, animal and plant
species in a particular area. It is traditionally administered by a council of elders. Its tenets have
since been incorporated into more modern and formal governing instruments, such as barangay
ordinances, for the area.

The benefits of /apat can plainly be seen in the rich biodiversity that
is still present in the BBNP. The entire area is still thickly forested
except for a few cultivated and built-up areas for swidden farming.
The BBNP is considered one of the country's important watersheds,
and its varying elevations have made the development of varying
microclimates possible. There are three different kinds of forest
formations identified for the BBNP, namely (1) tropical lowland
evergreen rainforest, (2) tropical lower montane forest, or pine
forest, and (3) tropical upper montane forest, or mossy forest. It
Rafflesia banaoana and its discoverer, Prof. is also one of the least biologically explored areas in the Central
Pastor Malabrigo of UP Los Banos. (Courtesy
of Errol Gatumbato) Cordillera Peaks, though initial studies show that the area contains
a rich and critical range of species, most of which are endemic and
threatened such as pitcher plants and a variety of orchids. New species are still being discovered in
the area, the most recent of which was discovered in May 2009 during an FPE-sponsored Rapid Site
Assessment (RSA). The Rafflesia banaoana Malabrigo sp. nov., an indigenous variety of the Rafflesia,
known as the world's biggest flower, was discovered within the BBNP itself. This recent discovery
brings the total number of Rafflesia species indigenous to the Philippines to ten, six of which are
located in the Northern Luzon area. The same RSA also confirms the presence of a significant number
of important and threatened endemic species in the area.

18
The area's forests are considered the communal property of the tribes living within them, and only
tillable forest areas are cleared to make way for agriculture, occupation and swidden farming.
Animal species in the forest are commonly used for food and
medicine, though the latter only rarely. Timber is used only
for domestic purposes such as housing and fuel wood. It is
also used for medicines, furniture and handicraft making. The
production of food in Banao is mainly for the consumption
of the community and not for commercial trading. While a
small-scale mine called the Minahang Sayan also exists, it is
carefully administered by the Banao Bodong Association, an
organization comprised of members of the different Banao
tribes which ensures that the ideals of their Bodong heritage,
or peace pact, are followed. The mine is also exclusively
reserved for the use of the Banao tribe's members.

As may be expected, modern conveniences are hard to

come by in the area. The typical trappings of prosperity such
as radios, televisions, and other household appliances and
privately owned motor vehicles are very rare. Health facilities
are also sadly lacking: only one hospital and one rural health
unit serve the municipality; thirteen barangay health stations
augment the lack of hospitals. An Anglican mission runs a
health clinic in Balbalasang, but for serious complaints, the
residents go to the nearest hospital in Balbalan poblacion.
Roads in the area are mostly rough mountain trails or gravel- Members of the Banao Tribe in a f estival.
(D. De Alban!FPE)
and-earth-filled affairs. Development projects are also rare;
the few that have been implemented have mostly dealt with biodiversity conservation, with a small
percentage related to energy provision and agricultural development. Despite all this, the Banao
people have held on to the principles of lapat and have adamantly defended the welfare of their land
from those who would exploit it.

It is plain to see that the presence of the Banao people in the area has contributed greatly to the
survival of the land's biodiversity. While the Banao may not be considered a rich people by those who
value material wealth over the long-term health of the environment, the Banao believe otherwise.
In an age where food scarcity and the loss of biodiversity is becoming an ever-growing and alarming
concern, history may yet prove that the Banao people had it right all along. As a Cree Indian prophecy
says, "Only when the last tree has been cut down; Only when the last river has been poisoned; Only
when the last fish has been caught; Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."

19
 STRENGTHENING PARTNERSHIPS

In each element of the vision, mission and goals, the

A vital component development of effective partnerships is implied.

of FPE's approach The reason for FPE's partnership approach is a simple one:
is contained in its Biodiversity conservation and sustainable development cannot be
undertaken alone.
vision, mission and
goals, which sees Local Government Units

FPE enabling civil

II While the majority of FPE's funds are coursed through NGOs,
the Foundation recognizes the need to bring local government units
society and other into the web of partnerships it seeks to support.
stakeholders towards
An early example of NGO-PO-LGU collaboration is that
effective biodiversity of the Bulusan Volcano National Park Project in Sorsogon . In
conservation 1995, FPE supported Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan , Inc.
(LIKAS) in its efforts to conserve the resources of the park, build the
and sustainable organizational - including networking and resource mobilization -
development, II capabilities of the local POs, and eventually facilitate the federation
of the local POs into Pederasyon ng Nagkaisang Samahan ng
with FPE seeking Bundok Bulusan, Inc. (PNAGSAMA). By 2002, PNAGSAMA had
to be a catalyst
II II begun implementing its own programs. Still with FPE support, the
PO federation went on to establish and enforce rules relative to
and building local
II
park protection and engage in livelihood projects meant to lessen
and international dependence on the park's resources.

cooperation between Through all this, it cannot be said that the NGO and PO
and among civil were the only players in the project. The success of the project is in
no small part due to initial support that came from the municipality
society, government of lrosin, where LIKAS and PNAGSAMA are based . As the projects
progressed, other municipal governments at the base of the volcano,
and business groups
especially Casiguran and Sorsogon, stepped up to do their share.
towards development These local government units provided funding for the Bantay
Gubat (forest warden) of PNAGSAMA, which they hailed as the only
of policies and federation in the province actively involved in environmental projects
effective programs on the ground.

for biodiversity A second example of LGU partnership is in the llog-Hilabangan

conservation Watershed Forest Reserve (IHWFR) . This is located within the political
jurisdiction of the cities of Himamaylan and Kabankalan in the
and sustainable province of Negros Occidental. In 2005 a co-management agreement
development. II was signed among various stakeholders to form the llog Hilabangan
Watershed Forest Reserve Management Council. A local NGO, the
20
Negros Economic Development Foundation (NEDF), in partnership with the City of Kaban kalan
and City of Himamaylan, the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) of
Kabankalan and other stakeholders, implemented the llog Hilabangan Watershed Forest Reserve
Biodiversity Conservation Proj ect. One of the accomplishments of the project was the formulation
of the IHWFR Development and Management Plan, which meant that intervention in the
Watershed Forest Reserve would no longer be piece-meal but w ould be integrated, coordinated
and more holistic with better chances of sustainability.

In 2008, FPE approved the two-year Co-Management of Resources towards a Sustainable

Ecosystem (CoMaReSe) of llog Hilabangan Watershed Forest Reserve program of NEDF that would
undertake the activities identified in the development and management plan. This included the
enhancement and strengthening of the IHWFR Council, organization and institutionalization of
the local watershed councils in the three barangays and recru itment of additional 10 bantay gubat
volunteers to augment the strength of the existing 40 bantay gubat volunteers. By the end of
Year 1, the three local watershed councils had been acting as the local counterpart of the IHWFR
Management Council in the implementation of the policies and adoption of operational guidelines
set by the IHWFR Management Council. It has become a venue for participatory planning,
organizing, evaluation and decision-making. Localizing the council addressed the concerns for
representation and community participation in decision-making .

Another major accomplishment is the adoption of the Amended Co-Management

Agreement (ACMA) . New features of the ACMA include the expansion of the IHWFR Management
Council membership and the recognition of free and prior informed consent (FPIC) of the
indigenous communities of Karulanos whose ancestral domain overlaps with the watershed reserve.
As an immediate response to ACMA, the city of Kabankalan has committed PhP789,917.30 for
watershed protection and rehabilitation of which PhP1 00,000.00 is for IHWFR.

Notw ithstanding the significance of good donor relat ionships and solid partnerships with
LGUs, FPE still considers community groups to be the ultimate partners in biodiversity protection
and supports a range of smaller grass roots initiatives such as Total Rainforestation Efforts for
Environmental Sustainability (TREES) of Mount Asog Project where the primary partner is the

Launching of the multi-stakeholder project, CoMaReSe, with representatives from the !log Hilabangan Watershed Forest Reserve
Management Council. (Photo courtesy of NEDF)

21
 Barit Rural Waterworks and Sanitation Association, Inc. and the program is participated in
by a whole array of individuals from various government agencies, schools, youth clubs, the
church and senior citizens groups.

One of the challenges that FPE and its partner NGOs have found is that many
LGUs tend to see themselves first as beneficiaries rather than partners. This can lead
to demands for facilities and for tight LGU control over project/program assets that are
primarily intended for the use of community-based implementers. While this attitude
may be understandable given the resource constraints and the multiple demands on those
resources that many of them face, it does tend to constrain a number of projects and results
in fraught negotiation at various levels.

Multiple Donors

Another element of partnership which FPE has focused on is developing

partnerships with multiple donors. As FPE seeks to use its own resources to leverage
funds and develop an international stake in the Philippines' biodiversity, so it also acts as a
facilitator for smaller or more local groups enabling them to show the confidence expressed
in them by FPE and the resources mobilized from FPE to generate additional support from
donors as was the case in Mount Bulusan .

The Bohol Marine Triangle Project is a prime example of such partnership at work.
Covering some 1,120 km2 within Bohol Province bounded by three islands, Panglao,
Balicasag and Pamilacan, and comprised of three municipalities: Panglao, Dauis and
Baclayon, the triangle is known for its fine corals, mangrove forests, sea grasses and the
presence of manta rays, sharks, whales (e.g., Bryde's whales), dolphins (e.g., spinner
dolphins) and three of the eight known species of sea turtles. As a site for eco-tourism
development and fishing, the area's conservation and the proper management of the
marine resources is vital to the livelihoods of thousands. The program was funded by the
Global Environment Facility through the UNDP and by FPE.

Having commenced work through the Bohol Alliance of NGOs (BANGON), the
management function has been turned over to a new formation called PADAYON (Panglao,
Dauis, Baclayon) - BMT (Bohol Marine Triangle) Management Council, which is registered
as an NGO but with ten of its seventeen member council coming from the municipal
governments of Panglao, Dauis and Baclayon. In many ways this is an experimental
initiative by both LGUs and NGOs as PADAYON-BMT will require continuing LGU support
and initiative but also has to avoid being left to carry the management burden on its own.
On the other hand the creation of PADAYON-BMT and its functions were backed by a
memorandum of agreement among the three municipalities and an executive order from
the Provincial Governor. As an independent legal personality, it is also able to ensure that it
is not beholden to any particular members.

22
 The program has also successfully raised resources and support from private sector
resort operators and from other programs such as SCOTIA (Sustainable Coastal Tourism in
Asia) of the Louis Berger Foundation, Coastal Fisheries Resources Conservation of the World
Wildlife Fund, and Ecological Governance by the Development Alternative, Inc. The project
has encouraged synergy between programs and has institutionalized engagement between
NGOs and LGUs enabling more collaborative working relationships to emerge over the
longer term. At the same time the project has revealed the vital role played by foreshore
dwellers and people's organizations as the main protectors of marine resources through
their bantay-dagat operations, and sought to enhance the livelihoods of local communities
beyond mere banning of certain forms of resource extraction on which local people
depend. This has helped communities to overcome their suspicion of resource conservation
NGOs and drawn them into the web of collaboration necessary to ensure the long-term
protection of biodiversity.

pJlO/lYOH

The PADAYON-BMr management council, in an exhibit organized

by FPE in 2009 to facilitate partnership building between and
among local/international donors and local NGO partners.
(FPEfile)

23
 Bulusan Volcano National Park Community-Based
Biodiversity Conservation Project

Located in the province of Sorsogon, the Bulusan Volcano National Park lies in the southernmost tip of the Bicol Peninsula,
about 600 kilometers from Manila. The park traverses 20 barangays of the five municipalities of Juban, Casiguran, lrosin,
Bulusan, and Barcelona and covers an aggregate area of 3,673.29 hectares. It was declared a National Park in June 1935
through Proclamation 811.

About 45% of the population in the five towns surrounding Mount Bulusan benefits from the many springs that originate
within the park, with 70% of those deriving their water from just one source, the "Orok Spring". Water supplies from
Bulusan reach as far as the city of Sorsogon and the surrounding areas of Gubat and Prieto Diaz. In addition, the park has
a good number of hot springs that the locals use for alleviation of various aches and pains.

There are at least 67 species of birds found in the park, 33% of which are endemic to the Philippines, with five confined
to Luzon alone. The park harbors ten globally threatened bird species. Five birds of prey have been observed, including
the Philippine Hawk Eagle, with a conservation status listed as "vulnerable". It also has at least 11 mammalian species,
including four species of bats, two civets, two monkeys, one deer, a wild pig, and two rodents, including the Southern
Luzon Giant Cloud Rat, which is endemic to Luzon and considered rare by the International Union for the Conservation of
Nature (IUCN). It is likewise home to several Philippine endemic species of plants, including two Bulusan endemics, as well
as the supposedly rare and endemic ground orchid, Phajus tankervillea, and the rare and endangered jade vine.

FPE first started work in Bulusan in 1994 with a rapid site

assessment, which observed the various resident species of
fauna and flora in the park, as well as the socio-economic
conditions of the local population. The following year, the
preparatory phase of the Mount Bulusan (including Lake
Bulusan) Biodiversity Conservation Project began, with
the Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan (LIKAS), an
NGO based in lrosin, one of the larger towns containing
territory of the park, as implementing partner. In 1996,
LIKAS embarked on a three-year biodiversity conservation
project in the area, which saw the NGO organizing nine
local farmers' organizations, doing resource management,
Bulusan Volcano, Sorsogon (Fer Ramirez) undertaking livelihood development and launching advocacy
initiatives. In the second three-year phase of the project,
LIKAS focused on capability building of the people's organizations, leading to the formation of a farmers' federation, the
Pederasyon ng Nagkaisang Samahan sa Bundok Bulusan (PNAGSAMA), which would spearhead the implementation of
projects of the various people's organizations independent of the NGO.

By 2002, LIKAS was ready to transfer much of the management of the CBRM project to PNAGSAMA; this took place
through a turnover ceremony, involving the LIKAS, FPE, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),
provincial federation members and LGU representatives. From this point on, the focal point of the FPE partnership in
Bulusan shifted from LIKAS to PNAGSAMA, though the former still assisted in the federation's institution building initiatives.
Under the guidance of LIKAS, the federation developed the people's organizations in the remaining barangays within the
park and trained second-line leaders in forest patrolling and biodiversity monitoring. It continued its forest patrols and,
despite some issues regarding their deputation by the DENR, was able to undertake some major apprehensions and to
follow through on a number of court cases.

PNAGSAMA became a significant member of the Protected Area Management Board, a government-mandated multi-
sectoral body with overall supervision of the protection and management of the national park. Through this, the
federation was able to link up with individual local government units around the park and gather further support for
protection measures. The federation now receives material support from the municipal governments of Irosin and Bulusan
to maintain the patrolling activities, and the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office of lrosin has authority
over the bantay gubat for purposes of forest protection and maintenance. These local partnerships continue to take the

24
form of critical collaborations as the federation pushes for proper enforcement of forestry laws and demands concerted
action from officials of less active municipalities.

The federation joined the Provincial Alliance of NGOs and POs for Development in 2005 through which it was able to take
part in the Bicol Alliance Against Mining and the Coalition for Bicol Development. In addition to obtaining local CBRM
grant funds, it has also successfully accessed the support of the United Nations Development Programme and joined the
Philippine-Misereor Partnership, thus extending its voice internationally.

The PO also participated in regular fora of the local resource management council while advocating for organic farming.
Four of its member organizations gained seats in their respective Barangay Development Councils and seven of them
have on-going livelihood projects while overseas groups have been approached for support for handicrafts production.
Meanwhile, regular dialogues on biodiversity protection and access rights continue to take place with the local offices of
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The overall rationale of the federation is that the best form of protection of local resources, and therefore, the livelihoods
of the members, will come through strengthening thei r presence in each of the barangays in the park, and then linking
up with other stakeholders. They have a particular concern for the water supply that the park generates, both as drinking
water and as a vital production input, not to mention the therapy that the park's hot springs offer.

By the end of 2007, with the assistance of FPE, LIKAS and others engaged in supporting this priority area, a five-year strategic
development plan was formulated. A detailed plan of action for one year was undertaken by the PO federation with
assistance from FPE. Also, the PAMB, with the assistance of
its stakeholders and partners, undertook the development
of an overall strategic management plan for the Park .

PNAGSAMA's view, as well as that of FPE, is that perhaps

the greatest threat to this national park- aside from natural
calamities - is the perception that the forest is subject to
open access. This means that unregulated harvest for human
needs, on top of unscrupulous extraction for personal greed,
continues to pose risks for the park, unless an effective
common property regime is developed with clear rules on
access and usufruct rights as well as institutional mechanisms
to oversee those rules or any changes in them .

At this point, the federation recognizes the organizational

and management challenges that it faces, along With itS Lake Bulusan, Sorsogon (Fer Ramirez)
members, just as it acknowledges that some of its crucial
successes have come from partnerships that have provided its members with skills, such as environmental paralegal
capacities, training in sloping agricultural land technology, and a range of advocacy skills that have seen them reaching
out to wider audiences through local radio and national newspapers. These advocacy skills have proved essential to
the protection of the park's biodiversity even as they have opened up opportunities for dialogue with national and local
agencies. Those same skills have also begun to open up support for the development of sustainable livelihood options for
the land-dependent dwellers of the park even as PNAGSAMA recognizes that the development of those options lies in the
hands of the members and th e capacities that the federation develops to manage financial as well as material resources
wisely and effectively. The federation continues to t ry, with the help of its partners, to develop new sources of funding
for the development of local livelihoods, while protecting Bulusan Volcano National Park, the source of the biological and
other natural resource that sustain them.

25
 RESTORING HABITATS

Habitat restoration seeks to return degraded

areas or former habitats to a "healthy, self-sustaining
condition that resembles as closely as possible its pre-
disturbed state." 1

Essential activities, such as housing

developments, roads, urban growth, agriculture,
logging, mining, dredging or filling, degrade natural
ecosystems. Such degradation results in impairment of
ecological services, such as provision of water supply,
climate regulation, flood protection, soil formation,
preservation of natural resource-based industries (e.g .,
fishing), and the like, as well as loss of habitat for
wildlife. And when ecological services are diminished,
both human and w ildlife communities suffer. The loss of
lives and property after typhoons struck several parts of
the country- Ondoy flooding Metro Manila and Pepeng
flooding and causing landslides in Northern Luzon in
2009, Frank ravaging Western Visayas in 2007, and
the series of typhoons in late 2004 resulting in massive
landslides in the northern Sierra Madre Range - counts
among the tragic consequences of the destruction of
forest ecosystems.

From the start, FPE has recognized the

importance of habitat restoration and thus has been
supporting restoration activities, through reforestation
of the uplands and mangrove areas, establishment of A Mangyan woman carrying a basketful of seedlings of native tree species
for the rainforestation project in Oriental Mindoro. (C. Herzano/FPE)
nurseries and coral gardening. FPE has also invested in
information, education and communication materials
to further the cause of restoration . In recent years, the
Foundation has adopted a technology of sustainable
development called rainforestation farming, "a strategy
for forest restoration using native or indigenous tree
species in combination with agricultural crops. " 2

' www.mass.gov/7pagesiD=eoeaterminal&LO=Home
2 Milan, Paciencia P., 2009. Rainforestation Farming: A Farmer's guide to sustainable forest biodiversity management, Second Edition. Visayas State Universiy, Visca,
Baybay City, Leyte, and Foundation for the Philippine Environment, Quezon City.
26
 Some of the projects supported to further habitat restoration are:

II Defending our Forests

Samar Island's forests span an area of 333,300 hectares of old and second growth forests, which are
among the richest in the country. Found in the forests is a wide variety of economically important tree species
and a large deposit of bauxite, which make them attractive to loggers and miners. The Samar Island Biodiversity
Foundation (SIBF), therefore, embarked on a project, Defending our Forests: A Campaign to Stop Commercial
Logging and Mining in Samar Island, to build a coalition of forest defenders and launch information campaigns
against the continuation of logging and pursuit of mining in the island. The project enabled the SIBF to produce its
information materials, link with various stakeholders and engage government.

Total Rainforestation Efforts for

Environmental Sustainability (TREES) of
Mount Asog Project

Mount Asog, otherwise called Mount lriga (1 , 149

meters above sea level), is a volcano that dominates
the central part of Rinconada District in the province
of Camarines Sur. Though disturbed it is still rich in
biodiversity, being home to a significant number of flora
and fauna, including the warty pig and a species of
Rafflesia.

The Total Rainforestation Efforts for

Environmental Sustainability (TREES) for Mount
Asog Project piloted rainforestation farming in Barit
Watershed, which straddles Mount Asog and Mount
Malinao. Led by the Barit Rural Waterworks and
Sanitation Association, the project enabled the advocacy
activities and the conduct of orient ation into the
technology, nursery establishment and maintenance and
the establishment of rainforestation farms. Potting ofwildlings of indigenous tree species. (D. De Alban/FPE)

27
 Arakan Corridor Project

"The rainforestation farming technology was chosen and developed under the
assumption that a farming system in the humid tropics becomes increasingly
more sustainable the nearer it is in its species composition and physical structure
to the local rainforest ecosystem." So says a study conducted by Euronatur
in conjunction with the project at Leyte State University, now Visayas State
University. In other words, "Rainforestation farming is a sustainable farming
system used as a strategy for forest restoration using native or indigenous
tree species in combination with agricultural crops." Thus writes Dr. Paciencia
Milan, former president of VSU and pioneer and foremost proponent of
rainforestation farming technology in the Philippines.

The Arakan Valley in the municipality of Arakan in the province of North

Cotabato was chosen for just such a rainforestation approach by FPE and the
Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. (PEFI). It has three remaining forest fragments,
with one almost entirely residual and two largely old growth, totaling about
2,453 hectares and covering about 4% of the total municipal land area, that
PEFI planned to connect to form a "corridor" of forest some 28 kilometers
in length. This would create an additional 1,000 hectares of forest. The
corridor would allow the movement of bird and animal species between these
three forest fragments, especially the powerfully symbolic Philippine Eagle,
thus widening their feeding grounds and improving their genetic diversity by
permitting mate selection from a broader gene pool. Similar effects were also
predicted for the eagle's prey and for their habitat. Furthermore, in restoring
the habitat of one flagship species and its prey through rainforestation, that
is, using forest species native to the area, the project would result in the
protection and enhancement of biodiversity.

Back in 1999, FPE had supported a study on the forest corridor concept,
which served as the platform for PEFI to conceptualize a project to connect
degraded forest ecosystems in the mountain ranges of Mounts Pantaron and
Pulangi in Bukidnon and Mount Apo in Davao with funding from the UNDP-
Giobal Environment Facility. However, the target area was deemed too large
and beyond the funding limit of the facility's medium sized program window.
Thus, PEFI piloted a smaller and more manageable scale of "forest corridoring"
in 2000, covering forest patches in Mounts Apo and Mahuson, with support
from FPE. Six years later, the project area was expanded northward to include
the old growth forest in Mount Sinaka, as well as the Kabalantian-Binoongan-
Kulaman area, both of which form the ancestral domain of the Manobo
tribe.

28
 It was at this point when FPE encouraged PEFI to employ rainforestation
farming as its strategy to restore the degraded forests in the corridor. While
using native species for forest restoration, the project would also incorporate
the planting of various fruit trees and non-timber forest products as a means
of diversifying sources of income and food for people living in the area. Up
to 10% of the trees planted would be fruit-bearing species. With six rivers
originating in Arakan, all of which discharge into the Pulangi river in the north,
and 11 % of the land considered flood prone and subject to erosion, the
project also encourages protection of soil fertility and reduction of erosion, as
well as mitigates against the threat of flooding.

In the course of implementation of the project, efforts to utilize the Clean

Development Mechanism (CDM) under the Kyoto Protocol were initiated in
late 2007, to give the local communities an opportunity for financial returns
to their project. However, due to the laborious process the mechanism entails,
the partners decided to shift to the voluntary market mechanism. CDM or
voluntary market notwithstanding, the partners - the local IP and farmer
communities, their supporters among the LGU, the youth and academe, PEFI,
and FPE - continue to work towards a forest corridor enlivened by native
species of flora and fauna, with the human communities provided food and
livelihood, through their rainforestion efforts.

The Panguandig range in Arakan Valley. (FPE Mindanao) Tree nursery project in Arakan. (FPE Mindanao)

29
 Guiuan Community-Based Coastal Resource
Management

This community-based coastal resource management

project was born out of the desire of 10 people's organizations
in 11 coastal communities of Guiuan, Salcedo and Lawaan in
Eastern Samar to sustain the gains of an earlier project they
had been involved in, which was implemented by the Guiuan
Development Foundation . The new project was implemented
by a coalition of the different people's organizations, the South
Eastern Samar People's Organizations Consortium (SeaSPOC).

The project sought to enhance the fisherfolk's control

and access to municipal fishing grounds, while at the same
time heightening their awareness on the need to protect the
coastal environment on which they depend for a living .

FISHER Project

The Fisherfolk Integrated Self-Help for Empowerment

and Regeneration (FISHER) Project for Honda Bay and Green
Island Bay was undertaken to protect the rich biodiversity of
Honda Bay in Puerto Princesa and Green Island Bay in Roxas in
the province of Palawan. Initially led by Haribon-Palawan and
later on turned over to Palawan Community-Based Fisherfolk
Alliance Inc., the project sought to protect two world heritage
sites, which are the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River
National Park and Tubbataha Reef Marine Park, and the entire
island as an Endemic Bird Area and Philippine priority area for
biodiversity conservation. The project has replanted seven
hectares of mangroves, employed coral gardening to restore
the degraded reefs, and continues to engage in bantay-dagat
One of the giant clams in a clam seeding farm in Guiuan.
activities that have resulted in apprehensions of poachers . Eastern Samar. (FPE file)

A strip of the coast in Roxas, Palawan replanted with mangroves · one of the resource management proj ects of PCBFAJ that has received funding complementation
fro m different sectors other than FPE. (F RamirezJFPE)

30
 Upscaling Reforestation Efforts of Civil
Society Organizations

In late 2008, FPE saw the importance

of upscaling reforestation efforts of civil society
organizations, especially in critical watersheds
surrounding highly urbanized areas. CSOs to be
involved in the project took the initial steps of
scoping and site visitation, while FPE assisted in
sourcing additional funds from the Philippine Tropical
Forest Conservation Foundation . Typhoon Ondoy,
which caused a halt in these activities, at the same
time served as the impetus for greater determination
in rehabilitating nearby watersheds, especially that in
Marikina, which was one of the hardest hit areas in
the National Capital Region.

FPE supported the development of the

general work plan for rehabilitating Marikina
Watershed, identification of target sites for
community-based initiatives, training of community
leaders on rainforestation, and establishment of
community nurseries. Other activities, such as site
assessment, an industry and competitiveness study,
and capability building of community organizers are
slated for the coming months.
A recovery chamber for the wildlings that will soon be harnessed
for rainforestation . (D. De Alban/FPE)

FPE with the team ofNGOs, government agencies and business sectors for the Punlaang Bayan Project that
aims to rehabilitate the Marikina Watershed through the rainforestation program. (D. De Alban/FPE)

31
 The Philippines: Galapagos Times Ten
Lawrence R. Heaney on Philippine Biodiversity

Say the word "biodiversity" to a typical Filipino and the first thing that will most probably come
to his or her mind is the Philippine Eagle. While the Philippine Eagle certainly deserves that
kind of instant recall, with the awe it evokes, there are more than 52,177 described species
in our country, of which more than half are found nowhere else in the world. 1 These other
species, the ecosystems in which they reside, the other resources in these ecosystems and the
services we derive from them certainly deserve our attention, appreciation and protection.
"The Philippines is Galapagos times ten," says Lawrence R. Heaney, Head and Curator of
the Mammalian Division of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. He is,
of course, referring to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador that have become internationally
known for their diverse flora and fauna. "The kinds of phenomena that people typically
associate with the Galapagos Islands or Madagascar are represented here in the Philippines,
but on an order of magnitude [that is greater than] the better known parts of the world."

Dr. Heaney was the guest of honor and main speaker at the Biodiversity Forum, an event FPE
co-sponsored with DENR-PAWB, and the Field Museum of Natural History, in celebration of
the International Year of Biodiversity 2010. (See related article.) A well-known and beloved
figure among Philippine wildlife biologists and conservation workers, Dr. Heaney has been
conducting field expeditions in several parts of the country for the past thirty years. He
started his field studies in the Philippines in 1981, and has continued doing so annually since
then. He is mentor and friend to many budding and renowned Philippine biologists and
was instrumental in starting the Wildlife Conservation Society of the Philippines in 1992,
along with 25 Filipino scientists. In introducing him, Myrissa Lepiten-Tabao, manager of the
Visayas Regional Unit of FPE, recalls what it was like to work with Dr. Heaney. "In all (his) field
researches, Larry would always ensure that there (were) young Filipino scientists on his team.
His expeditions were the training ground for many of our field biologists," she related.

His lecture was punctuated with stories and anecdotes from his field expeditions, and strewn
with a wealth of information on some of the lesser known, but no less important, endemic
species of the Philippines. "Not only are many of the species here unique to the Philippines
-what biologists refer to as endemic- they are also unique branches on the tree of life. A
great many species [here] are descended from single populations that came to the Philippines
many millions of years ago - in this case our estimate is 12-15M years ago," he asserted.
"[These species] began to undergo diversification here in the Philippines, only here in the
Philippines. It's that pattern of diversification that has led to the description of the Philippines
as the Galapagos times ten."

1 Ong, PS, LE Afuang, and RG Rosell-Ambal (eds) , 2002. Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Priorities: A Second Iteration of the National Biodiversity Strategy

and Action Plan, Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, Conservation International-Philippines, Biodiversity
Conservation Program of the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies, and Foundation for the Philippine Environment, Quezon
City, Philippines.

32
The array of species that can be found only in the Philippines and nowhere else in the
world was a direct result of geological phenomena during the various Ice Ages, Dr. Heaney
explained. According to him, floods during these Ice Ages served to isolate the islands that
would become the beginnings of the Philippine chain and allowed many species to develop
in seclusion. "The result of these phenomena is that each one of these islands that existed
during the Ice Ages is a unique center of biological diversity, with, even on the small islands,
44% of the species occurring nowhere else in the world, and on the larger islands, such as
greater Mindanao and greater Luzon .. . up to 70% of these small mammals live nowhere else
in the world, not even in other parts of the Philippines." he said. "The amount of diversity in
the Philippines is exceptional."

Dr. Larry Heaney with FPE staff during the Biodiversity Forum, an event FPE co-sponsored with DENR-PAWB and
the Field Museum of Natural History in celebration of International Year of Biodiversity 2010. (FPE.file)

Dr. Heaney has written a monograph and two books on Philippine biodiversity. The monograph,
Fieldiana zoology new series No. 88 of the Field Museum of Natural History, is entitled Synopsis
of Philippine Mammals. It was published in 1998, and had Dr. Heaney, Louella Dolar, and
Danilo Balete as main authors and a good number of biologists as contributors. Vanishing
Treasures of the Philippine Rain Forest, published also in 1998 with Jacinto C. Regalado,
Jr. as co-author, deals not only with the uniqueness of this Asian "Galapagos times ten,"
but also explains how and why the Philippines is biologically diverse. Philippine Biodiversity:
Principles and Practice, a 2006 publication wherein Corazon Catibog-Sinha is his co-author,
is a comprehensive 400-plus page volume that deals with the status of and threats facing
Philippine biodiversity, why such biodiversity should be conserved, conservation measures,
and action steps. In March this year, an updated web-based version of the Synopsis of
Philippine Mammals was launched.

In the Philippine mammals website, Dr. Heaney avers: "The mammalian fauna ofthe Philippines
is a remarkable assemblage of species that occur from the depths of the sea to the tops of
cloud-enshrouded mountains ... It is neither an exaggeration nor unwarranted melodrama to
say that unless effective action is taken to protect the native habitats of these animals, one of
the most remarkable stories of mammalian evolution on Earth will end, and an irreplaceable
part of the Filipino heritage will be lost forever."

33
 Celebrating the International Year of Biological Diversity

"Concerned with the growing loss of biodiversity throughout the world, and the
social, economic, environmental and cultural implications of this loss " 1 and "conscious
of the need for effective education to raise public awareness on biodiversity, and
acknowledging the need for concerted efforts to significantly reduce t he rate of loss of
biodiversity", the United Nations General Assembly declared 2010 as the International
Year of Biodiversity.

The Philippine government followed suit by proclaiming the year 2010 as National Year
of Biodiversity, "to take advantage of the International Year of Biodiversity to increase
awareness on the importance of biodiversity by promoting actions at the national,
regional and local levels." Presidential Proclamation 2003, which then President Arroyo
signed on February 19, 2010, enjoins the executive branch of government to initiate
activities to promote the National Year of Biodiversity 2010, in cooperation with the
private sector.

Mangroves in Maliwaliw Island in Salcedo,

Eastern Samar. (C. Binondo/FPE)

' The portions enclosed in quotation marks ate from Presidential Proclamation No. 2003.

34
To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity, FPE collaborated with the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Protected Areas and
Wildlife Bureau to organize the Biodiversity Forum, which was held on March
26, 2010 at the Miriam College Environmental Science Institute. The forum
consisted of two parts: the lecture on Philippine biodiversity, the reasons for
this diversity and the challenges it faces, which was followed by a roundtable
discussion and an open forum; and the launching of the Field Museum of
Natural History's Philippine Mammals Website.

Lawrence Heaney, Head and Curator of the Mammalian Division of the Field
Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, and long-time researcher on
Philippine biodiversity, especially its mammalian species, graced the occasion
as guest of honor and main speaker. He inspiringly talked about the diversity
and uniqueness of the Philippine's flora and fauna. He was later joined at
the roundtable discussion and open forum by Angel C. Alcala former DENR
secretary and now director of the Silliman University Angelo King Center for
Research and Environmental Management; Danilo S. Balete, a biologist and
field researcher of the Field Museum; Theresa Mundita S. Lim, director of the
Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau; Perry S. Ong, director of the Institute of
Biology at the University of the Philippines Diliman; Manuel Bravo, director
of the Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau; Angelina Galang,
convenor of Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy Environment and
Sustainable Economy; and Jose Canivel, executive director of the Philippine
Tropical Forest Conservation Foundation.

He also unveiled the Philippine mammals website, enjoined students and

the audience to visit the site in order to appreciate and value the country's
biological bounty, and invited researchers and field workers to contribute
information from their studies to enrich it.

35
 MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

These extremes in weather have not only left

our countrymen reeling from their impacts and further
jeopardize livelihoods and a critical food supply. They
also put our country's rich biodiversity, already being
threatened by unmitigated logging, mining and urban
There is no question that sprawl, into great risk; those species that cannot adapt-
and there will be many- will surely die off.
massive climate change is
Aware of the dangers posed by climate change,
upon us. The Philippines, FPE initiated and supported several projects that focus on
undertaking measures to mitigate and adapt to climate
in particular, has been change impacts.

experiencing extreme The first of these was the development of a

program framework on Community-Based Disaster
weather events, such as Risk Reduction Program for FPE-assisted sites in 2008.

storms, droughts and

excessive rainfall these past
few years. Experts believe
that such frequency of
the El Nino and La Nina
phenomena, together with
sea level rise and rising
temperatures are "likely
local manifestations of
global climate trends. " 3

An aftermath of the massive landslide in Infanta, Quezon in 2004.

(Photo courtesy of V. Naiiagas)

3 See The Philippines: A Climate Hotspot. Climate Change Impacts and the Philippines. A Greenpeace Southeast Report, April 2007.
36
The organization realized that communities residing within
FPE-assisted sites were vulnerable to climate-related disasters
that could adversely affect their capacity to implement
biodiversity programs and their interest in taking care of the
environment. To this end, FPE conducted exhaustive reviews
of its project site~ in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao to assess
these communities' capacity for implementing disaster risk
reduction programs. All of FPE's future training and capacity
building initiatives for disaster preparedness will be based on
the results of this program.

In 2007 FPE funded the information dissemination

and advocacy component of the Green Renewable
Independent Power Producers, Inc.'s (GRIPP) Climate
Friendly Cities project. The project had already launched
full-scale operations in the City of Bacolod with a fleet of
electric jeepneys running on batteries charged by a power
plant fueled by biogas collected from the commercial food
establishments and wet markets of the city. The electric jeep project of GRIPP, of which the information, education
and campaign component was .funded by FPE. (Photo courtesy of GRIPP)

With FPE support, GRIPP was able to show the public that clean energy
solutions that help curb carbon emissions could also go hand in hand with a
commercially-viable, income-generating business model.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia's Save the Climate, Save Boracay campaign

also received FPE support in 2008. The project aimed to "transform Boracay into an
energy-efficient, zero-waste, responsible tourist destination " 4 while contributing
to "the overall aim of reversing environmental ruin in the island," 5 since the rapid
rise in popularity of the island as a tourist destination and the lack of regard for the
island's carrying capacity have had direct, harmful impacts on the island's biodiversity.
The throngs of tourists who flock to the island also generate a significant carbon
footprint that contributes to climate change.

Engaging the aid of various stakeholders from the public and private sectors,
the project began with a survey of the current environmental policies on the island,
with special focus on energy efficiency, water conservation, and waste management.
It then recommended what the stakeholders could do to increase environmental
awareness on the island, and the holding of regular skill shares, training sessions,
and seminars on water and energy conservation and proper waste management, and
launched an IEC campaign utilizing posters, brochures, tourist awareness videos that
aired on the island's cable networks, and a web site containing further information on
the issue.

4 Save the Climate, Save Boracay. Greenpeace Southeast Asia Terminal Report, March 2009.
5 Ibid.
37
 FPE, in cooperation with Lutheran World Relief
(LWR), supported the three-day Mindanao Conference
on Climate Change, organized by the Philippine
Partnership for the Development of Human Resources
in the Rural Areas (PhiiDHRRA). The conference had
participants from various invited groups and sectors
such as academe, media, representatives from the three
organizations, and the World Bank.

It helped to jump-start the process of raising

awareness of climate change issues in Mindanao by
compiling and disseminating information materials
and making them easily accessible to the media. Other
major achievements of the conference were the drafting
of the Mindanao Climate Change Agenda and road
map and the establishment of a Mindanao Adhoc Body
on Climate Change and Development.

Downstream of the environmentally critical Banao Watershed

in the provinces of Abra and Kalinga. (D . De Alban!FPE)

38
 FPE also provided funding for the Movement Building for Climate
Change and Redistributive Reform project organized by the Partnership
for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc. (PARRDS) in
November 2009. The project's first aim, "to develop a multi-stakeholder and
multi-strategy movement for an integrated climate change and asset reform
policy and program advocacy and mass campaign, " 6 materialized w ith the
formation of the Climate Change Congress of the Philippines.

• Movement Build ing For Climate Change And Redistributive Justice Project Proposal. Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development Services, Inc .
(PARRDS), November 2009 .

39

UNDERSTANDING MINING
Mining is one of the issues in
the National Environmental
Agenda that FPE developed in
2004. The inclusion of mining
in its agenda was triggered by
the persistent clamor of FPE's
NGO and PO partners to do
II
something about this industry
II
that has been recognized as a
blight by communities.
40
Quarry site in Biak-na-Bato, Bulacan . (Photo courtesy of BUNDUK)
Hence FPE supported projects that aimed to
raise awareness on the nature and technology of
mining and its impacts on biodiversity, sustainable
development and the lives of affected communities.
Among these projects are the following :
The First National Grassroots Conference
on Mining, held in February 2005, in the island
province of Marinduque, examined the impacts
of mining on communities and their responses to
confront the threat. The three-day conference saw
the participation of some 250 leaders of indigenous
and farmer communities hosting mining, as well as
their supporters from the NGO and religious sectors
and the academic community. One common
realization of the communities coming from
different parts of the country: "Marami pa/a tayo.
Hindi pa/a tayo nag-iisa." (There are many of us.
We are not alone.)
Youth participants in the First National Grassroots Conference on Mining held in
2005 m the Provmce of Mannduque, site of the worst mine tailings spill accident
that has ever happened in the country. (FPEfile)

The complexity of mining and lack of

understanding of issues surrounding it led FPE to
convene two forums to bring out the different facets The first and most comprehensive investigative reportage on mining in the
Philippines published in a magazine.
of the industry and hear the perspectives of community
In 2008, FPE supported a research and
workers, scientists, lawyers, economists, government
publication project of the Public Media Trust Group,
and the mining industry. The first forum, themed
publisher of Newsbreak magazine, which resulted in a
"Taking a Closer Look at Mining," was held in
special issue entitled The Big Dig: Mining Rush Rakes
August 2007, and tackled the legal and environmental
Up Tons of Conflict. The publication's editor asserts
issues related to mining and community responses.
that this is "the first journalistic assessment of the '
The second forum, entitled "This Business Called
mining industry since the Supreme Court upheld the
Mining: Environmental Standards, Socio-Economic
mining act of 1995." It presents a comprehensive view
Responsibilities," held in November 2007, took up
of mining, for which the Newsbreak staff visited various
government environmental standards, a definition of
mining sites, took pictures, and interviewed affected
"responsible" mining, and the economics of mining.
local residents and indigenous groups, experts, church
personalities, mining executives, and government
Aside from forums, FPE also supported
functionaries. The research revealed that "the mining
researches and publications on mining, two of which
industry's economic impact remains negligible- jobs
are:
created are only 0.4 per cent of total employment, and
A research project by the Institute for
revenue is less than 1 per cent of total government
Environmental Concern of the Ateneo de Naga
collection each year .. . many communities resist large-
entitled Assessment of the Bio-Physico-Chemical
scale mining because of the costs to the environment
Conditions of the Surroundings of the Mining Site
and the health of the locals. " 7
in the Eastern Part of the Island of Rapu-Rapu,
A/bay in December 2005. The study came out in a
publication bearing the name of the project and was
translated into the Filipino language. (Rapu-Rapu
Island in Albay province, Bicol Region, is the site of the
Lafayette Mining, the flagship project of the Arroyo
administration, being the first commercial mining
venture after the affirmation of the Philippine Mining
Act of 1995. A few months after it started operations,
the mine's cyanide tailings dam leaked twice in October
Bp. Julio Labayen (center) and Fr. Robert Reyes (right) are among
2006, causing a fish kill and prompting President the environmental advocates, along with FPE, who supported the
Arroyo to form a commission to investigate the spill.) massive campaign in 2005 against the revitalization of mining in the
country. (FPEfile)

7 Go, Miriam Grace A., 2008. "First, Please Clean Up" in The Big Dig: Mining Rush Rakes Up Tons of Conflict, Public Trust Media Group, Inc.
41
 The Foundation also supported
advocacy and capacity-building projects of
NGOs and POs to make current and potential
mining host communities understand better
the nature of mining and what it can and
cannot do for them and their environment,
and enable them to respond accordingly.
Below are three such projects that FPE
assisted:

The Alyansa Tigil Mina (Alliance to

Stop Mining) or ATM, the national network
of NGOs, POs and mining host communities
that advocates against the Arroyo
administration's aggressive promotion of
large-scale mining in the country, was formed
some two months before the Supreme Court
upheld the Philippine mining act. With three
organizations- Haribon Foundation, Legal
Rights and Natural Resources Center, and the
Philippine Partnerships for the Development
of Human Resources in Rural Areas- as
convenors, the alliance was at once thrust
into the maelstrom of anti-mining struggle
even before it was fully operational. It
sought and received funding from FPE to
undertake a strategic planning activity in
January 2005. Early the following year, its
capacity-building and advocacy project went
into full swing. The project enabled ATM
to set up a communications hub, prepare
information materials and conduct education
sessions among communities confronting
mining, form a task force to respond to calls
for assistance from communities, and begin
the drafting of an alternative mining bill.

A training course on Resource

The Berong Nickel Corporation in Quezon, Palawan.
Valuation Training for Mining Communities (Photo courtesy of ELAC Palawan)
was held in December 2008, organized by ATM
and the Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, Inc. The training sought to teach NGOs and POs in
the mining-affected communities how to put value on the resources and ecological services in their areas, thus
enabling them to weigh the costs and benefits of the project to be undertaken. A month before that, FPE worked
with ATM, the Belgian donor 11 .11 .11 (or Triple 11 ), and other international NGOs to organize a training program
to track the sources of funds for mining projects in different South East Asian countries. Triple 11 funded the
training, the resource persons who came all the way from Europe, and the participation of NGO representatives
from the Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Cambodia.

Communities that were confronting the entry of mining in their areas sought FPE assistance for the
protection of their areas. Three of these projects are :
42
 -~ -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -

The establishment of the Benguet Mining Alert and Action Network of the Cordillera
People's Alliance (CPA), begun in January 2008, sought to enable CPA to launch an education
campaign on large-scale mining in the Cordilleras, and to link the communities with one another to
cooperate in monitoring, share timely information and act more quickly and effectively.

The Save Mount Bulanjao Initiative of the Environmental Legal Assistance Center (ELAC)
was launched in August 2008, to build the capacities of local communities in implementing resource
management and advocacy initiatives near Mount Bulanjao, a core zone in the Environmentally Critical
Areas Network (ECAN) of Bataraza in Palawan. ELAC believes that as a core zone of an ECAN, the
mountain deserves maximum protection, as stipulated in the Special Environmental Plan for Palawan
(RA 7611 ).

Strengthening of FPIC Compliance and Consultation Process in Defense of Ancestral

Domains and Ancestral Habitat in the Cordillera by the Community Volunteer Missioners, Inc.,
started in September 2009, aims to document the compliance (or non-compliance) with the free and
prior informed consent process by any mining company applying to explore or operate a mining project
in Benguet, and to advocate for the adoption by the LGUs of the consent processes of the local tribes.

Lastly, FPE supported a group of public interest lawyers called upon to give legal assistance
to communities in their struggle to protect their rights and the environment. In September 2009, the
Board approved a proposal of Kaisahan, in coordination with the Alternative Law Groups, to undertake
a project called Undermining the Threat of Mining: A Policy Advocacy Campaign to confront
the "government policy allowing mining companies not only access to vast resources but also a wide
latitude to undertake their operations, with little or no regard for the environment and affected
communities". The project w ill endeavor to " constrict the mining-friendly policy environment and
introduce policy roadblocks to halt the rampage of mining operations". With the promulgation in April
2010 by the Supreme Court of the New Rules of Procedure fo r Environmental Cases, these lawyers and
the communities they support now have a new weapon to demand compliance to environmental laws,
thereby protecting the mining-affected commun ities and the environment.

FPE Chairman Ed de Ia Torre addressing the participants of the first CSO mining forum organized by FPE~ (FPEfile)

43
 LINKING

POPULATION,
HEALTH,
AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Roughly one-sixth of
the world's population,
currently tipping
the counters at 1.1
billion people, lives in
ecological hotspots, or
areas that are richest
in terms of biodiversity
and, at the same
time, most threatened
with the loss of this
biodiversity due to
human activities.

44
 These hotspots cover a small
portion of the globe's total land
area but hold a big population and
are mostly found in less developed,
undeveloped, and underdeveloped
countries . It is in these areas where
access to basic government welfare
services, such as health and education,
is poor to nil, and their populations are
growing at a rate much faster than that
of the rest of the world 8

Making the link in Population,

Health and Environment (PHE) is an
evolving strategy for development
programming in the Philippines. The Aeta women and children in Bolos Point, Gattaran, Cagayan. (F. Ramirez/FPE)

challenge in pursuing this link is to

look at how variables and trends in
population change, health impacts and
human and natural systems interact and
affect each other. As a development
approach, the linked programming
hopes to create a synergy that will bring
greater results for the same amount
of effort compared to addressing
population , health, and environment
separately.
The PHE Network in the Philippines was formed during a
Trainers' Training in Iloilo City in 2003. Three biannual national
conferences have been held since then to clarify the link among
population, health and the environment and to scale up the
integration of these components in various development
projects. Through the support of FPE and the Philippine Business
for Social Progress, monitoring and evaluation indicators for PHE
have been developed . These can serve as tools in the planning
and implementation of development programs and policies.

A woman .fisher with her child waiting f or the day's catch in Lake Mainit. (F. Cadiz/FPE)

8 www.ehproject.org/phe/phe .html

45
 ENHANCING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

From the outset, FPE has recognized the efficacy of

education in moving people, especially the youth,
along the path of environmental protection. Thus,
through the years, the Foundation has supported
environmental education initiatives of the youth as
well as the academe.

In the past five years, several projects aimed at building an environmental constituency among the youth
and greening the educational system received FPE support. Among them are:

II Young Minds Academy Summer Edition 2009

The concept for this project was drawn from the

regular Young Minds Academy begun by the Ramon Aboitiz
Foundation, Inc. in 2006 in Cebu . (See related story.)

For its summer edition 2009, RAFI designed a program

to suit the needs of two clients, the Sacred Heart Institute for
Transformative Education Foundation, Inc. (SHIFT) and FPE.
The course became a month-long t raining focused on the
Students of the 2009 summer edition of the Young Minds Academy. (RAFI) environment and the issues that confront it. Held on April
20-May 18, 2009 at the Eduardo Aboitiz Development Center in Cebu City and at Soph ie's Farm in Mondragon,
Northern Samar, the program culminated with the presentation of environmental awareness-raising and protection
projects that manifested the students' appreciation for the environment and understanding of the issues that need
to be addressed .

46
 Dark Green Schools Program

The period November 2007 to November

2008 saw the Miriam College Environmental Science
Institute implementing a program called Dark Green
Schools, which aimed at " greening the academe ."
Such "greening" would be achieved through "an
accreditation program, which will promote and
accelerate the delivery of effective environmental
education in the country. " 9 The program was
implemented in four schools- two from Luzon, one
from the Visayas, and one from Mindanao.

School of the SEAs: Where Sea and Earth

Advocates come to life

In 2007, the Law of Nature (Batas Kalikasan)

Foundation, or LNF, developed a ground breaking Representatives of the participating academic institutions in the
Dark Green Schools Program Training and Practicum, organized by
curriculum for a ground breaking project: the School of Miriam College ESI trough the support of FPE. (Miriam College ESI)
the SEAs. Envisioned as a sustainable and wide-reaching
environmental education program focusing on the
conservation of the country's marine environment, the
school is the first of its kind in the Philippines . Its target
beneficiaries include fishers, teachers, and the youth .

With assistance from FPE, LNF brought together

some of the country's leading environmental experts and
conservationists for a four-day workshop in Bantayan
Island, Cebu to develop a curriculum for the school, as
well as to create teaching and training video modules
to be used in the school 's future classes. Two years later,
FPE staff witnessed the launching of the training course
in Bantayan Island, listened to lectures of marine law The YMA summer edition. (RAFI)

enforcers and fisher folk.

Indeed, the many projects on environmental education, whether as stand-alone projects or as part of
a bigger undertaking, confirm the wisdom in the words of Senegalese environmentalist, Baba Dioum, over
and over again : "In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand,
and we will understand only what we are taught."

9 Dark Green School Program tarpaulin

47
 FPE believes that the key to saving the environment lies in changing people's attitudes towards the world and
their role in it. To this end, FPE invested in several initiatives that were geared towards educating the youth
about environmental issues and what they can do to help. These projects were the Young Minds Academy
Summer Edition 2009, the Dark Green Schools program, and the Our River, Our Life and Our Children
project.

Young Minds Academy (YMA) Summer Edition 2009

The YMA Summer Edition 2009 program was born from a bigger project spearheaded by the Ramon Aboitiz
Foundation, Inc. (RAFI) that aims to develop youth aged 12-30 years old into responsible, accountable and
God-centered leaders who are ready to serve the public and its interest.

This program, implemented by the Sacred Heart Institute for Transformative Education Foundation, (SHIFT),
was a month-long live-in program held in Cebu City and Mondragon, Northern Samar, to accommodate
scholars from Region VIII (which encompasses the Samar and Leyte provinces, and Biliran). The summer
program focused on the environment, tackling issues related to the management of watersheds and marine/
coastal areas, clean air and climate change, mining and logging, as well as environmental technologies,
efforts and initiatives. It also tacked the challenges of environmental concerns vis-a-vis an ever-expanding
population. The scholars were divided into teams that were expected to come up with innovative project

.
proposals at the end of the program.

-
/ OUng
SVAfAfER EDl'f\ 0 ll

Graduates of the YMA Summer Edition 2009 with representatives from SHIFT, FPE and RAFI. (RAFI)

The program utilized both traditional and non-traditional means of teaching environmental concepts and
leadership skills. While skills, such as public speaking, project development and proposal writing, were taught
in the traditional classroom setting, the creative thinking sessions involved such activities as juggling and mind
mapping. Out of the box thinking was encouraged as a way of exploring new concepts and possibilities, and
exercises in overcoming obstacles were undertaken.

48
The students went on site visits to give them a chance to witness the detrimental effects of unmitigated
development on the environment and our biodiversity. Immersion activities with partner communities allowed
them to observe and gather first hand information on the practices, activities and peculiarities of particular
communities and ecosystems.

The response to the program from the trainees and partner communities was overwhelmingly positive. The
trainees came away with a deeper understanding of environmental issues and the challenges that their
generation faces. The partner communities were also pleased as the program allowed them the opportunity
to share their experiences and to influence the direction of the project proposals that the teams submitted.
The project also found that women play a big role in mobilizing their communities because they eagerly
participated in the scholars' learning process.

At the end of the program, two teams were given the Innovative Young Minds Award for their project
proposals. Team Bugsok Generation 1's "Environmental Conservation Through Sound Waste Management"
and Team Halo Generation 3's "Coral Mo, 1-patrol Mo" were both given the opportunity to obtain seed
money to pilot their projects in Northern Samar.

Team building activity of the YMA summer class. (RAFI)

49
 Dark Green Schools

The Dark Green Schools (DGS) project was born out of the recognition of a need. Dr. Angelina Galang of Miriam
College Environmental Science Institute, who conceptualized the project, talks about her experience during a
conference she attended for the Environmental Education Network of the Philippines (EENP), which was held at a
poorly maintained state university. "It was quite a culture shock for me because the maintenance of the physical
facilities of many of the state universities that we had our conferences in was unexpected . I never expected that
faucets and locks would not work. The comfort that is brought about by a good ambience was not a priority."

Dr. Galang's first concept of the project was only physical, but upon reflection, she decided that the other aspects of
running a school should also be exam ined. "I wanted to correct these things," says Dr. Galang. "But, I said, if a team
will go visiting and accrediting a school, it might as well go into the other components of school operations which
are relevant to the total environmental education of the student. "

The EENP board, of which Dr. Galang was president at the time, decided that they would also examine the different
aspects of a dark green school: policy, administration and finance, curriculum, academics, research and outreach.
They prepared a monitoring and evaluation instrument for DGS and held a workshop, also supported by FPE, to
validate and finalize it before it was implemented in four pilot schools, namely: Miriam College (Quezon City), De La
Salle University (Cavite), Visayas State University (Leyte), and Mindanao Polytechnic State College (Cagayan de Oro
City). The DGS policies were successfully integrated into the pilot schools, and accreditors were trained to implement
the system in the future.

EENP discovered during this pilot phase that one of the weaknesses of school environmental programs was the lack
of integration of environmental issues into the different courses. "You have to know your course very well, and
you have to know the environment very well, in order to integrate them," she says. "If you have that, that's really
powerful. You will learn about the environment from the subject and you will learn the subject better by using the
environment as a context, as examples, and as the perspective." Dr. Galang hopes that FPE will fund the next phase
- involving subject integration - of the project

All in all, she has high hopes for the DGS initiative. She envisions a future wherein environmental issues and lessons
have been mainstreamed within all the EENP member schools. She also hopes that more schools will want to join
the EENP and apply for DGS accreditation, and that the DGS label will become a requirement for government-
run academic institutions. "That's the end goal, that the students grow up in this atmosphere of caring for the
environment, in the physical setting, campus policies, academics, and research. The administrators should also think
that way, so all their decisions will take the environment into consideration."

As a postscript, Dr. Galang happily relates the result of a recent trip she made to India, where she was invited to talk
about the DGS project. The group of teachers were so impressed with the initiative that they decided to put up an
organization similar to EENP, which would them embark on a program to "green" their schools.

Dr. Nina Galang, the person who originated Members of the EENP in an exhibit on dark green schools . (Miriam College )
the DGS program. (Miriam College)
50
 Our River, Our Life, Our Future: Alternative Children's Congress on Rivers
Believing that children should take an active role in determining policies that would affect their future, the Integrated
Mindanaoans Association for Natives, Inc. (IMAN) implemented a project to "mainstream children's participation" 1
in environmental education through community-based theater. The project was dubbed "Our River, Our Life, Our
Future," with a focus on "integrating environmentalism with children's empowerment and participation."

Launched in January 2008, !MAN worked with the Kalitawhan Working Group on Biodiversity and 12 of its partner
organizations to mount the activities implemented by the project, namely: (1) theater arts workshops, rehearsals
and actual presentations; (2) community-based theater fora, and (3) the 2nd Mindanao-wide alternative children's
congress on biodiversity.

The proponents decided to use theater to teach such issues because the traditional approach towards environmental
education "may not work a hundred percent among the children and ... the bulk of the community population." 2
A dynamic and educational but entertaining approach was deemed the best way to introduce children to the issues
and what they could do about them. It was also a way of enhancing the children's self-esteem and improving their
artistic skills.

The communities that participated in the workshops faced a multitude of issues, such as plantation expansions
and the intensive application of chemicals, large-scale mining operations, and the planting of GMO crops and the
intensive application of pesticides. They left with a better understanding of the issues involved. They also noted
that they did not understand these issues in the past since there was a severe lack of education and information on
environmental issues in their areas.

The 2nd Mindanao-wide Alternative Children's Congress on Biodiversity also emphasized the youth's role in the
environmental and social movement in Mindanao. Held simultaneously in Davao and !ligan, the participating children
and adults took to the streets and expressed their concerns over the rapid destruction and degradation of our country's
environment. Activities during the congress included tree planting, theater presentations, painting sessions, and the
reading of the children's declaration on biodiversity to LGU officials and representatives of various environmental
organizations and the academe.

The project made significant impacts on the children who participated in it, and it opened the community's eyes
to the effects of environmental degradation. It also made it possible for more IPs and Muslims to participate in the
discussion of environmental policies and helped to establish cooperation between LGUs and other institutions that
are working to concretize conservation programs in the area.

Young participants of the Children's Congress on Rivers,

trying their hands on mangrove planting . (/MAN)

' IMAN Terminal Report, 2008

' Dark Green School Program tarpaulin
51
 UPHOLDING THE RIGHTS OF VULNERABLE SECTORS

Being a woman, a young person, having some

kind of disability or belong ing to certain ethnic or
marginalized group can impair one's access to certain
resources or rights.

Recognizing that vulnerable groups have

the right to participate and perform specific roles in
environmental protection, FPE has been supporting
projects that involve these sectors from the
beginning. Below are some of the recent projects it
has supported, which were intended to increase the
Vulnerable groups refer awareness of these groups about their plight and role
in conservation and to capacitate them to take action
to meet the challenges that confront them.
to those people who
experience or suffer
from some sort of
discrimination and are
more at risk from the
effects of a poor quality
environment. 11

A woman farmer in Bukidnon, one of the priority sites of FPE in its resource
management project. (D. De Alban/FPE)
11 ILO, http://www.ilo.org/public/libdoc/ILO-Thesaurus/english/tr2660.htm

53
 Women's Health in Selected Banana Plantations in Davao City: A Comparative Analysis
Partner: Kalusugan Alang sa Bayan (KAABAY), Inc.

This 2007 research compared the health status of women in three different areas- one where aerial
spraying of pesticides has been going on for 30 years, another where there was ground spraying, and the
control group, where neither ground nor aerial spraying of pesticides occurred -to determine if pesticides used,
as well as the manner of pesticide dispersal employed, in banana plantations significantly affected the health
of women, especially those of reproductive age (15 to 49 years old). The results of the study were submitted
to national and local government agencies, the academe, and barangay local government units, as well as the
affected communities, and caught the attention of local and national media. With this study, the communities
living around the plantations that employ aerial spraying, especially the women, were moved to fight against this
practice that jeopardizes their health.
Young Aetas acting it out in the stage play,
Byaheng Ayta during the FPE
Partners ' Forum in 2009.
Biyaheng Ayta: Tracing Roots, Reaching Hopes
Partner: Paaralang Bayan ng mga Ayta sa Zambales Inc.

Biyaheng Ayta was a six-month project in 2008 that capitalized on arts

and culture to further the cause of environment protection. The project used a
traveling theater, in which Ayta youth were the actors, to depict the way of life of
their tribe as stewards of their environment, thus raising the awareness of non-
Ayta communities and the local government units about their important role in
conservation. For the Ayta, the project served to restore pride in their culture and
reinforce its relevance to the environmental crisis the country faces, leading them to
devise ways to protect and enrich it.

2nd National Rural Congress of the Catholic Bishops Conference of

the Philippines
Partner: Philippine Misereor Partnerships, Inc.

The congress was a series of local and regional conferences- attended by farmers, fisherfolk,
indigenous peoples, Muslims, rural women and youth, the differently-abled, formal and informal labor sectors,
senior citizens- that ran for almost a year and culminated in a national conference held in July 2008. The national

Members of the CBCP and CSO representatives during the 2nd National Rural Congress.
(Phil. Misereor Partnerships , Inc.) ·-.....
54
conference, which FPE co-funded with other donors,
became the venue for the rural poor to describe
their plight, as well as the results of their regional
conferences, to their main audiences, the bishops and
government officials.
The issues prioritized at the national
conference reflected the aspirations of the rural poor:
landlessness, food insecurity, climate change and poor
waste management, mining, and poor governance
(including lack of infrastructure, corruption, slow
resolution of cases, unemployment, and lack of basic
social services, among others). The participants also
had heated discussions and diverging opinions on
laws that affected them, such as the Comprehensive
Agrarian Reform Law, the Indigenous People's Rights
Act, Fisheries Code and the Family Code, as well as
the proposed Reproductive Health bill. In a move that
appeared to be a sentiment to bring about a new or
renewed relationship between bishops and the rural
poor, the conference ended with a call on the CBCP
to create a Bishops-Peasants Forum, similar to the
Bishops-Businessmen's Conference at the diocesan
regional and national levels.
Statement of Bishops Supporting CARPER,
CARPER and Human Rights Multi-
stakeholder Policy Forum
Partner: Partnership for Agrarian Reform
and Rural Development Services (PARRDS)
2008 in a national daily, which FPE supported. The
following year, advocates convened a forum linking
CARPER to human dignity, entitled Agrarian Reform and
Human Dignity Conference: Converging Perspectives
and Actions for CARP Extension with Reforms. The
advocates gathered support, both national and
international, for agrarian reform as a social reform
legislation and as an instrument by which to fulfill and
protect the human rights of the rural poor and help
achieve food security for the country.
Piloting Partnerships for Leadership among
IPs: Indigenous Peoples Support Fund
Partner: Samdhana Institute
In 2008, FPE supported the initiative of
Samdhana Institute to draw financing from the Global
Greengrants Fund (which had focused funding to
one Southeast Asian country) into the Philippines. By
providing P2 million, Samdhana leveraged a similar
amount from GGF to support the preparation and
implementation of the ancestral domain sustainable
development and protection plan of IP groups, mostly
in Mindanao, as well as the capability development for
their leaders.

It can be said that the campaign for the

Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP)
Extension with Reforms, a cry of CARP beneficiaries
that was strongly supported by the Catholic Church
hierarchy, began in earnest at the 2nd National Rural
Congress (NRC II), during which bishops listened to
the rural poort describe their plight. The months after
NRC II saw a succession of moves by farmer groups and
their supporters to ventilate their plight through various
forums . In the heat of the campaign for extension
of the law with reform, 73 bishops signed a petition
addressed to the Congress of the Philippines to pass
the law. The statement appeared on November 11 ,

Tribesman of the Sadik-Habanan Buhid in Oriental Mindoro, one of

the IP partners of FPE in biodiversity conservation in the area .
(D. De Alban/FPE)
55
 ADDRESSING ISSUES ON POLLUTION AND WASTE

Waste and pollution adversely impact people's

health and the environment. While nature has the
capacity to recycle discards from one process to make
them raw materials for another, the volume and nature
of waste generated at present are such that they already
degrade the environment and lead to biodiversity loss.
Such wastes also endanger human health. For this
reason, from 2005-2009, FPE supported a number of
projects that dealt with waste issues, among which are
the following :

Educating LGUs and Communities on

the Dangers of E-Waste by Eco-Waste Coalition in
partnership with Ban Toxics, a project launched in mid-
2009, is preparing a documentary film on the dangers
of electronic wastes, which are end-of-life consumer
electronic products, such as mobile phones, computers,
televisions and the like. The film will focus on the
danger to health, environment, and society posed by
the improper handling and disposal of these wastes that
contain toxic components. It shall be used to educate
communities working with e-wastes to handle them in
an environmentally sound manner.

FPE also supported initiatives aimed against the

ratification of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership
Agreement (JPEPA), an agreement seen by many to
contain provisions detrimental to the interests of the
Philippines and its people, especially the legalization of Education on proper waste disposal is perceived by Mother Earth Foundation
importation of toxic waste from Japan and the prospect as one of the community solutions to sustainable waste management. ( MEF)

of depletion of our fish population due to the entry

of Japanese trawlers. The Initiatives for the Dialogues
and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services
(IDEALS), a member of the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA (MJJ)
Coalition, launched a People's Campaign against the
Ratification of JPEPA in 2008. The Concerned Citizen's
Against Pollution, another member of the MJJ Coalition,
got support for its project entitled Policy Advocacy
Against JPEPA in 2009, which consisted of a paid ad,
containing the reasons why the treaty should not be
ratified, that appeared in a major daily newspaper. While

56
the Philippine Senate finally ratified the treaty, the organizations saw the campaign as a positive step
towards people empowerment and participation in governance.

The Kaalagad Katipunang Kristiyano campaigned against the use of styrofoam and plastics in
business establishments in its project entitled Anti-Styro and Plastic Campaign in 2007 utilizing a
small grant from FPE. The campaign aimed to minimize the use of plastic and styrofoam products in
restaurants through an interactive" educational exhibit that was toured among the different schools
and parishes, letters to business establishments to stop the use of such non-biodegradable materials in
handling food, and media campaign.

Cong. Neric Acosta (2nd from right) and Atty. Tanya Lat (right) with some of the members of the Magkaisa Junk JPEPA Coalition
in a campaign againsr rhe ratification of JPEPA. (C. Binondo/FPE)

FPE supported two initiatives of Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) in two separate years. In
2008, it funded the project called Strengthening Partners: Community Solutions to Waste
Management, which provided for monitoring and evaluation of eleven member communities that
MEF had assisted in waste management programs and giving them suggestions to improve program
sustainability. In November 2009, FPE contributed some amount to MEF to enable it to convene the
6th Zero Waste International Conference in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, in which participants from
various parts of the Philippines- from civil society, academe, private businesses and the government
-as well as NGO representatives from the US, UK and Italy, learned from one another's practices,
problems and solutions in waste management.

57
 ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE

Alongside actual conservation

activities, such as restoring habitats
through community-based natural
resources management, FPE has always
recognized the need for legal assistance
to protect community leaders from
harassment and strategic lawsuits
against public participation cases, give
them paralegal training, and brief them
on environmental laws. The Environmental Defense Program of FPE and ALG was
launched in 2008 throughout the country. (FPEfile)

That is why one of the first programs proactively

initiated by FPE was the Environmental Defense (Endefense)
Program, launched in 1993 and spanning almost ten years, with
three environmental legal NGOs as implementing partners.

When the first environmental defense program of

FPE was completed, the Foundation started negotiations for
Environmental Defense Program II, this time as a co-fundinq
venture with the Philippine Tropical Forest Conservation
Foundation. The program, launched in July 2008, is a funding
mechanism where both organizations put in a seed fund of two
million pesos; the FPE contribution is devoted to litigation and
related legal actions that seek to protect the country's natural
resources and communities. It supports cases that have a direct
link to or impact on environmental protection . Implementing
the program is the Alternative Law Groups, Inc. As of February
2010, the different members of the ALG have been handling 20
cases, of which ten involve mining, four relate to logging, and
the rest are concerned with marine protection, actions against a
coal-fired power plant in Cebu, aerial spraying in Davao, and IP
quest for ecological justice.

Aside from this large proactive program, FPE also

supported initiatives of NGOs and POs wanting to defend their
lives and places from the adverse impacts of large development
projects. These are described in the following stories.
A street protest against aerial spraying in Davao . (/DIS, Inc.)

58
 DEFENDING LIFE

Four environmental projects supported by the Foundation for the Philippine Environment,
have meant a difference to the general public and the affected families of pesticide aerial
spraying in the Davao Region.

The Interface Development Interventions, Inc. (IDIS), a non-stock, non-profit organization

that promotes environmental care, initiated the first project that started it all- "Earth Day
Celebrations 2005: A Call for Watershed Protection and Corporate Social Responsibility."
More than 1,000 people participated in the series of activities of the celebration that called
attention to the plight of Davao City's water resources and highlighted the call for protecting
watersheds in the city and all over Mindanao. In 2001, IDIS noted the massive expansion of
banana plantations in the Baguio District of Davao City. The district is an important area due
to the presence of significant watersheds: the Talomo-Lipadas watershed, which provides
98% of ground water to the city, and the Panigan-Tamugan watershed, which provides two
percent of the drinking water supply.

This Earth Day project paved the way for a continuing

partnership between FPE and IDIS through a second
project called the "Pesticide Monitoring in Panigan-
Tamugan and Talomo-Lipadas Watersheds Towards the
Protection of Critical Water Resource Areas in Davao
City." Approved in December 2006, it was a multi-
stakeholder1 research undertaking that assessed,
monitored and documented the presence and levels of Davaoeflos against aerial spraying. (!DIS)

concentration of 19 pesticides in sediments, surface and ground waters in ten selected areas
within the two watersheds. After 14 months of monthly sample collection and testing, the
research showed that 13 pesticides used in crops within the study sites indeed ended up in
water and sediments, while eight of the ten sampling stations proved positive for pesticide
residue at least once during the survey period, especially after the rains. Two of the most
commonly detected pesticides- chlorpyrifos and diazonin -were found to have exceeded
the standard for freshwater presence. More alarming still is that seven of the 13 pesticides
detected are banned. The banned pesticides are 4,4 DDT, endosulfan II, endrin ketone,
dieldrin, aldrin, heptachlor and gamma chlordane; endosulfan is strictly restricted and should
not be used near aquatic ecosystems.

Armed with the results of the study, Davao residents and civil society groups waged an intensive
nine-month campaign to stop the practice of aerial spraying . The Davao City Council, under

1 The research project was conducted in partnership with the following institutions: Ateneo De Davao University, Panaghoy sa Kinaiyahan-Coaltion for Mother Earth,

Pesticide Action Netwrok-Philippines, Pesticide Analytical Laboratory-Davao City, and Youth Advocates for the Watersheds.

59
 pressure from the people, passed an ordinance in February 2007 banning aerial spraying as
an agricultural practice and giving plantation companies three months to shift to ground
spraying .

The plantation companies, however, under the umbrella of the Pilipino Banana Growers and
Exporters Association (PBGEA), challenged the validity and constitutionality of the ordinance
by filing a civil case against the city government to stop its implementation. Twelve residents
of the communities affected by aerial spraying filed a motion for intervention which enabled
them to present their evidence in the course of the trial at Branch 17 of the Davao Regional
Trial Court.

The court upheld the constitutionality and validity of the ordinance on the ban on aerial
spraying . The PBGEA raised the case to the Court of Appeals, where it asked f or the issuance
of a temporary restraining order, which the appellate court granted. The CA also extended
the TRO to a writ of preliminary injunction . A motion for reconsideration has been filed at
the Supreme Court. The case is still pending.

IDIS submitted a third proposal in 2008, entitled "Environmental Defense of Davao City's
Upland Watersheds and Local Communities Against Agribusiness Plantation Practices." It is a
two-year project that seeks to establish a community-based environmental defense program
to empower the communities to address their watershed issues and concerns, especially the
expansion of agribusiness plantations in their areas. The communities would then be able
to exert pressure on plantation companies to implement mitigating measures to lessen the
impact of their destructive practices on public health and the environment.

Also in 2008, to support the direct legal action of community members who intervened in
the case questioning the constitutionality of the ordinance on the ban on aerial spraying,
the Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal, or SALIGAN (Center for Alternative Legal Care)
submitted an environmental defense project proposal to the Foundation. The project, "Direct
Legal Action in Defense of the Constitutionality of the Davao City Aerial Spray Ban Ordinance,"
helped the twelve residents of the aerial-spraying affected communities to assert their right as
principal parties for which the ordinance was enacted, and to present evidences and assertions
to help the high court arrive at an objective decision in upholding the constitutionality and
validity of the Davao City ordinance banning aerial spraying.

The battle against aerial spraying of pesticides in banana plantations is a battle against human
greed and social injustice. With their health fast deteriorating and with no other source of
income sufficient enough, the people may not be too far away from extinction, unless the
government finds an effective antidote to their poisoned lives. 2

2 Quijano, Dr. Romeo. "Kamukhaan: A poisoned village." <http://www.safer-world .org/e/cpuntires/ASialphilippines.htm>

60
 DOLPHINS AND FISHERFOLK SUE FOR THE RIGHT TO LIVE

The dolphins seemed more comfortable, swimming, gliding and leaping, when
a group of NGOs visited their habitat in the Tarion Strait in May 2008. It was
not so six months previously, when the dolphins and other marine mammals,
assisted by environmental lawyers, went to court to sue intruders to their
habitat. With the intrusion temporarily aborted, Tarion Strait seems to be home
Cebu Daily News to marine mammals once again.

In December 2007, resident marine mammals of Tarion Strait Protected

Seascape, through their human legal guardians, Attys. Gloria Estenzo-Ramos
and Liza Esmia-Osorio, filed a petition with the Supreme Court to stop further
offshore oil and gas explorations by Japan Exploration (Japex) Philippines, Inc.,
declaring that their habitat was being destroyed by the drilling activities off
Western Cebu. The legal guardians said the marine mammals, which possess
very good hearing abilities, had been disturbed by round-the-clock underwater
blasting and drilling operations. It was the first time in the country and in
Southeast Asia that a case was filed in behalf of animals as aggrieved parties.

That same month, a separate petition against the same oil exploration company
was also filed by the Fishermen's Development Center (FIDEC), an organization of
marginal fisherfolk, who complained that the blasting had driven the fish away,
resulting in reduced fish catch and jeopardizing the livelihoods of thousands of
local fishers. FIDEC also reported of fish kills and the disappearance of several
species of marine life, like the lumiagan, a type of squid, and a local fish, called
bucao-bucao, from their fishing grounds.

The respondents of the case were the Department of Energy (DOE), the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and Japex. The
DOE, they sa id, had contracted the company to ascertain the location and
volume of oil and natural gas deposits in the strait, which was reported to
contain a potential oil reserve of one billion barrels and a recoverable 100
million barrels. The contract area covered 2,850 sq. km. offshore of the strait
and is surrounded by 36 towns and cities in the provinces of Cebu, Negros
Oriental and Negros Occidental. The DENR, on the other hand, was cited for
claiming that the exploration would not have adverse impacts on the marine
life in the strait and that the Tarion Strait Protected Area Management Board
had approved the exploration.

Tarion Strait, a narrow strip of sea that separates the islands of Cebu and Negros
in Central Visayas, and connects the Visayan Sea to the Bohol Sea, was declared

61
 a protected seascape in 1998. It is a high biodiversity area that is home to 141
out of 27 cetaceans (dolphins and whales) found in the country, most interesting
of which are the dwarf sperm whales and melon-headed whales.

The story of the fisherfolk's struggle against the oil and natural gas exploration in
their fishing grounds reached a high point when FIDEC submitted a proposal to
Cebu Daily News
FPE in November 2007 to support their project, "Urgent Legal Action Against Oil
Exploration in the Visayas." The project sought the intervention of the Supreme
Court for immediate relief from the impacts of the operation of Japex. Aside
from that, one of the main objectives of the project was to set a landmark case
that will reshape environmental policies, particularly on offshore mining, and
provide avenues that will facilitate sustainable development.

In the course of its implementation, the project transformed from a purely legal
action to become a movement, the Save the Tanon Strait Citizen's Movement
(STSCM), that aimed to enlist the participation of universities, local government
units and concerned individuals working for the environmental protection
of Cebu. Before the movement could be formally launched, however, Japex
announced it was reliquishing its oil-drilling project in Tanon in May 2008,
purportedly "because of lack of commercial oil and gas discovery."

Despite Japex's pullout from Tanon Strait, fisherfolk in the town of Pinamungahan,
where the drilling site was closest and, therefore, had the most intense impact,
aver that their fish catch has not returned to normal. An estimated 200,000
fisherfolk in the provinces of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Negros Occidental
in the Central Visayas region have been adversely affected by the oil and gas
exploration activities of Japex at the Tanon Strait and by another oil exploration
company at the adjacent Cebu-Bohol Strait. The fishers were forced to look for
alternative sources of income, like doing laundry, gathering and selling firewood,
and carpentry. Many of their children had to stop schooling and even got sick
for lack of proper nutrition as finances dwindled.

The fisherfolk have not forgotten nor recovered from the effects of the four-
month fishing ban that Japex imposed, from November 2007 to February 2008,
while it undertook drilling operations in a 3,150 meter deep well within the
strait. The company forbade the fisherfolk from approaching within a seven-
kilometer radius of the well and deployed armed men to guard its perimeter. It
also reportedly threatened the fisherfolk that they would pay for the company's
equipment should they be damaged.

1 These cetaceans are the following: 1) Spinner dolphins (Stene/la longirostris); 2) Spotted dolphins (Stene/la attenuata); 3) Common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops

truncatus); 4) Risso's dolphins (Grampus griseus); 5) Fraser's dolphins (l.agenodelphis hosei); 6) Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus); 7) Pilot whales
(Globicephala melaena); 8) Pygmy killer whales (Feresa atenuata); 9) False killer whales (Pseudorca crassidens); 10) Dwarf sperm whale (Kogia sima); 11) Melon-
headed whale (Peponocephala electra); 12) Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus); 13) thevery rare Omura's whale (Balaenoptera omurai); and 14) beaked whale
(Mesoplodon sp.). Source: Aragones, Lemnuel V., et al. 2006. "Ecology and conservation of cetaceans in southern Tanon Strait: with some results implicating possible
negative effects of seismic surveys to cetaceans."
62
 FIDEC, and STSCM, for that matter, has always maintained that the pullout of
Japex from Tanon Strait in May 2008 was due to the snowballing of opposition
to the drilling, not to the lack of commercial quantity of oil and gas, as claimed
by the company. For a campaign that pioneered a landmark litigation involving
marine mammals and fisherfolk as petitioners challenged current concepts on
Cebu Daily News legal standing and changed policy framework.

The legal action did not only directly benefit the fisherfolk in the affected
municipalities, but all the stakeholders around the strait, as well, especially
communities in other areas threatened by oil exploration. The uniqueness of
the case and the whole-hearted involvement of the participating organizations
and volunteer experts, as well as the creative manner in which STSCM handled
the issue, have inspired other communities suffering from different kinds of
environmental problems to undertake similar endeavors. The case of the dolphins
and the fisherfolk has become a cause celebre among environmentalists in the
region, and in the whole country as well.

In 2008, the Supreme Court, recognizing that the environment is an important

component in ensuring the fundamental human rights to life, health and well-
being, has designated 117 trial courts as "environmental courts " to hear cases
involving violations of environmental laws and to speed up their resolution . In
2010, the high court further strengthened the cause of environental justice when
it promulgated the Rules of Procedure for Environmental Cases, which enfleshes
the constitutional provision of the people's right to a balanced and healthful
environment and provides a "simplified, speedy and inexpensive procedure for
enforcement of environmental rights and duties," among others.

With this in mind, STSCM is very optimistic that the highest court of the land will
decide in favor of the petitioners.

-~- .-
_.,....,_..__
Pilot whales in Tafion Strait. (Lory Tan!WWF)

63
 ENVIRONMENT AND
POLICY ADVOCACY FOR
DEVELOPMENT

One of the goals of FPE

is "to build local and
international cooperation
between and among civil
society, government and
business groups towards
the development of policies
and effective programs for
The Banao Watershed in Mounts Balbalasang and Balbalan in Abra
and Kalinga provinces is also now being threatened by large-scale
biodiversity conservation and mining business due to poor policy environment in the country.
(D . De Alban/FPE)

sustainable development."
 To achieve this goal, FPE has adopted policy based Development, Basic Social Services, Peace
advocacy- undertaken through the projects it Building, Conflict Prevention and Human Rights, Good
supports and the activities it undertakes- as one of its Governance and Environment. FPE is the TG convenor
strategies. for the Environment.

Important engagements of FPE in policy FPE is also a member of the International

advocacy in recent years involve its membership in the NGO Forum, wherein some members supporting
UN Civil Society Assembly and the International mining host communities formed the INGOF Mining
NGO Forum Working Working Group in 2006. The
Group on Mining, as well working group members
as its participation in the have mapped the sites of
drafting of the Sustainable their assistance throughout
Forest Management Bill and the Philippines, agreed
of the Alternative Mining Bill. on collaborative ventures,
such as the support for the
FPE is a member Newsbreak special issue on
of the UN Civil Society mining and the conduct
Assembly and was elected of the bank tracking and
for two terms as a member resource valuation training
of Civil Society Advisory for communities and
Committee. Established in their supporters. They are
November 2006, the UNCSA planning to undertake more
serves as the consultative coordinated assistance where
forum between the UN it is needed.
country team and civil
society organizations in the In 2007-09, FPE took
Philippines on experiences part in the formulation
and issues that impact both of the Alternative Mining
CSOs and UN programs in Bill spearheaded by the
the country. The UNCSAC Legal Resource and Natural
"provides UNCT with Resources Center. The
strategic and substantive bill is intended to take the
guidance on policies and place of the Philippine
programs to improve Mining Act of 1995, which
development effectiveness mining host communities
and enhance its relations and their supporters say is
with civil society in the tilted against the interests
country" and "undertakes, of the communities and the
with UNCT, advocacy on identified cross cutting country, and has no sufficient environmental protection
development issues and identifies strategic issues that measures.
will accelerate the implementation of the Millennium
Development Goals." In 2008-09, FPE also participated in the
discussions leading to the formulation of the
UNCSA is now composed of 68 CSOs and Sustainable Forest Management Bill, and emphasized
networks, including 42 national CSO networks and to lawmakers and other government representatives
seven regional CSO networks. It has five thematic the efficacy of rainforestation in restoring our forest
groups, namely: Macro-economic Stability and Broad- ecosystems.

65
 KAMAS

66
Institutional
Updates
67

In the past five years, FPE
went through changes
1n governance, program
direction and the grants
program in its effort to
respond to the needs of
its internal and external
en vi ron ments.
68
Governance
In terms of governance, one major change was in
the membership of the Foundation. From its inception, FPE
membership was confined to the eleven members of the Board
of Trustees. The Foundation's by-laws provided further that
once a member's term as trustee ends, his/her FPE membership
also ceases. In 2005, the Board of Trustees, with concurrence
of the Regional Advisory Committees (RACs), amended this
particular provision of the by-laws. The amendment provides
that former chairpersons of the FPE Board who have completed
a four-year term are now to be considered permanent
members of FPE, while the sitting Board members, except the
chairperson, shall remain as members for the duration of their
term. The entry of the former chairpersons as permanent
members would provide institutional continuity and ensure
that the Board would have a body of elders to whom to
report and be accountable, as representatives of the publics
of FPE. The permanent members take part in the biennial
election of members of the Board, as well as participate in the
annual general assembly of the Foundation, during which the
performance report for the previous year and future plans are
presented.
The FPE General Assembly in 2008. (G. Villapando!FPEfile)
In 2006, FPE changed its annual financial reporting
schedule from calendar (January to December) to fiscal, which
starts in July of every year. The reason for such change is to
align the reporting of organizational and financial performance
and presentation of annual plans to the entry of new trustees.
National Environmental Agenda and the
CARRESI
The direction of FPE funding support also underwent
a major change in the past five years. From the start, FPE
had promoted community-based resource management as
the strategy to employ in its site-focused program. This program, which was allotted
around 70% of FPE grant assistance, was implemented in FPE's priority sites, meaning,
specific areas that were prioritized by FPE in 1993, with the assistance of the Regional
Advisory Committees. FPE's two other grant windows, the proactive, in which FPE would
conceptualize a project and a partner NGO or a consortium of NGOs would develop and
implement, and action grants, for situations needing quick response, were allocated 25%
and 5%, respectively, of the grants portfolio. Necessarily, such allocation of the funding
pie meant that NGOs and POs wanting to work in areas outside FPE's priority sites and its
proactive program could only propose projects under the action grant window.

In 2005, the Foundation began to open more avenues for its programs when it
formulated its National Environmental Agenda (NEA), the "framework by which FPE intends
, to fulfill its vision and work." The NEA
identifies seven strategies the Foundation
shall pursue in the coming years, namely:

Constituency Building, to build

the partners' capabilities so that they
can undertake their work as stable and
technically equipped organizations;

Consultation meeting on the NEA and CARRESI among the members

of the regional advisory committee . (FPE.file)
Advocacy, to support advocacy initiatives of NGOs and POs in biodiversity
conservation and sustainable development, as well as the establishment and strengthening
of coalitions of NGOs and POs; and to facilitate links between national and international
civil society groups and local NGOs and POs needing their assistance;

Research, to generate information needed to support and direct action for

environmental protection;

Resource Mobilization, to generate new and additional resources for FPE

programs;

Environmental Defense, to mobilize citizens' participation in environmental

paralegal action; pursue legal action against individuals and institutions responsible
for the degradation of the environment; and advance policy reforms that will promote
environmental protection and conservation;

Sites, to support NGOs, POs, tri-people of M indanao and indigenous peoples in

the identified sites in enhancing their capabilities to manage their resources for sustainable
development; initiate and support community-based approaches and actions for biodiversity
conservation and sustainable development; and support initiatives intended to create visible
responses to specific issues; and

Institution Building, to strengthen FPE as an institution .

This change means that NGOs and POs can now access more substantial funding
support for their environmental protection initiatives in whatever place they are working
69
 in, as long as these projects fall into any of the strategies above, except for resource mobilization
and institution building, which are for the internal purposes of FPE. This also means that there shall
be strategies by which FPE can actively mobilize new and additional resources for its programs,
via the resource mobilization strategy, and enhance its capability as an institution and a learning
organization, through institution building.

Agenda Issues

In 2006, the Regional Consultative Groups gave more flesh to FPE's environmental agenda
by identifying issues and concerns they confront in their areas, which needed financial and technical
assistance. They eventually refined these into their respective Regional Environmer.tal Agenda .
These issues and concerns, which totaled 33 nationwide, were narrowed down to ten, these ten
being the most mentioned by the RACs. The ten are:

• Environmental Education
• Governance
• Indigenous Knowledge, Systems, and Practices
• Land Use Management
• Mining
• Logging
• Renewable Energy and Climate Change
• Unsustainable Agricultural Practices
• Unsustainable Fisheries
• Watershed Management

A year later, recognizing that support for a long list of issues

and concerns would spread FPE resources very thinly and dissipate any
impact, the members of FPE chose three main issues on which the
institution WOUld fOCUS itS SUpport: logging, mining and climate Change. Themostpressingenvironmentalissuesthatwerediscussed
in the 2008 national meeting of RAC. (FPEfile)

Types of Grants and Funding Levels

The year 2006 also saw the redefinition of the types of grants supported by FPE:

Site-focused grants support projects that are implemented in priority or environmentally-

critical sites, which are selected by FPE from the list of the Philippine Biodiversity Conservation
Priority-Setting Program which FPE took part in developing. The goal of site projects is mainly to
empower and enable organized communities to undertake biodiversity conservation and sustainable
resource management initiatives in these sites.

Proactive grants support projects that aim for a broader, more strategic impact on the major
environmental actors and issues in the country. Conceptualized by FPE in consultation w ith a broad
spectrum of environmental and development advocates, proactive projects have a broad coverage,
either regional or national, and may be implemented by a single NGO or, if the scope is nationwide,
by an NGO coalition or a consortium of NGOs.

70
 Competitive grants are those that are open to
organizations that are not implementing site or proactive
projects.

The funding levels for grants were likewise redefined

in 2006 and revised in 2009. From 1992 to 2005, there
were only two funding levels: action grant, which was
initially set at PhP 100,000.00 each and increased to PhP
150,000.00 in 2000, and the substantial grants that could
go up to PhP 2 million or more for the proactive and
site-focused projects. In 2006, the action grant category
was replaced with the small grant, which started at PhP
150,000.00 and went up to PhP 200,000.00 in 2009. The
medium and large grants levels were created, the first with
a cap of PhP 400,000.00, increased to PhP 800,000.00 in
2009, the second up to PhP 2 million.

Informing Civil Society Organizations of

Changes

To inform FPE's publics of the changes that had

taken place in 2006, FPE organized Civil Society Forums
in the following places: Cebu City- Feb 14, 2007, Davao
City- February 27, 2007, Quezon City- March 6, 2007,
Tagbilaran City- May 24, 2007, Baguio City- June 19,
The CSO forums that were held throughout the country in 2007 to
2007, Dagupan City- July 12, 2007, Legazpi City- August introduce the NEA and revised grants program of FPE. (FPE.file)
17, 2007, Lipa City- September 26, 2007, Puerto Princesa
City- October 9, 2007, and Iloilo City- November 26,
2007.

Leadership Changes

The year 2006 and 2008 saw changes in the

leadership of FPE as the trustees and permanent members
elected new members to the Board of Trustees from
among the nominees submitted by the Regional Advisory
Committees.

For the term 2006 to 2010, elected were Florencia

Casanova-Dorotan of Women's ·Action Network for
Development, as Luzon Representative; Paciencia Po Milan,
Ph .D., of Visayas State University, as Visayas Representative;
Erlinda Montillo-Burton, Ph.D., of Research Institute for

71
 Mindanao Culture, Xavier University, as Mindanao Representative; and Edicio de Ia Torre of
Education for Life Foundation, as member at-large.

For the term 2008-2010, the following were elected : Perry Ong, Ph.D. , of the
Institute of Biology, University of the Philippines, as Luzon Representative; Danny N.
Valenzuela, LL.M. of the Center for Alternative Law, College of Law, University of San
Agustin, as Visayas Representative; Proserpina Gomez-Roxas, Ph .D., of Mindanao State
University in Naawan, as Mindanao Representative; two members at-large, Bishop Broderick
S. Pabillo, D.D., of the Diocese of Manila, and Juan Miguel M. Luz of the Asian Institute of
Management; and Oxfam-G reat Britain, as international NGO member, represented by its
country representative, Lilian C. Mercado.

It was also in 2006 when the sixth executive director and two new managers joined
the Foundation . Ms. Ma. Christine F. Reyes came on board as Executive Director in March
of that year. Godofredo T. Villapando was hired as Program Development Unit Manager in
April, while Reginald Rex Barrer became Human Resources Development and Administration
Manager in June.

RAC National Assembly

FPE convened a RAC National Assembly on

April 21-23, 2007 at the AIM Conference Center,
to provide the members of the Regional Advisory
Committees the opportunity to get acquainted with
one another, introduce to them the members of
the Board of Trustees elected in 2006, and update
them of developments in FPE. Among those
presented at the assembly was the 10-point National
Environmental Agenda, which was culled from the
regional agenda formulated by the RACs the previous
year.

FPE Visayas team presenting the 10-point NEA to the members of the RAC Visayas.
(D . De Alban!FPE)
FPE trustee, Mr. Nonoy Agrazamendez, p resenting the plaque of appreciation to Mr.
Roberto Derla of PNAGSAMA, FPE:~ partner in Bulusan Volcano National Park,
Sorsogon. (FPE.file)
72
The assembly also served as the venue for
the presentation of plaques of appreciation t o
proponents of five site-focused projects for their
work in steering their initiatives to a successful
completion, namely: Miriam PEACE (Public Education
and Awareness Campaign for the Environment)
and Buklud Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa Kal ikasa n
(BUNDUK) for their project in Biak-na-Bato National
Park in Bulacan; Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng
Sambayanan, Inc. (LIKAS) and Pederasyon ng
Nagkaisang Samahan ng Bundok Bul usan, Inc.
(PNAGSAMA) for their project in Bulusan Volcano
National Park in Sorsogon; Sill iman University Center
for Tropical Conservation and Studies (SU Centrop),
Rtn. Martin "Ting" Matiao Foundation, Pederasyon
sa Nagkahiusang mga Mag-uuma nga Nanalipud ug
Nagpasig-uli sa Kinaiyahan Inc. (PENAGMANNAK) and '"''e l::.nvir onment
Mount Talinis People's Organization Federation (MTPOF)
for their project in Mount Talinis-Twin Lakes Natural
Park in Negros Oriental; and Mahintana Foundation and
the Linan Protected Area Multi-purpose Cooperative
(LIPAMCO) for their project in Mount Matutum Protected
Landscape in South Cotabato.

In celebration of Earth Day, the members of the

RACs were treated to their first ride in an electric jeep,
a project of the Green Renewable Independent Power Arry. Fulgencio Factoran, the first FPE chairperson, giving the opening
remarks at The FPE Partners' Forum in 2009. (FPEfile)
Producers, whose advocacy of the climate-friendly, almost
noiseless vehicle FPE funded.

Partners' Forum

Some 87 representatives from select FPE

grant partners, NGOs, government offices, donor and
development agencies, and the private sector attended
the FPE Partners' Forum held February 16, 2009 at
EDSA Shangri-la Hotel. The forum was held primarily
to establish FPE as a fund conduit for NGOs and POs. A
Manong Carling Dumolot and the youth of LAKAS presenting the stage
corollary objective was to introduce 16 NGO and PO play Byaheng Ayta. (FPEfile)
partners, some of whose projects with FPE had been
successfully completed, and would, therefore, benefit
from partnerships with other institutions, internal and
local. These partners put up booths that featured
exhibits of their projects and sold products made in their
communities.

One of the highlights of the forum was the

launching of FPE 's first book, narrating its partnership
with 15 NGOs and POs during the Foundation 's first 15
years, entitled Communities, Conservation and the Filipino
Environmentalist. Another publication was also presented Launching of FPE's first book, entitled Communities, Conservation and
the Filipino Environmentalist, with one of the book's editors, Ms Sylvia
to the participants, Preserving the Beauty of Balicasag Mesina, and editorial adviser and FPE trustee, Dr. Paciencia Milan.
(FPEfile)
Island, a popular version of a study conducted by the
Silliman University Angelo King Center for Research and
Environmental Management.

Another high point was the presentation of the

children of the Lubos na Alyansa ng mga Katutubong
Ayta ng Sambales (LAKAS) of their tribe's journey from
their ancestral home in Mt. Pinatubo, which they had to
leave in 1991 as the volcano was about to erupt, to their
present settlement in Bihawo, Botolan in Zambales. They
depicted their attachment to Pinatubo by portraying their
bucolic life in the mountain and gleefully mimicking the The exhibit booth of PADAYON, FPE's partner in the Bohol Marine
Triang le Project. (FPEfile)
73
 sounds of its denizens. In tribal songs and dances, they also dramatized the discrimination they endured at the
hands of the "unat" (straight-haired people) as they wandered for a year from one relocation site to another until
they found a place that they bought with their own savings.

Knowledge Products

In January 2009, FPE published its first book featuring several projects the Foundation has supported.
Entitled Communities, Conservation and the Filipino Environmentalist, the book tries to answer this crucial
question: Fifteen years into its support of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development projects, can
FPE say that the work of its partners has made a difference 7 Put another way: Can FPE say that it has made a
difference through the work of its partners? In response to the question, the book features stories of fifteen
projects out of the more than 500 that FPE has supported in its first 15 years, seen from the point of view of the
writers and project implementors.

Following are the titles of the stories, their authors and the topics they dealt on:

1. "Power from the Forest, Power from the Printed Word," by Rey Abella and Aida Jean Manipon, is
a follow-through of the book, Power from the Forest: Politics of Logging in the Philippines, written by Marites
Danguilan-Vitug in 1993. Vitug was executive director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, FPE's
partner in the book project.
2. "Accompanying Fisherfolk in their Journey Towards a Sustainable Future," by Samuel Gamboa,
talks about the Guiuan Marine Development and Management Program, a community-based coastal resource
management project of the Guiuan Development Foundation, Inc, which FPE supported from 1992 to 1999.
Guiuan is a municipality of Eastern Samar, a province in the Eastern Visayas region.
3. "Envisioning a Premier Watershed," by Trinidad Malaga and Ramon Duran, dwells on the Mount
Matutum Integrated Conservation and Development Program, implemented by the Mahintana Foundation and
the Linan Protected Area Multi-Purpose Cooperative. FPE assisted the CBRM project from 1995 to 2006. Mount
Matutum is in South Cotabato, a province belonging to Region 11 in southern Mindanao
4. "Relief for Threatened Species in Mount Talinis-Twin Lakes," by Rebecca Desiree Lozada, relates the
unfolding of the initiative entitled the Mount Talinis-Twin Lakes Biodiversity Conservation Project of the Silliman
University Center for Tropical Conservation and Studies and the Rotarian Martin Matiao Foundation, together with
the PO federations- PENAGMANNAK and MTPOF -they helped set up. FPE funding for this CBRM project began
in 1997 and ended in 2007. Mt. Talinis is found in Negros Oriental, a province in the Central Visayas region.
5. "Saving Biak-na-Bato," by Mae Buenaventura, is a story about the Biak-na-Bato National Park
Conservation Project of Miriam PEACE (Public Education and Awareness Campaign for the Environment) and
Buklud Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa Kalikasan. Another CBRM project funded by FPE, it commenced in 1997 and
ended in 2007. Biak-na-Bato is located in the municipality of Dona Remedios Trinidad in the province of Bulacan in
Central Luzon .
6. "Fisherfolk as Partners in Restoring Danajon Bank," by Samuel Gamboa, narrates how the project
Strengthening PO Capacities for Effective Ecosystem-based Management of Danajon Bank raised the consciousness
of local fishers on the need to protect the reef and its marine resources. Implemented by the Project Seahorse
(Philippines) and Kapunongan sa mga Mananagat sa Danajon, FPE extended its assistance in 2005 and 2006.
Danajon Bank is a double-barrier reef off the island province of Bohol in Central Visayas.
7. "Learning to Protect the Environment and Protect Lives," by Samuel Gamboa, talks about the creation
of the book, Magandang Mundo: A Sustainable Education Handbook for High School Students, and the impact it
had on its creators. An advocacy initiative of the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development, which FPE
supported funded in 2005-06, the project site consists of three high schools in two municipalities of the province
of Samar in Eastern Visayas.
74
 8. "Guardians of Living Treasures," by Rebecca Desiree Lozada,
presents another advocacy project, the Marine Mammal Conservation
Project of the Silliman University Marine Laboratory, which FPE helped
support in 1995-1996. The project site is in Dumaguete City in the
province of Negros Oriental in Central Visayas.
9. "Greening the Professions through Environmental
Education," by Mae Buenaventura, relates how the First Philippine
Congress of Tertiary Environmental Education in 1996 of the
Environmental Education Network of the Philippines, advocated for the
introduction of environmental education in the different courses offered
by tertiary level educational institutions.
10. "Bringing the Mountains to Congress, " by Erlinda
Timbreza-Valerio and Constancia Sinco, focuses on the making
and presentation of the 3D map of Mounts Banahaw-San Cristobal
Protected Landscape and the lobbying of the Banahaw Bill at the 14th
Congress. The activity is an advocacy project of the Luntiang Alyansa
ng Bundok Banahaw that FPE funded in 2005 . Mounts Banahaw-
San Cristobal are located in the provinces of Laguna and Quezon in
Southern Luzon.
11. "Creating Ripples in Davao City," by Trinidad Malaga and
Ramon Duran, narrates how the celebration of Earth Day 2005 of the
Interface Development Interventions began with water and ended with
a campaign to stop aerial spraying of banana plantations in Davao City
in southeastern Mindanao.
12. "Learning Lifeways and Eco-Values." by Trinidad Malaga, Communities, Conservation
talks about the Revival and Strengthening of the Subanen Culture and and
t e Filipino ~nvlronmentallst
Governance th rough Education Project of the PI PULl Foundation, which
FPE supported in 2005. The sites of the project are two municipalities
in Misamis Occidental in northern Mindanao.
13. "Protecting Watersheds and Ancestral Domains," by Rowil
Aguillon, Ma. Theresa Agravante and Aida Jean Manipon, recounts
the long drawn-out effort of the Bukidnon Higaonon tribe in northern
Mindanao to obtain a certificate of ancestral domain title in order to
PAGDURUGTONG-DUGTONG NG
protect their forests . Called the Pulangi Watershed Integrated NGO-
KAGUBATAN SA PAMAGITAN NG
PO Community-Based Resource Management Project, the initiative is
PANGMATAGALANG PAMAMAHALA
being implemented by the Bukidnon-Higaonon Tribal Association. As SA LUPANG NINUNO
the site is also home of the Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi), the
Philippine Eagle Foundation assisted the association in implementing
the project. FPE funded their efforts from 1999 to 2008
14. "Indelible Footprints among the Buhids, " by Daisy Punlaan at Pagtatanim
Timbreza-Valerio, narrates the transformation of an indigenous group, GABAY SA PAGPAPATUBO AT PAGTATANIM NG SEMILYA NG MGA
KATUTUBONG KAHOY
the Buhid, from being powerless victims of land grabbing to being
an empowered community able to decide on the development of
their ancestral domains. The Buhid is a sub-tribe of the Mangyan of
Mindoro, an island in southern Luzon. Their project was supported by
~Domain W'Orkml Group Up NGO na ~ Pi"3 sa ~ Lup;ong Ninuno.

FPE from 1996 to 1999. ~~ u1t. ~w.tdi (AtrtllrolfAich)

15. "In Defense of the Environment," by Rey Abella, Lydia ---

~:.:r~c-..
FIIUIIdationlor ~ Phifippine~IFP£1
Nan-Tmb!!r fS'I!!I:t Pmduct!s-Task f"""'IPOfP-Ifl
Uph<>ldini: Uff! .... tull..w{UI..AN)

Domingo and Sylvia Mesina, traces the history and achievements, as

75
 well as the challenges, of the En Defense Program, one of longest-
running and most comprehensive proactive programs of FPE. Running
from 1993 to 2003, the program encompassed paralegal training, law
internship and litigation of environmental cases involving communities.
Three environmental legal groups- Tanggol Kalikasan in Luzon,
Environmental Legal Assistance Center in Visayas, and Paglilingkod
Batas Pangkapatiran in Mindanao- implemented the program.

In the last two years, FPE also published two printed materials
on rainforestation, a forest restoration strategy that uses native
tree species, which FPE promotes in its project sites. The first is a
manual, Pagdurugtong-Ougtong ng Kagubatan sa Pamamagitan ng
Pangmatagalang Pamamahala ng Lupaing Ninuno (Connecting Forests
through Long-term Ancestral Domain Management), published in 2008
as a joint initiative of four NGOs: AnthroWatch, Non-Forest Timber
Products, Upholding Life and Nature, and FPE, with funding from
the European Union. Written for the use of indigenous communities
in Luzon and Mindanao, the manual came out in both Filipino and
Cebuano Visayan versions to better suit its users. The authors,
Cherylon Herzano and Godofredo Villapando, acknowledge that the
ideas in the manual came from a monograph, Rainforestation Farming,
written by Paciencia Po-Milan, Ph . D., secretary of the FPE Board and
former president of the Visayas State University, who pioneered and
developed the technology. A second edition of the monograph,
entitled Rainforestation Farming: A farmer's guide to sustainable
forest biodiversity management, was released in 2009. It explains the
rainforestation technology, why it is best for forests in the Philippines
(which are mostly rainforests), and lays out the steps to do it.

Another monograph, Preserving the Beauty of Balicasag

Island: Recent Findings and Management Options, came out in 2009.
The monograph summarizes a study done in 2006 to determine the
impacts of dive tourism on the coral reefs of Balicasag Island in Bohol
province. A team of researchers from the Silliman University Angelo
King Center for Research and Environmental Management conducted
the study.

Another first in terms of communications material was the

audio-visual presentation of FPE's history, which was released in 2007 .
Simply titled "FPE: An Environment Fund for NGOs and POs," the
presentation traces the beginnings of FPE from the first NGO stirrings
advocating for the creation of a large NGO-held fund for civil society
initiatives in 1989 to the founding of FPE in 1992, the establishment
of the national environmental fund through a debt-for-nature swap in
1993, on through its first fifteen years of life.

76
I
MINDANAO
~

Alberto Valerio
Arjay Neville Repollo
Arnold Tapere
Arthur Aca-ac
l~I foUNDATION FOR THE PHILIPPINE ENVIRONMENT
Betty Cabazares
National Regional Advisory Committee
Carmen Cubil ( RAC ) Meeting
Danilo Paypa
Eugenio Sinoy
Fermin Flores, Jr.
Haran Marohom
Maria Gandan
Michael Daniel
Purificacion Trinidad
Renata Boniao
Rogelio Egas

FPE MANAGEMENT AND STAFF

Executive Office Luzon Regional Operations Unit

Ma. Christine F. Reyes, Execut1ve Director Fernando M . Ramirez, Manager

Ma. Josephine C. Dela Cruz, Executive Assistant
Finance Unit
Jay Carmela C. Ciriaco, Manager
Norma G. Denaga, General Accountant
Leonora R. Dominguez, Investment Officer
Carina P. Dacillo, Bookkeeper
Aunario S. Lucero, Jr., Project Officer
Carygine V. Isaac, Project Officer
Visayas Regional Operations Unit
Myrissa L. Tabao, Manager
Fel Ceasar T. Cadiz, Project Officer
Raymunda V. Debuayan, Project Officer

Human Resource Development and Administration Mindanao Regional Operations Unit

Reginald Rex E. Barrer, Manager Armando C. Pacudan, Manager

Adeline M. Angeles, Human Resource Officer Neriza M. Agbuya, Project Officer
Cesar R. Babas, Jr., Information Technology Officer Juland R. Suazo, Project Officer
Rommel P. Romulo, Property Custod1an
Andres B. Beringuel, Dnver
Benjamin G. Dangalan, Off1ce Services Worker
Jerry T. Sucaldito, Office Services Worker

Development Communications Unit

Sylvia R. Mesina, Manager

Claudia B. Binondo, Project Officer

Program Development Unit

Godofredo T. Villapando, Manager

Jose Don T. De Alban, ProJect Officer
Maylyn P. Pagatpatan, Project Officer
Cherylon A. Herzano, Tech nical Officer

81
Staff Training and Development

In 2006, FPE staff joined a two-year program among six Southeast Asian countries to improve the
capacities and knowledge of practitioners of community-based natural resource management through sharing of
knowledge and experiences. Called the Adaptive Learning
and Linkages in Community-Based Natural Resource
Management (ALL in CBNRM), the program follows FPE's
main strategy and framework of communities learning to
come to terms with the realities of their environment and
deciding to act on it in sustainable, environmentally safe
ways. The main activity for the program was the conduct
of ten online discussion forums around different themes
on adaptive learning and CBNRM. The program included FPE staff during the introductory workshop of the ALL in CBNRM program
mentoring and backstopping activities to enhance sharing in Los Baiios. Laguna in 2006 (above), and the final evaluation and planning
workshop in Bangkok, Thailand in 2008 (below). (FPE.file)
and learning . It had eight learning groups from Cambodia,
Indonesia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines and
five institutional partners cum mentors, one from Thailand
(Regional Community Forestry Training Center for Asia
and the Pacific) and the rest from the Philippines (CBNRM
Learning Center, the International Potato Center, the
International Institute for Rural Reconstruction, and the UP
College of Development Communications). IIRR was the
institutional partner of FPE.

On 8-10 January 2008, the organizations involved in ALL in CBNRM convened in Bangkok, Thailand, to
evaluate the status of the project after 19 months of sharing and joint learning as a community. Results affirmed
that gains had been achieved in terms of knowledge of participatory CBNRM approaches and appreciation of the
various contexts of CBNRM in Southeast Asia. The program was supported by the International Development
Research Center.

The Way Forward

FPE ventures to make a difference in the lives of many communities bearing

the brunt of environmental damage, climate change, and poverty. Much work
remains to be done. Strategic partnerships will remain as an important mechanism
for the Foundation. The synergy from such partnerships will multiply the reach and
depth of efforts, thereby creating impact that is more long-term, sustainable, and
meaningful for communities in far-flung areas.

77
 2002-2006

Rowena R. Boquiren, Ph.D. Gerardo L. Ledesma

Luzon Representative Visayas Representative
Secretary, 2004-2006 Executive Director
Professor of History Philippine Reef & Rainforest Conservation
University of the Philippines-Baguio Foundation, Inc.

Vitaliano N. Nanagas II
Member at Large
Rachel V. Polestico Chairperson, 2003-2006
Mindanao Representative Treasurer & Board Member
Director, Appropriate Technology Center Philippine Agrarian Reform Foundation for
Southeast Asia Social Leadership Institute National Development

2004-2008

Julio Galvez Tan

Luzon Representative Angel C. Alcala, Ph.D.
Treasurer, 2004-2006 Visayas Represent ative
Chairperson, 2006-2008 Vice-Chairperson, 2004-2008
Chairperson, Center for Empowerment and Director, Silliman University-Angelo King Center
Resource Development for Research and Environmental Management

Edtami P. Mansayagan
Rolando P. Agrazamendez Member at Large
Mindanao Representative Secretary General
Executive Director National Confederation of Indigenous
Allah Valley Development Foundation, Inc. Peoples o f the Philippines

Jaime M. Paredes Gary G. Granada

Member at Large Member at Large
Founder, President and Lecturer Chairperson
Green Earth Movement KAALAGA D Foundation, Inc.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Barbara E. Salazar
International NGO Representative
Representing Swiss Inter-Church
Secretary, 2006-2008

78
 2006-2010

Florencia Casanova-Dorotan
Luzon Representative Erlinda Mantilla-Burton, Ph.D.
Treasurer, 2006-2008 M indanao Representative
Vice-C hairperson, 2008-2010 Research Associate
National Coordinator Research Institute for Mindanao Culture
Women's Action Network for Development Xavier University

Paciencia P. Milan, Ph .D.

Visayas Representative Edicio G. dela Torre
Secretary, 2 006-2 0 10 Member at Large
President Chairperson, 2008-2010
Leyte State Univers1ty President
(now Visayas State University) Education for Life Foundation

2008-2012

Danny N. Valenzuela, LL.M.

Perry S. Ong, Ph.D. Visayas Representative
Luzon Representative Director
Director, Institute of Biology Center for Alternative Law
University of the Philippines Diliman College of Law, University of San Agustin

Juan Miguel M. Luz

Proserpina G. Roxas, Ph.D. Member at Large
Mindanao Representative Treasurer, 2008-2010
Professor Professor
Mindanao State University Naawan Asian Institute of Management

Bp. Broderick S. Pabillo, D.D.

Member at Large
Auditor, 2008-2010 Lilian C. Mercado
Auxiliary Bishop International NGO Representative
Diocese of Manila Representing Oxfam-GB, Philippines

Roberto B. Tan
Government Representative
(2003 onwards, as long as t he DOF or the
Central Bank retains him in t he position)
Aud itor, 2004-2008
National Treasurer
National Treasury Office
79
 PERMANENT MEMBERS

Fulgencio S. Factoran Fr. Eliseo R. Mercado, Jr., OMI

Chairperson, 1992-1996 Chairperson, 2000-2002
Term: 1992-1996 Term: 1998-2002

Fr. Francis B. Lucas Vitaliano N. Nanagas II

Chairperson, 1996-1998 Chairperson, 2003-2006
Term : 1994-1998 Term: 2002-2006

Alma Monica A. dela Paz Julio Galvez Tan

Chairperson, 1998-2000 Chairperson, 2006-2008
Term: 1996-2000 Term: 2004-2008

REGIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEMBERS 2004-2010

LUZON

Ana Marie Leung

Arthur Estrella
Caroline Ubalde
I.If! IfouNDA~ION FOR THE PHILIPPINE ENVIRONMENT
Elmer Cadiz National Regional Advisory Committee
Estrelita Obien Domingo {RAC ) Meeti
Estrella Alkonga
Jun Lapitan
Laurence Padilla
Lisa Antonio
Marita Rodriguez
Maureen Belen Loste
Mina Ballesteros
Rodrigo Custodio
Sonny Salvosa
Fr. Samuel Cuarto

VI SAVAS

Agustin Docena
Edmund Sanchez I.If! I foUNDATION FOR THE PHIUPPINE ENVIRONMENT .
Ester Delfin National Regional Advisory Comnittee
Evelyn Nacario-Castro ( RAC) M aa,l'ln
Gavina Doblon
Guadalupe Renomeron
Helena dela Rosa
Lorena Navallasca
Marilou Llavan
Romana delos Reyes
Rosalinda Paredes
Rose Liza Osorio
Zenaida Darunday
80
 Projects Supported

2005 to 2010
82
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2005
NATIONAL
2nd National Agroforestry Congress 2005 Philippine Agroforestry Education and
Research Network 130,435 Completed
14th Philippine Terrestrial Biodiversity Wildlife Conservation Society of the
Symposium Philippines 150,000 Completed

Aerial Photography of Infanta, Real and Philippine Association for Intercultural

General Nakar in Quezon Province 150,000 Completed
Development, Inc.
Philippine Partnership for the Development
Alyansa Tigil Mina Advocacy Project 2,678,000 Completed
of Human Resources in the Rural Areas
A Pilgrimage for Peace -Our Commitment
Aksyon Para sa Kapayapaan at Katarungan
to the Care and Protection of the 49,720 Completed
Foundation, Inc.
Environment
Assessment of the Bio-Physico-Chemical
Conditions of the Surroundings of the Institute for Environmental Conservation
Mining Site in the Eastern Part of the Island 400,000 Completed
and Research - Ateneo de Naga University
of Rapu-Rapu, Albay
Audio Visual Production for Selected FPE
Pau l Cornilla Baang 560,000 Terminated
Sites
Capacity Building on Coastal Resource
Management Planning for AGCA Twin Network for Sustainable Livelihood Catalyst 118,500 Completed
Sanctuary
Catalyzing Investments for Poverty
Reduction and Sustainable Development
FPE (Proactive Project) 1,500,000 Ongoing
(A Concept Paper on the Pilot FPE-FSSI-PEF
Partnership for Luzon site)
Conference on Best Mediation Practices on
Mediators Network for Sustainable Peace,
Resource Use and Land Tenure Conflicts in Completed
Inc.
the Philippines
Coral Gardening in Culion, Palawan Hayuma Foundation, Inc. 150,000 Completed
Developing Framework for Assessing "Dark Environmental Education Network of the
131,000 Completed
Green Schools " in the Philippines Philippines
Environmental Lawyers Conference and
Environmental Legal Assistance Center 150,000 Completed
Workshop 2005
First National Grassroots Conference on Philippine Federation of Environmental
53,620 Completed
M ining Concerns
General Assembly to Facilitate Re-invention
Civil Society Counterpart Council for
of Civil Society Counterpart Council for 85,800 Completed
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development
Insights and Applications into Community- Asian Social Institute and Maximo T. Kalaw
50,000 Completed
Centered Fisheries Management Seminar Institute for Sustainable Development
KALASAG (Kalikasan ay Sagipin): Civil
Haribon Foundation 197,486 Completed
Society Summit on the Environment
Legal Case Filing Against the Illegal
Establishment of Globe Telecom Facility Kalahan Educational Foundation 100,000 Completed
within the Ancestral Domain
Managing Bioregions for Sustainable Maximo T. Kalaw Institute for Sustainable
148,300 Completed
Development Development
Mainstreaming Environmental Information,
Tanggol Kalikasan, Inc. 1,925,000 Completed
Education and Communication (MEIEC)
Center for Environmental Awareness and
Moonrise Film Festival 150,000 Completed
Education

83
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

National Biodiversity Monitoring Workshop Conservation International- Philippines 150,000 Completed

People's Organizations' Phase-out FPE (Proactive Project) 120,182 Completed
Conference
Buklod Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa 538,580 Completed
Project Closure Review and Evaluation
Kalikasan
University of the Philippines College of Law 150,000 Completed
Public Interest Law Internship Program
Development Foundation, Inc.
Philippine Biodiversity Book: Principles and 132,655 Completed
Haribon Foundation
Practice
Pursuing Land Partnership in the
Philippines: Finding the Common Ground 150,000 Completed
Asian NGO Coalition
to Address Land Conflicts Between Farmers
and Indigenous Peoples
Regional Consultative Group Meeting 2006 FPE (Proactive Project) 3,600,000 Completed
Review and Revision of the National
Mamamayang may Aksyon Dulot ng Likas-
Integrated Protected Areas System (NIPAS) 150,000 Completed
Yamang Umuugnay sa Madlum
Implementing Rules and Regulations
==
Strengthening A National Network of
Fishers' Advocacy Agenda
The Sierra Madre Landslides- One Year
Pamana Ka Sa Pilipinas
J1 150,000 Completed

Philippine Federation of Environmental

after Policy Implications on Logging and 95,500 Completed
Concerns
Next Steps
World Environment Day Advocacy GOMBURZA 132,500 Completed

LUZON
Assessment and Planning Workshop of
Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement-
Coastal Management Initiatives in Cavite 137,500 Completed
Cavite Chapter
Coastal Areas
Bolos Point Community-Based Resource Cagayan Valley Partners in People
1,493,680 Ongoing
Management Project Development
Coastal Community Resources and
Campaign against Rapu-Rapu Mining 150,000 Ongoing
livelihood Development, Inc.
Case Study on Benguet Vegetable and
Cordillera News Agency 15,000 Completed
Mining Industry- Focused Group Discussion
Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation Tipon ti Umili para iti Panangsaluad iti
999,850 Ongoing
of Buasao Watershed and Mount Poswey Nakaparsuan
Community-Based Resource Management Concerned Citizens of Abra on Good
1,499,325 Completed
Project for the Banao Watershed Government
Developing an Integrated Ecotourism for
Sorsogon Province towards Sustainability lingap Para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan 117,242 Completed
and Greater Impact
Environmental Presentations of 3
Dimensional Map of Mts. Banahaw-
San Cristobal Protected Landscape and luntiang Alyansa Para Sa Bundok Banahaw 150,000 Completed
Lobbying of House Biii2773/Banahaw Bill in
the 14th Congress
Facilitation of Resource Inventory and
Resource Management Planning in Two Commission on Social and Special Concerns 150,000 Completed
Indigenous Peoples' Communities
Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda sa San
Fish Visual Census and Coral Gardening 150,000 Completed
Miguel, Palawan, Inc.
First Luzon-Wide Environmental Paralegal
Organizing for Rural Development 150,000 Completed
Conference and Workshop 2005

84
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS
First Sorsogon Provincial Environmental
Summit Social Action Center 52,050 Completed
Fisherfolk Integrated Self Help for Palawan Community-Based Fisherfolk
Empowerment and Regeneration (FISHER) Alliance, Inc. 1,134,928 Completed
Genetic Conservation through the
Promotion of Sustainable Agriculture and Institute for the Development of
Educational and Ecological Alternatives, Inc. 69,000 Completed
Natural Health

Hog Raising Project Tipon ti Umili para iti Panangsaluad iti

Nakaparsuan 149,939 Completed
Integrated Biodiversity Conservation-
Sustainable Management of Ancestral Pederasyon ng Aytang Samahan sa
Domain in Zambales Mountain Range (IBC- Sambales, Inc. 667,500 Completed
SUMAD)
~

~
Malibcong Ancestral Domain Technical Malibcong Sustainable Farmers
Delineation/Perimeter Survey Organization, Inc. 106,000 Completed
~
r
I
Operationalizing Community-Based
I and Science Supported Protected Area
PUSOD, Inc. 50,000 Completed
Management in Taal Volcano Protected
t landscape

~ Pagsasaayos ng Silid-Aklatang Ayta lubos na Alyansa ng mga Katutubong Ayta

ng Sambales 150,000 Completed

~
~
Protected Area Management Board
Capacity Building (PAMB) and
Strengthening and Community-Based luntiang Alyansa para sa Bundok Banahaw 1,927,000 Ongoing
Resource Management for Mts. Banahaw
and San Cristobal
PAMB Capacity Building and Strengthening
and Community-Based Resource
Tanggol Kalikasan - Timog Katagalugan 1,293,275 Ongoing
Management for Mts. Banahaw and San
Cristobal
Popular Education on Mining Trainer's
Kaagapay NGO-PO Network, Inc. 149,025 Completed
Training
Social Preparation of Aeta Communities Panlalawigang Asosasyon ng mga Ayta sa
Applying for Ancestral Domain
114,750 Completed
Bataan, Inc.
Yamang Dagat ng look Tayabas
Pinalakas na Ugnayan ng mga Maliliit na
Pagyamanin, Nasirang Karagatan Ating 150,000 Completed
Mangingisda sa look ng Tayabas
Sagipin, Pagkain ng Salinlahi Tiyakin
Peoples Alternative Study Center
Youth and Students Advocates for
for Research and Education in Social 106,500 Completed
Environmental Issues
Development

VI SAVAS
Siliman University- Angelo King Center for
Balicasag Island Risk Assessment 150,000 Completed
Research and Environmental Management
Defending our Forest - A Campaign to Stop
Commercial logging and Mining in Samar The Social Action Center - Samar 150,000 Ongoing
Island
Documenting Instructive Cases in
VISCA Foundation for Agricultural and
Biodiversity Conservation Projects 150,000 Completed
Rural Development (VIFARD)
Implementation
Dungog Panay: A Conference and Festival Professionals for Social Responsibility 150,000 Completed
Forum on Coastal Resources and the Kahugpungan sa mga Mag-uuma,
141,250 Completed
Threats of Mining in Western leyte Mamumuong Kababayen-an

85
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

Monitoring and Assessment of Six Selected

Marine Protected Areas in Pandan Bay, LIPASECU Baywide Management Council 150,000 Completed
Antique
Multistakeholders Conference-Workshop
on Calbayog City Integrated Coastal Zone Tinambacan Fisherfolk Federation 89,500 Completed
Management (ICZM)
Northwest Panay Community-Based BioResource Conservation Trust for the Terminated
1,774,100
Biodiversity Conservation Project Philippines, Inc.
Planning Meeting for Environmental 92,000 Completed
Law of Nature Foundation, Inc.
Indicators for the Visayan Sea Project
Promoting Environmental Education in Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water Completed
148,000
Cebu's Public Schools Foundation
Review and Revision of NIPAS 150,000 Completed
Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water, Inc.
Implementing Rules and Regulations
Urgent Environmental Legal Action against Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development
150,000 Completed
Oil Exploration in the Visayas Center

MINDANAO
CARAGA Mining and Logging Conference Diocese of Tandag - Social Action Center 50,000 Completed
- r-
Malahutayong Aksyon sa mga
Coastal Resource Assessment of Loreto, Completed
Gumagamit sa Kinaiyahan Uban ang mga 599,800
Dinagat Island, Surigao del Norte
Magpakanabang Organisasyon
Community Empowerment towards Active
-
Participation in the Protection of Davao 150,000 Completed
Save Davao Gulf Foundation, Inc.
Gulf through the Conduct of Paralegal
Training and Water Quality Assessment Jl
~r II I
Convergence of Mindanao Anti-Mining
Advocates Towards Advocacy for a
Sisters' Association in Mindanao 600,000 Completed
Mindanao People's Alternative Mining
Policy
..., ;=
Earth Day Celebration Interface Development Interventions, Inc. 130,000 Completed
Establishment of a Seed Bank for Magsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad
117,500 Completed
Traditional Seed Varieties ng Agrikultura - Provincial
Foundation for the Rehabilitation of
Mapping of Interventions in Lake Mainit
Indigenous, Ethic and Nature Development 141,800 Completed
Ecosystems and Communities
Services, Inc.
Mindanao-Wide Seminar-Workshop On
Lingkod Tao- Kalikasan 150,000 Completed
Sustainable Communities
Organizational Strengthening and Multi- Caraga Consortium for Environmental
150,000 Completed
stakeholders Planning Protection and Sustainable Development
Pulangi Watershed Integrated NGO/PO
Community-Based Resource Management Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. 900,000 Completed
Project
Regional Consultation on the Review of the
Surigao Economic Development
Implementing Rules and Regulations of the 150,000 Completed
Foundation, Inc.
NIPAS Act Project
Stopping Continuous Destructive Logging Roman Catholic Bishop of Tandag/Social
of SUDECOR
100,000 Completed
Action Center- Diocese of Tandag
Training Workshop on Ancestral Domain
Kebager te Ked-lnged 149,500 Completed
Mapping

86
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2006
NATIONAL
15th Philippine Biodiversity Symposium Wildlife Conservation Society of the
Philippines 150,000 Completed
Assessing Access to Information,
Participation and Justice in Decision- The Access Initiative Philippines do
Making as Policy Tools for Environmental Maximo T. Kalaw Institute for Sustainable 650,000 Completed
Governance Development

Finding a Common Ground on Mining FPE (Proactive Project) 1,465,000 Completed

National Prioritization System for Global
Environment Fund and other Donors' Foundation for Integrative Development,
Biodiversity Conservation Investment in the Inc. 150,000 Completed
Philippines

Second National Conference on Population, Philippine Legislators' Committee on

Health and Environment Population and Development Foundation, 50,000 Completed
Inc.
Standardizing Baseline Research in FPE Sites FPE (Proactive Project) 15,200,000 Completed
Strategic Planning FPE (Proactive Project) 1,500,000 Ongoing
Training of Trainers on Empowering Mediators Network for Sustainable Peace,
Dispute Resolution/Management Processes Inc. 148,500 Completed

LUZON
A Shift towards Area-specific Intervention
through Strategic Planning for Six Priority
FPE (Proactive Project) 1,500,000 Completed
Sites: Zambales, Palawan, Buasao, Guiuan,
Pulangi and Bohol Marine Triangle
Biak na Bato National Park Conservation Buklod Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa
Project Kalikasan 858,500 Completed

Catalyzing Investments for Poverty

Reduction and Sustainable Development FPE (Proactive Project) 1,500,000 Ongoing
Project in Roxas, Palawan
Community-Based Coastal Resource Palawan Community-Based Fisherfolk
930,875 Completed
Management and Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Inc.
Community-Based Resource Management Concerned Citizens of Abra on Good
428,000 Completed
Project for the Banao Watershed Government
Community Lapat-Based Biodiversity
Tipon iti Umili para ti Panangsaluad ti
Conservation of Buasao Watershed and 957,500 Completed
Nakaparsuan
Mount Poswey
Documenting Our Past, Claiming Our
Kabalikat sa Kaunlaran ng mga Ayta, Inc. 96,000 Completed
Future
Integrated Commemorative Campaign
Marinduque Council for Environmental
Activities on the 1Oth Boac River Disaster 150,000 Completed
Concerns
Anniversary

VISAVAS
Biodiversity Conservation of the Bohol Bohol Marine Triangle Project Management
1,196,737 Completed
Marine Triangle Project Office
Building Institutions for Local Resource
PADAYON Bohol Marine Triangle
Development of Unique Panglao- Dauis- 750,600 Completed
Management Council, Inc.
Baclayon (PADAYON) Ecosystem (BUILD UP)

87
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

Biodiversity Conservation of Bohollslands Bohol Marine Triangle Project Management

Marine Triangle (Transition to Phase Out 696,000 Ongoing
Office
Stage)
Environmental Journalism Seminar Sacred Heart Institute for Transformative 105,000 Completed
Workshop Education Foundation, Inc.
Guiuan Community-Based Coastal Resource Guiuan Development Foundation, Inc. 958,500 Completed
Management Project
Increasing Fisherfolk Involvement in Foundation for Marine Conservation
Ecosystem-based Management Planning in and Kapunongan sa mga Mananagat sa 150,000 Completed
Danajon Bank Danajon Bank, Inc.
Monitoring the Effects of Bunker Oil Spill
Silliman University- Angelo King Center for
on the Coral Reef of Guimaras Islands and 401,700 Completed
Research and Environmental Management
Associated Small Islands
Mount Talinis Peoples Organization
Federation, Inc. and Pederasyon sa
Mount Talinis-Twin Lakes Biodiversity
Nagkahiusang mga Mag-uuma nga 491,800 Ongoing
Conservation Project - PO Managed Phase
Nanalipud ug Nagpasig-uli sa Kinaiyahan
Inc.
North Negros Natural Park Community- Multi-sectoral Alliance for Development-
1,244,735 Completed
Based Biodiversity Conservation Project Negros
Paranas Community-Based Forest Katatapuran nga Pederasyon han Parag-
899,925 Completed
Management Project uma ha Samar, Inc.
Strategic Planning Workshop for the
Alliance of Seven Municipalities for Lawaan Association for Community-Based
102,000 Completed
Integrated Coastal Zone Management (A7- Resource Management and Development
ICZM)
Suba sa Teatro Advocacy Tour Magpa-Suage River Rescuers' Club, Inc. 111,000 Completed
Supporting the Development of the
Philippine NGO for Food Security and Fair
Basic Sector and Civil Society's Organic 150,000 Completed
Trade, Inc.
Agriculture Agenda in Negros Island

MINDANAO
Arakan Community-Based Resource
Management for Forest Corridor Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. 1,456,400 Completed
Development Project
Biodiversity Conservation and Management
Maguindanaoan Development Foundation,
of Ligawasan Marsh towards Sustainable 310,500 Completed
Inc.
Development Project - Project Evaluation
Biodiversity Support Program for Lake
Main it- Project Evaluation and Other
Measures to Protect Biodiversity in Lake
Ca'aga Con•ort;um fo' Envkonmental
Protection and Sustainable Developme~
J 448,000 Completed
Main it 01 I
01 I
Pesticide Monitoring in Panigan - Tamugan
and Talamo - Lipadas Watershed towards
Interface Development Interventions, Inc. 1,520,440 Completed
the Protection of Critical Water Resource
Areas in Davao City JL II
1r ~

II l
Terrestrial Development Alternatives and
Environmental Governance for Buhita
Bukidnon Higaonon Tribal Association 941,800 Completed
Ancestral Domain (TALEGBA) in Upper
Pulangi Watershed 01

88
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2007
NATIONAL
Anti-Styro and Plastic Campaign Kaalagad Katipunang Kristiyano 150,000 Ongoing
A Shift towards Area-Specific Intervention:
FPE (Proactive Project) 3,500,000 Ongoing
Strategic Planning for 14 FPE Priority Sites
Board of Trustees, Regional Advisory
Committees and Partners Joint Regional FPE (Proactive Project) 2,000,000 Completed
Meeting

Dark Green Schools Miriam College-Environmental Science

1,235,700 Completed
Institute
Development of a Minimum Set of
Indicators for Population, Health and Balay Rehabilitation Center, Inc. 150,000 Completed
Environment
Green Army Philippines Network
Earth Day 2007 Celebration 50,000 Completed
Foundation, Inc.
Reprint of Report, "Mining in the Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation
150,000 Completed
Philippines: Concerns and Conflicts" Commission
Newsbreak Special Mining Issue Public Trust Media Group, Inc. 800,000 Completed
The 45th Philippine Economic Society
Annual Meeting: Accelerating and
Philippine Economic Society 74,850 Completed
Sustaining Economic Growth towards
Broad-based Development

LUZON
A Participatory Action towards Developing
Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan 150,000 Completed
a Comprehensive Sorsogon Tourism Plan
Binhi ng Buhay ng mga Magsasaka sa
Banahaw Komiks- Pahayagan Vol. II 126,000 Completed
Bug on
Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good
Banao Watershed Project (Phase 1) 159,432 Completed
Government
Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good
Banao Watershed Project (Phase 2) 332,576 Completed
Government
Bolos Point Community-Based Resource Cagayan Valley Partners in People
206,500 Completed
Management Project Development
Bolos Point Community-Based Resource Cagayan Valley Partners in People
328,075 Ongoing
Management Project Development
Organizational Development and Pre- Pederasyon ng Nagkakaisang Samahan ng
59,600 Completed
Strategic Planning Bunduk Bulusan
Pagpapalaganap ng Kalagayan at Buklod ng Dalitang Umaasa sa Kalikasan,
594,000 Completed
Kahalagahan ng Biak-na-Bato Natural Park Inc.
"PAGSISINNARAK" Convergence: Sustaining
Environment Advocacy through Theater Pantanghalang Sining ng Laguna, Inc. 131,610 Completed
and Community Responsive Technologies
Environmental Legal Assistance Center Inc.
Save Bulanjao Initiative 728,500 Completed
- Palawan
Short-term Proposal for Bolos Community Cagayan Valley Partners for People
328,075 Completed
Resource Management Development
Total Rainforestation Efforts for Barit BRP Waterworks and Sanitation
392,100 Completed
Environmental Sustainability (TREES) Association, Inc.
Zambales Mountain Range Community-
Pederasyon ng mga Ayta sa Sambales 100,000 Terminated
Based Resource Management Project

89
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

VI SAVAS
A Shift Towards Area Specific Intervention
Southeastern Samar People's Organization
through Strategic Planning for Six Priority 50,000 Completed
Consortium
Sites (Additional Fund for Guiuan)
Assisting Bat and Dipterocarp Conservation Soil and Water Conservation Foundation,
217,500 Completed
in Bohol through Research and Education Inc.
Building Support to Tenured Communities
Philippine Partnership for the Development
in Protected Areas through Improved
of Human Resources in the Rural Areas- 113,300 Completed
Understanding about the Tenure
Vi say as
Instrument for Protected Areas
Green Renewable Independent Power
Climate-Friendly Cities 150,000 Completed
Producer, Inc.
Curriculum Development and Inaugural
The Law of Nature Foundation 150,000 Completed
Session of the School of the Sea
Environmental Education Training for the Coastal Conservation and Education
52,400 Completed
Philippine Media Practitioners Foundation, Inc.
Integrated Area Conservation and Resource Multi-sectoral Alliance for Development,
Enhancement (ICARE) for North Negros Inc. and Third District Alliance of Resource 1,376,900 Completed
Natural Park Managers, Inc.
Making Preparation for an Alternative
An Tandaya Foundation, Inc. 273,800 Ongoing
Aquaculture
North Negros Natural Park Community- Multi-sectoral Alliance for Development-
255,500 Completed
Based Biodiversity Conservation Project Negros
North Negros Natural Park 3-Dimensional
Negros Forest Ecological Foundation 150,000 Completed
Topographic Map Project
Sustaining the Transformation and
Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc. - Cebu
Empowerment Process in Pungo-ol, Sibugay 150,000 Completed
Integrated Area Development Program
Project (STEPPS)

MINDANAO
Bat Education Training and Advocacy Holy Cross Davao College, Inc. 391,900 Completed
Davao Association of Colleges and Schools,
DACS Environmental Stewardship Project 150,000 Completed
Inc.
First Mindanao Population, Health and Family Planning Organizations of the
142,800 Completed
Environment Conference Philippines, Inc.
Our River, Our Life, and Our Children:
Enhancing Value Formation and Children's
Integrated Mindanaoans Association for
Participation through Community-Based 150,000 Completed
Natives, Inc.
mobile Theater Presentation and Children's
Congress
Strengthening Alliances for Vanguards and
Entrepreneurs in Mount Matutum (SAVE Mahintana Foundation, Inc. 150,000 Completed
Matutum) Project

90
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2008
NATIONAL ,...--
Educating the Communities and local
Ecological Waste Coalition of the
Government Units on the Dangers of 383,000 Ongoing
Philippines, Inc.
E-Wastes
~;
FPE-Giobal Greengrants Fund- Samdhana
Institute Partnership: Indigenous People's Samdhana Institute 2,000,000 Ongoing
Support Fund
FPE-PTFCF Partnership: Environmental
Alternative law Groups, Inc. 2,000,000 Ongoing
Defense's Direct legal Action
FPE: 2008 National Regional Advisory
FPE (Proactive Project) 800,000 Completed
Council Meeting
~
FPE: PHE's 3rd National Conference FPE (Proactive Project) 520,000 Completed
~
FPE Program on Disaster Risk Management FPE (Proactive Project) 350,000 Ongoing
= i=
National IP leaders Forum and IEC on Koalisyon ng Katutubong Samahan ng
50,000 Ongoing
Environmentally Threatened Areas Pilipinas
Paid Ad on letter of 73 Bishops Supporting
Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural
Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program 150,000 Completed
Development Services, Inc.
Extensions with Reforms
People's Campaign against Ratification of
Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment
Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership 150,000 Ongoing
through Alternative legal Services, Inc.
Agreement (JPEPA)
Policy Advocacy on JPEPA and SONA on the
Concerned Citizens Against Pollution 150,000 Completed
State of the Nature Address
Publication of the Proceedings of the
Mediators Network for Sustainable Peace,
Conference on Community Mediation 130,000 Completed
Inc.
through Newsmagazine "The Mediator"
Resource Valuation Training for Mining Philippine Association for the Intercultural
140,750 Completed
Community Development, Inc.
Rapid Site Assessment (RSA): Additional
Budget for Geographic Information System FPE (Proactive Project) 1,500,000 Ongoing
(GIS)
Save the Climate, Save Boracay Greenpeace- Southeast Asia/Philippines 150,000 Completed
Second National Rural Congress (NRC II) Phil ippine Misereor Partnersh ips, Inc. 500,000 Completed
legal Rights and Natural Resources Center,
State of Indigenous People's Address (SIPA) 150,000 Completed
Inc.
Strengthening Solid Waste Management Mother Earth Foundation, Inc. 139,700 Completed

LUZON
Concerned Citizens of Abra for Good
Banao Ancestral Watershed 1,248,800 Completed
Governance
Byaheng Ayta: Tracing Roots Reaching
Paaralang Bayan ng mga Ayta sa Zambales 310,600 Completed
Hopes
Community lapat-Based Biodiversity
Tipon ti Umili para iti Panangasaluad ito
Conservation of Buasao Watershed and 908,850 Ongoing
Nakaparsuan
Mount Poswey
Enabling Indigenous Communities in Institute for the Development of
the promotion of Indigenous Crops for Educational and Ecological Alternatives, Inc. 150,000 Completed
Biodiversity Conservation and Food Security - Palawan
Environmental Advocacy and Consultation Indigenous People's Apostolate- Diocesan
150,000 Completed
on Mining Social Apostolate Commission

91
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

Gelacio I. Yason Foundation- Family Farm

Environmental Education: Part 1 150,000 Completed
School, Inc.
Establishment of Benguet Mining Alert and
Cordillera People's Alliance 359,800 Completed
Action Network
Oplan Sierra Madre Project Development FPE (Proactive Project) 150,000 Completed
Oplan Sierra Madre Project Development Tanggol Kalikasan 150,000 Completed
Pagpapalakas ng Community-Based Pederasyon ng Nagkakaisang Samahan ng
745,640 Ongoing
Resource Management ng Bunduk Bulusan Bunduk Bulusan
Pangangampanya Laban sa mga Palawan Community-Based Fisherfolk
757,050 Completed
Mapanirang Gawain sa Kalikasan Alliance, Inc.
Regional Advisory Committee Meeting
FPE (Proactive Project) 150,000 Completed
2008 - Luzon Region
Regional Launching of Environmental Women's Legal Education, Advocacy and
150,000 Completed
Defense Program - Luzon Defense Foundation, Inc.
Story Telling and Writing Workshop for
Institute of Social Order 50,000 Completed
Children of Mercedes, Camarines Norte
Support for the Participation of NGOs and
FPE (Proactive Project) and Protected Areas
POs to the National Summit of Protected 31,500 Ongoing
and Wildlife Bureau
Area Management Board
Technical Assistance on the Formulation
Lingap para sa Kalusugan ng Sambayanan,
of the Sustainable Ecotourism Code of the 150,000 Ongoing
Inc.
Province of Sorsogon

VI SAVAS
BIFA Enterprise Development for
Bil-isan Fishermen's Association (BIFA) 150,000 Ongoing
Sustainable Marine Protected Areas
Building Institutions for Local Resource
Development of Unique Panglao-Dauis- PADAYON Bohol Marine Triangle
1,024,310 Ongoing
Baclayon (PADAYON) Ecosystem (BUILD UP) Management Council, Inc.
-Year 2
Cebu Biodiversity Conservation Foundation,
Cebu Forest Governance 120,000 Completed
Inc.
Community-Based Co-Management of
Resources towards a Sustainable Ecosystem Negros Economic Development Foundation,
181,250 Ongoing
for llog Hilabangan Watershed Forest Inc.
Reserve (Bridge Fund)
Co-Management of Resources towards a
Sustainable Ecosystems for llog Hilabangan Negros Economic Development Foundation 969,850 Completed
Watershed Forest Reserve
Establishment and Institutionalization of
Eastern Samar Social Development
Multi-Stakeholder Provincial Environmental 39,000 Completed
Organization, Inc.
Protection Council
Maintenance of 30 Hectares Assisted
Natural Regeneration Project at Spur 13, Benejawan ISF Association 150,000 Completed
Barangay Bunga, Don Salvador Benedicta
PO-Managed Community-Based Coastal
Resource Management Project for Southeastern Samar People's Organization
Southeastern Coastal Communities in the Consortium 1,054,000 Ongoing
Province of Eastern Samar
Regional Advisory Committee Meeting
FPE (Proactive Project) 150,000 Completed
2008 - Visayas
Participatory Research Organization of
Regional Launching of Environmental
Communities and Education towards 150,000 Completed
Defense Program _ Visayas
Struggle for Self-Reliance (PROCESS)- Panay
Save the Climate, Save Boracay Greenpeace- Southeast Asia/Philippines 150,000 Completed
92
 PROJECT PROPONENT STATUS
MINDANAO
Assessment of Actions for lake Lanao
through the Conference, "lnengka Ko Kalimudan Foundation, Inc. 91,200 Completed
Ranao"
Direct Legal Action of the Constitutionality Sentro ng Alternatibong Lingap Panligal -
of Davao City Aerial Spray Ban Ordinance Mindanaw 150,000 Completed
Forest Corridor Project in Arakan Valley,
North Cotabato Philippine Eagle Foundation, Inc. 1,298,720 Ongoing
FPE: Regional Advisory Committee Meeting
2008- Mindanao FPE (Proactive Project) 150,000 Completed
Mount Gurain Biodiversity Conservation
and Watershed Preservation Project Tapucan Farmers Multipurpose Cooperative 150,000 Completed
One Million Forest People's Movement Green Mindanao Association, Inc. 61,000 Completed
Regional Launching of Environmental
Defense Program - Mindanao Pilipina Legal Resources Center, Inc. 150,000 Completed
SK Pendatun Biodiversity Conservation
and Sustainable Development Project for Maguindanaoan Development Foundation,
Inc. 857,150 Completed
Ligawasan Marsh
Terrestrial Development Alternatives and
Environmental Governance for Buhita Bukidnon-Higaonon Tribal Association
Ancestral Domain (TALEGBA) in Upper (BUHITA) 874,100 Completed
Pulangi Watershed
Women's Health in Selected Banana
Plantations in Davao City Kalusugan Alang sa Bayan, Inc. 150,000 Completed

93
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2009
NATIONAL
An Assessment ofthe 2004-2010 Medium
Term Philippine Development Plan Caucus of Development NGO Networks 290,000 Ongoing
(MTPDP): Environment and Fisheries Sector
Capability-Building for NGO-PO Women Ang Kilusan ng Kababaihang Pilipina 70,000 Completed
Leaders and LGU Officials (PILIPINA), Inc.
Kalikasan, Ngayon at Kinabukasan! Policy 100,000 Completed
Galing Pook Foundation
Forum on Environment
Movement Building for Climate Change Partnership for Agrarian Reform and Rural Ongoing
100,000
and Redistributive Justice Development Services, Inc.
r=
Participation of Arakan Forest Carbon
Project to the League of Corporate 81,000 Ongoing
FPE (Proactive Project)
Foundations' Corporate Social
Responsibility Expo 2009
Participation of FPE Regional Advisory
Committee Members and Project Partners
to "Forum on Environmental Justice: FPE (Proactive Project) 57,200 Ongoing
Upholding the Right to a Balance and
Healthful Ecology"
Red Listing of Marine Species as a Guide to
Resource Management through the Global 1,210,000 Ongoing
First Philippine Conservation, Inc.
Marine Species Assessment for the Coral
Triangle
;::::=
Social Development Celebration 2009 Association of Foundations, Inc. 600,000 Completed
~
Strengthening the Community's Coping
Mechanisms to the Challenges of Climate Philippine Federation for Environmental
155,000 Ongoing
Change-Induced and Human -Aggravated Concern
Natural Disasters
~
The 6th Zero Waste International
Mother Earth Foundation, Inc. 376,200 Ongoing
Conference
Undermining the Threat of Mining: A Policy Kaisahan tungo sa Kaunlaran ng Kanayunan
1,677,400 Completed
Advocacy Campaign at Repormang Pansakahan
Upscaling of Reforestation Efforts by Civil FPE (Proactive Project) through the Project
150,000 Ongoing
Society Organizations Development Fund

LUZON
Delineation and Biological Fencing of
the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River Haribon-Palawan, Inc. 851,000 Ongoing
National Park and Cleopatra's Needle
Direct Indigenous Peoples Advocacy of the Samahang Kaunlaran ng Batak sa Palawan,
200,000 Ongoing
Batak Tribe in Roxas, Palawan Inc.
lkalahan-Kalanguya Ancestral Domain
Kalahan Education Foundation 1,980,000 Ongoing
Project
Integrating Permaculture for Sustainable Gelacio I. Yason Foundation- Family Farm
200,000 Ongoing
Agriculture School, Inc.
Legal Case Filing Against the Illegal
Establishment of Globe Telecom Facility Kalahan Education Foundation 100,000 Completed
within their Ancestral Domain
Samahan ng Maliliit na Mangingisda ng
Patrol Boats Repair 111,655 Completed
Nicanor Zabala, Inc.

94
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS
Regional Advisory Committee Meeting
FPE (Proactive Project) 180,000 Completed
2009- Luzon
Sama-samang Aksyon at Gawain upang Buklod Unlad ng Dalitang Umaasa sa
lsalba ang Parke (SAGIP) 200,000 Completed
Kalikasan, Inc.
Save Mount Bulanjao Initiative Phase 2 Environmental Legal Assistance Center, Inc. 1,238,250 Ongoing
Strengthening of Free Prior and
Informed Consent (FPIC) Compliance
and Consultation Process in Defense of Community Volunteer Missioners 1,990,000 Ongoing
Ancestral Domains and Ancestral Habitat in
the Cordillera

VISAYAS
Community-Based Co-Management of
Resources towards a Sustainable Ecosystem Negros Economic Development Foundation,
for llog Hilabangan Watershed Forest 857,610 Ongoing
Inc.
Reserve
Silliman University- Angelo King Center for
Directory of Marine Reserves in the Visayas 472,000 Completed
Research and Environmental Management
Environmental Awareness Campaign
Bohol Nature Conservation Society, Inc. 106,000 Ongoing
against Human Ecological Aggression
Global Legal Action on Climate Change Batas Kalikasan Foundation, Inc. 200,000 Ongoing
Information, Education and Campaign on
Environmental Legal Action Center- Cebu 130,700 Ongoing
Climate Change
Integrated Area Conservation and Resource
Third District Alliance of Resource
Enhancement (ICARE) for North Negros 1,221,600 Ongoing
Managers, Inc.
Natural Park
Natural Resource Inventory and Resource
Management Assessment for the Islands Panay Rural Organizing for Reform and
1,004,000 Ongoing
of Sicogon and Gigantes, Municipality of Social Order, Inc.
Caries, Iloilo
Participatory Research on the Conservation
and Sustainable Use of Wild and Broad Initiatives for Negros Development 354,600 Ongoing
Uncultivated Crops
Population, Health and Environment Forum
FPE (Proactive Project) 180,000 Completed
- Visayas Chapter
Regional Advisory Committee Meeting
FPE (Proactive Project) 185,100 Completed
2009 - Visayas
Research Study on the Environmental
The Antique Outdoors, Inc. 146,900 Ongoing
Impacts of Coal Mining on Semirara Island
Save the Climate, Save Boracay Project-
Greenpeace- Southeast Asia/Philippines 315,500 Completed
Phase II
Sacred Heart Institute for Transformative
Young Minds Academy (Summer Edition) 1,200,000 Ongoing
Education Foundation, Inc.

95
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

MINDANAO
Advocacy for the Enactment of Provincial Coalition for the Development of Sibuguey, 150,000 Completed
Fee Ordinance Inc.
Buklog: A Traditional Ritual Assembly of
Subanen to Uphold Indigenous People's Inter-People's Exchange, Inc. 150,000 Completed
Rights and the Environment
FPE: Regional Advisory Committee Meeting FPE (Proactive Project) 190,000 Completed
2009- Mindanao
Environmental Defense of Davao City's
Upland Watersheds and Local Communities Interface Development Interventions, Inc. 925,000 Ongoing
against Agribusiness Plantation Practices
Integrated Biodiversity Conservation and
Sustainable Development Project of Lake Green Mindanao Association, Inc. 1,017,000 Ongoing
Mainit: Year 1 of 5-Year Strategic Plan
Philippine Partnership for the Development
Mindanao Forum on Climate Change of Human Resources in the Rural Areas- 150,500 Completed
Mindanao
-----,
11
Strengthening Capacities of Indigenous
People's Communities towards Sustainable Paglilingkod Batas Pangkapatiran
400,000 Ongoing
Management of Watershed and Ancestral Foundation
Domain

96
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

2010
NATIONAL
Diliman Science Research Foundation,
Inc.: Round Table Discussion on Forest FPE (Proactive Project)
Restoration and Climate Change 120,000 Ongoing

Expanded Environmental Defense Program Alternative Law Groups

2,000,000 Ongoing
FPE: Regional Consultative Group I Regional ;::::
Advisory Committee Meeting_ Luzon FPE (Proactive Project) 1,008,660 Completed
FPE: Regional Consultative Group I Regional ==::; ~
Advisory Committee Meeting _ Visayas FPE (Proactive Project) 510,000 Completed
FPE: Regional Consultative Group I Regional :==
Advisory Committee Meeting - Mindanao FPE (Proactive Project) 981,340 Completed
Manila Observatory: Philippine Renewable
Energy Atlas Phase 1 FPE (Proactive Project) 1,300,000 Ongoing
Upscaling of Reforestation Efforts by Civil l=
Society Organization FPE's Initiative in FPE (Proactive Project)
Marikina Watershed 2,000,000 Ongoing

LUZON
Audio-based Materials of Fisheries Foundation for Information Technology
MaMo~ment and Oimate Change Education and Development. Inc. 600,000 Ongoing
First Palawan Conference on Biodiversity
Conservation and Climate Change TagBalay Foundation, Inc. 200,000 Ongoing
Mitigation and Adaptation
Llanera Rural Development Center and Tour
Training in Silkalan Making 200,000 Ongoing
Farm
VUKIG: Climb High and Nurture Goodwill Sierra Madre Outdoor Club, Inc. 197,000 Ongoing

VISAYAS
Biodiversity Resource Development for
Soil and Water Conservation Foundation 1,328,500 Ongoing
High Schools
Carles Advocacy and Constituency Building Carles Multi-purpose Cooperative 200,000 Ongoing
Empowering Community-Based Coastal
Resource Management through San Antonio Fishermen Association 160,000 Ongoing
Environmental Education
Forum on the Impact of Global Warming Cebu Uniting for Sustainable Water
200,000 Ongoing
on Water Quality Foundation
Integrated Area Conservation and Third District Development Alliance of
1,278,200 Ongoing
Resources Enhancement Project II Resource Managers, Inc.
Managing Iloilo River towards Biodiversity
St. Therese-MTC Colleges 600,000 Ongoing
and Sustainability
Rapid Coastal Resource Assessment of
Samahan ng Mangingisga ng Zumarraga 104,250 Ongoing
Zumarraga, Samar
Watershed Rehabilitation in Important
Mag-uugmad Foundation, Inc. 1,999,980 Ongoing
Biodiversity Areas in Cebu

97
 PROJECT PROPONENT AMOUNT STATUS

MINDANAO
Coastal Resource Profiling (for Multi-
stakeholder Participation in Biodiversity Lanao Aquatic and Marine Fisheries Center
371,888 Ongoing
Conservation) in the Municipality of for Community Development, Inc.
Kolambugan, Lanao del Norte I
Enhancement of Local Capacities to Address
Mining Activities in Environmentally-Critical Kinaiyahan Foundation 200,000 Ongoing
Areas through Effective Governance
Harnessing Capacities and Partnerships for
Indigenous Peoples' Empowerment and Samdhana Institute 200,000 Ongoing
Sustainability: Conversations with Partners
~
Lake Lanao Coalition Strengthening Kalimudan Foundation, Inc. 186,000 Ongoing
Panglima Tahil Mangrove Reforestation SAC (Social Action Center), Apostolic
199,000 Ongoing
and Fish Sanctuary Program Vicariate of Jolo

SUMMARY OF PROJECT STATUS

COMPLETED TERMINATED ONGOING TOTAL

YEAR
N L v M N L v M N L v M N L v M
2005 31 20 10 12 1 0 1 0 4 1 33 24 12 13
2006 8 7 11 4 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 8 8 13 5
2007 8 11 10 5 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 9 13 11 5
2008 10 12 7 9 0 0 0 0 7 4 4 17 16 11 10
2009 4 4 4 4 0 0 0 0 8 6 9 3 12 10 13 7
2010 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 8 5 7 4 8 5
TOTAL 65 54 42 34 1 1 1 0 21 20 25 11 86 75 68 45

LEGEND
N: National Projects
L: Luzon Projects
V: Visayas Projects
. M: Mindanao Projects

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Supervising Editor
Constancia Sinco Boon Prints Enterprises
Sylvia Mesina Cover Photos by Copyright 2010
Cherylon Herzano Foundation for the Philippine
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8