L.

Duhaylungsod
Rethinking sustainable development. Indigenous peoples and resource use relations in the
Philippines

In: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, The PhilippinesHistorical and social studies 157
(2001), no: 3, Leiden, 609-628

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 LEVITA DUHAYLUNGSOD

Rethinking Sustainable Development

Indigenous Peoples and Resource Use Relations
in the Philippines

In recent years, indigenous peoples have been the focus of interest in the sus-
tainable development agenda. This interest has been spurred by widespread
advocacy of alternative models of development that strive for more social
justice, equity and environmental protection. Made popular by the United
Nations' World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) in
the late 1980s, the phrase 'sustainable development' was born of two signific-
ant concerns: recognition of seriously escalating environmental problems
and an increased emphasis on community as the context of development.
The phrase's populist appeal comes from its rhetoric: an unstable amalgam
of populist thinking (participatory and community-based approach), struc-
tural and political focus (equitable access to resources and decision-making),
the visibility of women and indigenous peoples, and environmentalism that
is deeply anchored to ethics and moral principles (Escobar 1995).
Sustainable development, as the new strategy, has a future orientation,
since it professes protection of the rights of the unborn and their share in the
benefits of present natural resources. Consequently, agriculture and rural
development have generally emphazised these issues, hence the phrase 'sus-
tainable agriculture'. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in par-
ticular, has recognized that the world agriculture system will increasingly be
confronted with environmental and sustainability questions. Such recogni-
tion has resulted in FAO's framework in assessing the prospects for world
agriculture within the context of 'safeguarding the productive potential and
broader environmental functions of agricultural resources for future genera-
tions, the very essence of sustainability, while satisfying food and other
needs' (Alexandratos 1995:1).
The essential conditions of sustainable development set by the WCED
found a link with indigenous peoples. Sustainable development, with its pre-
cepts of ecological capitalization and community-based resource manage-
ment strategies, has an interpretation that is appealing to indigenous

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610 Levita Duhaylungsod

peoples' communities. It is frequently argued that their production systems

are based on a symbiosis of culture and the sustainable use of natural
resources. This became the basis of the oppositional development discourse
in reaction to previous development strategies, which viewed the relation-
ship of societies to the environment as extractive and unidirectional. Ac-
cordingly, the practices of indigenous peoples are currently thought to spring
from a deep knowledge of natural environment and its processes.
This article examines the sustainable development argument vis-a-vis the
assumption that indigenous peoples' communities and their systems of pro-
duction provide significant lessons in sustainable resource management
strategies. The traditional, mainly subsistence agricultural system used by
indigenous peoples will be reviewed within the context of agricultural inten-
sification, which results in the loss of both their resource base and their pur-
portedly environmentally sound resource management practices. It will be
shown that while traditional resource use and indigenousness have been
used as emblems of the sustainable development discourse, this argument is
more of an assumption than a reality and requires further investigation.

Sustainable resource use and indigenous peoples

Within the sustainable development discourse, traditional societies and

indigenous knowledge have been revalorized into an 'ecosocialist' project
(Pepper 1993). Sustainable resource management practices are seen as inher-
ent to indigenous peoples' communities. Indigenous peoples are equated
with images of unity and ecological sustainability. It is argued that their pro-
duction systems are based on the sustainable use of natural resources bol-
stered by an ethic of community solidarity, and that conservation practices
are embedded in their sociocultural structure. Indigenous communities are
constituted by alternative ways of life characterized by wholeness in the rela-
tionship between society and environment. Thus, sustainable resource use
and indigenous peoples have been deployed as cultural signifiers in the cur-
rent development discourse (Resurreccion 1999:261). This means that indig-
enous people are more involved than ever before in the contemporary devel-
opment discourse, with the state (and global) agenda of sustainable
development placing them in a central position.
Ethnographic accounts of indigenous peoples' practices are cited to
demonstrate the richness of their knowledge (Colchester 1994). Even the
World Bank has recognized that indigenous knowledge systems provide a
reservoir of lessons in sustainable development (Davis and Ebbe 1995). Other
sustainable development advocates, together with environmentalists, would
further argue that restoring 'traditional' knowledge and practices would

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 611

. serve as a means of re-establishing ecological stability and social well-being

under contemporary conditions of environmental degradation (Sinha, Guru-
rani and Greenberg 1997:68).
Within the wide spectrum of sustainable development advocates, non-
governmental organizations (NGOs) are particularly emphatic in arguing for
the value of indigenous knowledge. The NGO treaty on sustainable agricul-
ture (SA) includes indigenous knowledge systems in its Asian SA agenda
(ANGOC 1997) and further states that traditional agriculture 'provides a
storehouse of knowledge [and] ...accords renewed value to their cultural
identity, and helps arrest the degradation of their societies in the face of mod-
ernization' (ANGOC 1993:13). Such knowledge, shared and passed down
through generations, is regarded as the key to the survival of indigenous'
communities.
In the Philippines, many researchers have written about indigenous
peoples as 'sustainable stewards' of their environment (Resurreccion 1999).
A number of these studies focus on the adaptive strategies of forest-based
indigenous peoples within the framework of culture-nature interactions (see
for example Cadelina 1974; Eder 1977; Schegel 1979; Kikuchi 1989; Rice 1993).
These ethnographies offer very little analysis on the communities' confronta-
tion with the forces of change impinging on them, apart from the social con-
flicts ensuing from cultural integration processes. Within the cultural renais-
sance now underway in many indigenous communities (Lee 1992:42),
anthropological texts such as Bennagen and Lucas-Fernan's (1996), although
merely accounts of age-old practices, are sources of information on tradi-
tional resource management. Current literature providing insight into the
realities of indigenous peoples takes the form of documentation on the im-
pact of specific projects (for example, Connel and Howitt 1991; Henningham
and May 1992).1
The usual portrayal of indigenous peoples as bearers of culture and
knowledge on resource management tends to present them in a static, some-
what naive way, devoid of voice and agency. The term 'indigenous peoples'
does lend itself to a certain romanticism, if not reifkation. The image of indig-
enousness essentializes indigenous peoples as if they were simply following
a predetermined script, rather than as active, creative communities in a
dynamic, historical engagement. The notion of 'sustainable and community-
based resource management' is often based on incorrect assumptions, since

1
Burger's (1987) work is one of the earliest and most comprehensive treatments of develop-
ment aggression against indigenous peoples and their resources. NGO advocate organizations
like Survival International and the International Working Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA)
have regularly come out with documentation on the impact of development projects on differ-
ent groups of indigenous peoples across the globe.

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612 Levita Duhaylungsod

much of the resource base of indigenous peoples has significantly dimin-

ished in quality and quantity.
Within the context of the contemporary reality of indigenous peoples, the
interpretation of sustainable development as lying within the indigenous'
community is therefore an uncritical, romantic image from an era long gone.
Some Indian scholars have referred to such equations as a 'New
Traditionalist' discourse (Sinha, Gururani and Greenberg 1997). While there
is some validity in the argument that indigenous communities are character-
ized by a culturally embedded conservation ethic supported by a traditional,
community-based political organization, this representation is often tied up
with a claim to a past, if not hoary, golden age. The reference to the sustain-
able practices of indigenous peoples within the contemporary development
discourse is thus a leap of extrapolation from the past and must be treated
with extreme caution.

Mode of subsistence of indigenous peoples

Indigenous communities are generally subsistence production societies.

Forest-based communities have evolved strategies that usually combine the
efficient, although not necessarily simple, appropriation of different aspects of
their natural environment. Because forests are a highly diversified environ-
ment, they provide opportunities for a variety of productive activities such as
forest resource extraction, horticulture, hunting and fishing. Traditionally, the
exploitation of the natural environment is usually carried out on a small scale
because the fundamental goal is simple production to maintain the household
and not production of surplus for the market. By its nature, this mode of pro-
duction tends not to over-exploit the available resources. Such a level of
resource exploitation does more to assure long-term sustainability of produc-
tion, although it is considered underproductive from the standpoint of formal
economics (Duhaylungsod 1998; Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1995).
This subsistence mode of production of indigenous peoples is largely
based on an ideology of reciprocal exchange. As in access to land use, the
entire production system of indigenous peoples is structured along kinship
lines. Although primarily subsistence-oriented, this production ethics can
also be applied to the sharing and redistribution of goods and resources, thus
enabling the survival not merely of individuals but, more significantly, of the
entire community. Termed by Wolf (1982) as the kinship mode of production,
the dynamics of this mode are anchored in culture: from the appropriation
and use of resources, the social organization of production and the labour
process, to the distribution and circulation of the products of social labour
(Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1995).

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 613

Economy and environment among indigenous peoples are therefore

integrated into a humanized, cultural landscape (Clarke 1990:45-7), as reflect-
ed in their communal views on land, their cooperative work exchanges,
communal rituals, songs, dances and folklore. However, such a relationship
of economy and environment among indigenous peoples should not be
taken to mean that these people are naturally inclined to nature conservation
and sustainable resource use. The fact is that the restrictive values underlying
resource access and use are based on religious beliefs and not on ecological
principles (Van den Top and Persoon 2000).
The world's indigenous peoples are being increasingly confronted with
the dual forces of state-building and the worldwide expansion of capitalism.
As many observers point out, 'the world's tribal peoples are sitting directly
in the path of the world's largest multinational corporations' (Lee 1992:37).
Forests, which are the remaining frontier areas in Asia and elsewhere and the
home of many indigenous communities, have become sites of social and eco-
nomic confrontation (Colchester 1995). Forcing indigenous peoples to adapt
to these socioeconomic and political forces has resulted in a conflict that can
be traced to the incompatibility of social systems (indigenous peoples' cul-
tures and the state) and differing relations of production (kinship and capi-
talist) (Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1995). Invariably, the state has been
instrumental in these processes through development programs which have
usually been accompanied by reforms in the indigenous peoples' mode of
production, in many cases resulting in deprivation of the means of produc-
tion and subsistence and the collapse of traditional social relations (Godelier
1987). In fact, state intrusion has been a major cause of deprivation among
indigenous peoples and their consequent subjugation, so that advocacy for
their rights has centred on the issue of resource sovereignty (Howitt and
Hirsch 1996:1).
In developing countries like the Philippines that have adopted growth-
centred development orientation, many indigenous peoples' communities
find themselves trapped in a production situation governed by the increas-
ing demands of the market economy. There are significant temporal and spa-
tial differences in. the extent of market entrenchment among indigenous
peoples, with the variation resulting from their access to means of produc-
tion and the depth of their integration in commodity markets (Duhaylung-
sod and Hyndman 1995).. There are communities which have remained
tenacious and sustainable, even as they accommodate changes in their mode
of production. Many of these communities are still either in subsistence or
small-scale agricultural production, and many are already engaged in other
forms of petty commodity production. Invariably, however, many indige-
nous' communities find themselves at a crossroads, and must choose
between tradition and the engaging in agricultural production geared for the

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614 Levita Duhaylungsod

market. The struggle that they are now facing is a tension between accumu-
lation and subsistence production - a contradiction resulting from the inte-
gration of subsistence communities with the market economy (Duhaylung-
sod 1996). Thus, the tension is between growth (requiring resources for
accumulation) and basic needs (requiring the allocation of resources to con-
sumption/subsistence and an equitable distribution of consumption) (Crow
et al. 1988).
The phenomenon of capitalist expansion and market penetration accom-
panied by increasing population has put pressure on forest lands, home to
the majority of indigenous peoples, particularly in developing countries. Yet
forests are vital ecosystems in the conservation and regeneration of the envir-
onment. The expansion and increasing commercialization of agriculture and
forest resources have resulted in massive conversion of forest lands. Data
show that loss of forest land to agriculture has been a major cause of deforest-
ation in the tropical zone (Alexandratos 1995:212).
Many indigenous peoples and their traditional system of subsistence
have endured for some time, especially those who opted to remain on the
periphery of development. But with competition growing fiercer for avail-
able resources and the reality of diminishing frontier areas that are now tar-
gets of expanded production, the indigenous systems that have worked in
the past are increasingly faced with threats to sustainability.

Requisites of sustainable development

The discourse on sustainable use of resources and the knowledge demon-

strated by indigenous peoples need to be viewed in terms of three interlinked
elements: knowledge, social organization (and self-determination) and territ-
orial assets (or resources).2 These elements govern the relationship between
people and environment. In the earlier work summarized above, I empha-
sized the interrelatedness of ecology, control of and access to resources and
the means of production in the shaping of the mode of subsistence of a
human population, and argued that the process is fundamentally sociocul-
turally constituted (Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1995; Duhaylungsod
1998). This dynamic can be better understood if we assume that knowledge,
social organization and territorial assets are preconditions to a community's

2
Many of the ideas in this paper were the results of a collegial exchange of ideas with Russel
Barsh and Chantelle Marlor of the University of Lethbridge and University of British Columbia
(Canada), respectively, with whom I had the opportunity to visit six International ILO-assisted
indigenous communities in the Cordillera, Mindoro, Negros, Bukidnon and Cotabato from
November 1997 to March 1998. The field visits were made possible through the Policy
Development Unit (POLDEV) of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 615

sustainability of resource use. Knowledge implies a detailed understanding of

social and ecological dynamics, including recognition of changes in the envir-
onment. Social organization changes by reorganizing relationships and re-
sponsibilities as a community. Territorial assets are necessary physical
resources for survival and change, which implies the maintenance (or sus-
tainable use) of some minimum ecological endowments. As I have indicated,
these three conditions are necessarily linked. For example, knowledge relates
to a particular territory: separate the people from the land, and the know-
ledge system loses its relevance - if it is maintained at all. Social organization
cannot easily be maintained without exchange, cooperation and some form of
ritual, which, to be operational, require resources. Resources cannot be con-
served or used sustainably without knowledge and collective action.
Collective action is required to perpetuate and continue to revise the know-
ledge system. In short, social organization is inextricably linked with modes
of production. In the Marxist analytical tradition, this implies that commun-
ities reorganize themselves as new modes of production develop. The nature
of resources and, consequently, the environment as resource base adjusts in
response to changes in the mode of production. Likewise, new ways of acting
and thinking are needed to adapt to the pressures of new ways of producing.
Within this framework, indigenous peoples should be viewed as strat-
egizing social actors when broader forces of change intervene in their socio-
cultural system (Long and Van der Ploeg 1989). Communities have been his-
torically engaged in a continuous process of transactions and interchange,
and the sociocultural nature of the communities is discursively and actively
created, re-shaped and transmitted by different sets of actors both over time
and according to local ecological particularities. In other words, 'people do
not just adapt to environments, they make them, shaping from both materi-
als and possibilities they see in the habitat and the surrounding life forms'
(Croll and Parkin 1992:16). This position contrasts with the classic anthropo-
logical studies of the 1960s that analysed these so-called traditional commu-
nities as if they were simply 'islands unto themselves', impervious to the
changes and processes that are constantly occurring through time (Ortner
1984:386).
More recent scholars of indigenous peoples, particularly those embracing
a political economy perspective, have noted that the world's indigenous
peoples have been interacting with various forces of change, resulting in
dynamic and innovative patterns of relationship with their environment.
Many of these processes revolve around the ongoing political incorporation
and market integration of indigenous' communities and include changing
patterns of resource access and management. For instance, it has been noted
that 'upland Philippine groups have experienced dynamic changes in their
social organization and economy for centuries. Land pressure in many

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616 Levita Duhaylungsod

upland areas has resulted in a history of innovations and alterations in re-

source management and productive activities' (Russel and Cunningham
1989:8).
Because indigenous peoples today are enmeshed in state-building and
increasingly pressured to adapt to a commoditized form of production, it is
necessary for them to acquire the following capabilities in order to effectively
confront the forces impinging on them:
Capacity to recognize changes in the flux surrounding them, which implies a
detailed knowledge of social and ecological dynamics and critical vigilance
towards their environment (knowledge);
Capacity to respond collectively to change by reorganizing their relation-
ships and responsibilities as a community, which implies solidarity, respect-
ed decision-making processes, and freedom of choice or self-determination
(social organization);
Capacity to mobilize the necessary physical resources for survival and
change such as food, fuel and materials, which implies the maintenance (or
sustainable use) of minimum ecological endowments (territorial assets or
resources).

Contemporary conditions of indigenous peoples in the Philippines

Throughout the Philippines there are about a hundred indigenous peoples

with distinct cultural characteristics that are classified into six regional
groupings. The terms 'tribal Filipinos' and 'ethnic or cultural minorities' have
been used as categorical referents to distinguish various indigenous peoples
who have historically retained more of their 'ethnos' or tribe from those who
were assimilated during Spanish or American colonial rule. Collectively, they
account for eight to ten million people, or about ten to fifteen per cent of the
country's estimated 70 million inhabitants. They are also identified with the
upland or mountain environment (or hinterlands) of the Philippines, the
lowlands being where the 'majority' ethnic groups dwell. Centuries of coloni-
alism are largely responsible for this cultural and geographic dichotomy (Du-
haylungsod 1993). Colonial legacy included a dismemberment, if not out-
right elimination, of ancestral domains, a term employed by indigenous
peoples' advocates to refer to the traditional territories of indigenous
peoples.
The exploitation, distribution and control of land and resources in the
Philippines is mediated by differing and unequal relationships of power
such that indigenous peoples continue to suffer discrimination and exclu-
sion. This is perpetuated by the hierarchical distinction between 'civilized'
and 'primitive' peoples. State institutions have been unable to tolerate mul-

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development ' 617

tiple ways of life, and until the enactment of the Indigenous Peoples' Rights
Act (IPRA), ancestral domain claims of indigenous peoples were systematic-
ally ignored. In the past, indigenous peoples resisted the imposition of state
authority and pressure from the outside by retreating to the remaining fron-
tier regions of their homelands (Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1993). As
resource competition expands in the Philippines in pursuit of growth-orient-
ed development, the ancestral domains and resources of indigenous peoples
are increasingly placed under the control of the state.
Following global trends towards negotiating constitutional changes in
order to accommodate new relationships with indigenous peoples which
reflect recognition of their sovereign status (Wilmer 1993), constitutional
reform in the Philippines has also introduced provisions that finally legit-
imize the status of indigenous communities. After the overthrow of the
Marcos dictatorship, provisions pertaining to the special autonomy status
and rights of indigenous peoples were incorporated in the new constitution.
This was also in response to mounting pressure from various alliances of
indigenous peoples and advocacy groups. The Philippine Congress enacted
the Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act (IPRA) in 1998.3
The reality of indigenous peoples in the Philippines, as elsewhere, is char-
acterized by rapid ecological, economic and sociocultural changes. These
changes are accompanied by considerable ambivalence and disagreement
over values and goals, and by new power alignments. The likelihood is that
only some of the peoples form a real 'community of values', motivated and
capable of strengthening their traditional solidarity. In other words, the
indigenous peoples may form two, or even more, communities, rather than
the idealized picture of a single community (Duhaylungsod forthcoming a).4

3
The provisions of the IPRA on the delineation process for recognizing ancestral domains
involves a complex and lengthy procedure both at the field level and within the bureaucracy.
This includes petitioning the local community, proofs of legitimate claims through written
accounts that specify customs, traditions and other culture markers, maps and endorsement by
the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), and the issuance and registration of
certificates of ancestral domain. All these documents necessarily involve tedious transactions
and negotiations between different government instrumentalities and agencies, a process for
which many indigenous communities in the Philippines do not have the facility.
4
It was interesting to learn during the ILO project visits that in virtually all communities, the
old people have become mere repositories of traditional knowledge and skills. This is especial-
ly true of the communities of Bugtong Lubi, Mindoro and Higaonon in Sinuda, Davao del Sur.
The case of the retention and continuity of the brassware and loomweaving among the Maranao
in Marawi is perhaps more of an exception than the rule. In the case of the Mangyan who man-
ifest more cultural distinctiveness and sense of community, they have strong memories of age-
old practices but are rendered already impracticable within their immediate surroundings
because these practices are bound up with a forest ecosystem which they have already lost. In
practically all the communities visited, much of the traditional knowledge is seen as alive only
in the more remote areas of their ancestral homelands.

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618 Levita Duhaylungsod

Many indigenous ' communities today are recovering from extensive eco-
logical destruction, displacement and disempowerment, which puts them in
a precarious state. Many communities historically suffered common experi-
ences of systematic internal colonialism and disenfranchisement ranging
from state-building activities and settler migrants to logging, evangelizing,
gold mining, agribusiness and cattle ranching within the past 25 years or
more (see Duhaylungsod and Hyndman 1992a, 1992b, 1993). As a result,
most communities have undergone profound structural economic changes
and ideological differentiation. In most instances, their immediate concerns
are focused on the regeneration of their ancestral domains, restoration of
their subsistence base and asserting their right to freedom from further inter-
vention. In most cases their hold on the land may be precarious, and estab-
lishing security of tenure thus becomes a primary issue. In some cases, com-
munities have been relocated or have found themselves in areas contested by
the New People's Army (NPA) or, in Mindanao, at the crossroads of the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Muslim National Liberation Front
(MNLF).
Social stratification and polarization resulting from an intensified rela-
tionship with the state and market orientation, though incipient in most
cases, have certainly resulted in ambivalence, if not disagreement, over
values and goals. The creation of power realignments and the emergence of
new areas of ideological opposition are processes that have accompanied the
increasing communication and contact among indigenous peoples, distant
policy-makers and other stakeholders.
Furthermore, many communities have already been transformed from
networks of families and patterns of social solidarity into competing groups
based on relationships with the state and economic interests. Social stratifi-
cation and polarization, in varying degrees, characterize the social structure
of the majority of indigenous communities.
The culture of dependence on aid agencies is also evident among those
communities that have become beneficiaries of development projects, and
much of their current economic activity and thinking has already been
reshaped by the philosophies of those agencies. Cash crops, individual
ownership of imported technologies, class distinctions and indebtedness are
on the increase, especially among those who have become more market-ori-
ented or have been thrown into a mix with other ethnolinguistic groups such
as many of those in Mindanao (Marlor, Barsh and Duhaylungsod 1999).
As the members of indigenous communities negotiate the agenda of sus-
tainable development, they need to reassess the possibilities of their radically
transformed ecosystems. They find themselves increasingly faced with the
task of negotiating and reconstructing the discourse of development
(Duhaylungsod forthcoming b). While they have had a remarkable history of

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 619

political advocacy, experience indicates that the pressures to conform are

simply overwhelming. Bennagen (1998), summing up his long experiences of
dialogues with indigenous peoples, succinctly observes,
While their own experiences tell them who they are (collective identity by self-
ascription), they are hard put to locate themselves in the 'development' discourse.
Discussions about what IP indigenous peoples in general want and what specific
communities want yield conflicting and incoherent answers reflecting no doubt
the differential impact of culture contact. Some individuals and groups want to be
like the 'progressive lowland Christian' or the 'rich Americans', suggesting that
they perceive themselves as a stage in a unilinear ladder-like process of social and
cultural change. Thus, they aspire for and occasionally acquire consumer goods
and behaviour considered as indicators of the 'progressive' life. Others just could-
n't care less and appear to accept the way they are and continue to be perceived
by outsiders as lazy and 'poorest of the poor'. (Bennagen 1998:28.)

This predicament notwithstanding, what is essential is to recognize that com-

munities are undergoing the task of confronting and resolving these contra-
dictions within themselves. The process is not easy.

Upo: from subsistence to agricultural intensification

Upo is a T'boli Mohin village in the Sarangani province of Mindanao about

five km from the nearest town centre of Maitum. The community represents
many T'boli communities, a distinct indigenous people in Mindanao whose
ancestral homelands cover South Cotabato and the newly formed Sarangani
province. Altogether the ancestral homeland of the T'boli is a 2,000 km2
heartland forming a triangle between the towns of Polomolok, Surallah and
Kiamba. It is accessible over a dirt road by tricycle and four-wheel-drive
vehicles.
The village, covering about 49 ha of land, has been traditionally held by
the Kusin family. The indigenous community of T'boli has largely been able
to maintain its traditional relationship with the forest, despite historical
phases of land dispossession and displacement. The peoples' ancestral
domain forms part of the vast mountain ranges of the Cotabato Cordillera.
Just like many forest-based communities described earlier, the traditional
basis of livelihood of the T'boli revolves around their forest homelands and
is primarily oriented towards subsistence and simple production. Such a sys-
tem of production is called swidden agriculture (Duhaylungsod and
Hyndman 1993,1995).
The total land area of the village or barangay Upo is 2,430 ha, 12 per cent
of which has remained a forest with some hardwood (Dipterocarp). Patches of
second-growth forest are still abundant, interspersed with T'boli swidden

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620 Levita Duhaylungsod

(c) CML 2001

f'SWo Arctitpelago

70 140 210 280 Kilometers

farms (t'niba fields). The entire landscape features important cultural land-
marks (sacred sites, taboo and ceremonial areas). In 1998, Upo had a popula-
tion of 1,195, consisting of 259 households and spread over the remaining for-
est expanse of the village. Until about a year ago, the community was largely
accessible by hiking the seven kilometre distance between the village centre
and the municipality of Maitum. Presently, mobility has been enhanced by
road improvement and the consequent expansion of transport facilities.
In the 1940s, portions of their ancestral lands were lost to Strong, an
American who established a coconut plantation, and another portion to a
Muslim land speculator. Strong, with power and access to legal instruments,
was able to get a title to the lands he occupied, but the appropriation of land
by the Muslim was consistently contested by the Kusins. In 1993, with inter-
ior lands no longer available for retreat and as part of their strategy to reclaim
their lost lands, the Kusins started re-establishing their settlement in the vil-
lage under the leadership of one of the brothers, Kubli, a 36-year-old who has

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 621

become the barangay kapitan of Upo. He encouraged his co-villagers, mostly

kin, to stay on in the lands they are cultivating.

Introduction of agricultural development schemes5

Realizing that their community was continuously being pushed to the inter-
ior as a consequence of outsiders encroaching on their ancestral homelands,
Kubli took much of the initiative in reclaiming the ancestral lands that had
been lost to several speculators. The initiative was strengthened by his kin
connection with the local Municipal Environment Officer (MENRO), who
facilitated contacts with development programmes through the Department
of Agriculture (DA) of Sarangani province. Through these agencies, Upo
became the recipient of a number of development assistance grants and local
municipal political activities in just ten years. During the Ramos administra-
tion (1995-1998), it was chosen as a pilot site for the Social Reform Agenda
(SRA) programme, which is also to be credited for having facilitated the
introduction of various development interventions. These range from a
spring development project and road development to provision of primary
educational facilities and livelihood schemes in Upo. In addition, the contact
with these state instruments resulted in a land-use zoning plan for the Upo
ancestral domain.
Sedentary agriculture is a relatively recent practice among the Upo T'boli.
With the initial move towards securing their forest homelands through
Integrated Social Forestry (ISF), the community was encouraged to practise
more sedentary farming. Through the contacts with the municipal govern-
ment, the Upo T'boli were introduced to more intensive cash cropping in late
1995 when Cargill, a transnational seed company, offered to fund corn pro-
duction on their farms. Cargill supplied certified corn seed and provided
technical training and a loan package to the T'boli. The venture that year was
productive and the T'boli were able to pay back their loans. However, the El
Nino storms in 1997 halted the cash cropping of corn, and the T'boli com-
pletely abandoned the scheme, reverting to their traditional, seasonal corn
cropping.
Through the provincial government, the Mindanao Baptist Rural Life
Center (MBRLC) conducted a SALT (Sloping Agriculture Land Technology)
farming technology seminar in 1998. In addition, the provincial Department
of Agriculture (DA) provided a carabao and goat dispersal project to enhance
the agricultural system in Upo. The ISF area in Upo, covering 294 ha, was

5
Recent data on Upo has been gathered as part of the UPLBGPRD-UPLBFI-CIFOR project
entitled 'Creating Space for Local Forest Management', 1998-2000.

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622 Levita Duhaylungsod

also distributed to 98 T'boli households, giving each recipient 3 ha for agro-

forestry cultivation. A second batch of ISF applications covering 429 ha is still
currently pending.
About the same year, discussions with the provincial and the municipal
governments resulted in a land-use zoning plan designating 108 ha for the
establishment of the Agricultural Research Centre (ARC), which, in effect,
will turn the area into a nursery and agricultural research station. The prim-
ary objective is to convince the T'boli communities and other neighbouring
groups of the viability of commercial forest. Recently, rubber tree seedlings
were planted in the area.
Kubli's discussion with the Fiber Industry Development Authority
(FIDA) resulted in a technical assistance scheme on abaca cultivation in the
context of the T'boli's traditional abaca fiber craft. As a result, there is an
ongoing massive abaca planting on three sites in Upo. The local leadership
envisions revitalizing the traditional t'nalak weaving, which they hope can be
transformed into a commercial enterprise.
The Women in Development of Sarangani (WINDS), a task force of
women created in 1995 by the provincial government and adopted in all the
municipalities, has also reached Upo. Essentially, the project is aimed at
women's empowerment through income generation. The Upo T'boli women
have been organized into such a task force and have been given work an-
imals and three sewing machines by the wife of the municipal mayor. Apart
from these, the Upo WINDS takes part in forest management by doing weed-
ing for farm owners in the nearby farming communities. WINDS is also in
charge of the day care centre and planted an herbal garden next to the day
care building.

Forest protection management schemes

A tree-planting activity was initiated by MENRO to replace the dipterocarps

washed down during the flash flood of June 1999. The flood took the entire
community by surprise, including the whole municipality of Maitum. It was
believed the flood occurred because of the effects of El Nino. A reforestation
scheme requiring the Upo constituents to plant rubber and coffee trees
around the spring was developed by the Barangay Upo Water Sanitation
Association (BUWSA). This was an organization that grew out of the spring
development project, which involved the Davao Medical School Foundation
(a medical NGO), as well as the provincial and local governments. Unlike the
organizers of other infrastructure projects, the leadership here simply
requested the materials required to set up the water system and then mobil-
ized work groups of local T'boli men as their contribution to the project.

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 623

Alongside this effort is the organization of male T'boli into a forest man-
agement group called Bantay gubat/ilog (Forest/river guardians). This local
forest guard was formed even prior to Sarangani Provincial Ordinance no.
11, which is a provincial law for the protection and conservation of the forest.
Of the 2,450-ha Upo ancestral domain , about 1,307 ha (53 per cent) are still
primary forest, while there is secondary growth on about 1,000 ha. The
scheme is to police forest poachers, and it appears that the efforts have been
effective. If this is sustained and is combined with a consistent observance of
the provincial ordinance, the quality of the remaining Upo forest cover,
which the bamngay council zoned as a protected area, can be maintained.

Continuities and transformations

Upo's access to state agencies has resulted in the creation of social and polit-
ical space, which in turn has produced opportunities for forest-based sus-
tainable agriculture that has challenged the community. Further degradation
of the forest has been arrested, making it possible to continue some cultural
traditions such as sacred sites and forest-related rituals and beliefs. Visible
efforts to regenerate the quality of the ecosystem have also been undertaken.
Yet it remains to be seen whether these efforts can become well entrenched,
and whether the options chosen are enough to ensure the community's sur-
vival as a people with a distinct culture.
Upo has become a development showcase for both the provincial and the
municipal governments. But though an acknowledged breakthrough has
been made in regard to securing the T'boli homeland, the traditional socio-
cultural system, with its strong embodiment of social capital, may also be
rendered vulnerable by the T'boli's massive acceptance of these external
agencies. The livelihood projects, which promote market entry and market
consciousness among the T'boli, are a force that the T'boli have to contend
with. The logic of a profit economy, with its ethic of individualism, generally
works against the norm of reciprocity and community solidarity.

The shift from a largely subsistence system to a more market-oriented agro-

forestry system entails changes in traditional production relations. The pres-
sure to engage in more intensive abaca production will impact on gender
relations in particular, because women will be much more engaged in com-
merce than before. In fact, signs of change are already evident. Road im-
provement in Upo has pushed the men into farm and forest activities and the
women into market relations. In the past, the men were more involved in
market activities, but they also wasted a great deal of income drinking and
gallivanting. Now, with women doing much of the marketing, the income is

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624 Levita Duhaylungsod

much more wisely used and women's empowerment has thereby increased.
However, such impact needs further analysis in the context of household
arrangement., At this point, it is still too early to draw any conclusions, given
the lack of an empirical base and the fact that the level of household income
is still at subsistence level.
The ISF areas remain in a tenuous and contentious state as far as the local
community is concerned. It has been observed by Kubli and the MENRO
office leadership that the community is not able to exercise autonomy and
control of ISF areas because many of the terms are imposed by the national
government through the DENR. The local leadership is hoping for a scheme
that will free them of such constraints. Furthermore, the prospect of fully
regaining the lands appropriated by the descendants of the Strong family is
bleak because these are already titled. This patch of land is strategically locat-
ed in the centre of the Upo ancestral domain.
The proposed ARC is another grey area that may cause future destabil-
ization in the community's hold on their resource base. This agricultural
research centre is envisioned to provide services to the entire province of
Sarangani, but the Upo T'boli are likely be marginalized since they do not
have the required educational qualifications that jobs at the centre may
require (such as that of agronomists, horticulturists). At best, the T'boli may
be hired as mere labourers. Since it is a provincial government project, there
is a likelihood that the area, a substantial patch of 108 ha, will eventually be
appropriated by the government. Eighty ha of the ARC area are still forest,
contiguous to the ISF areas. Given that the latter is also weakly controlled by
the local community, the Upo T'boli as legitimate forest stakeholder may
eventually be rendered precarious.

Conclusion

As the case of the T'boli demonstrates, the geographic landscape of indig-

enous peoples' homelands has been historically altered through both state
intrusions and the constantly active manipulation of the local people in their
struggle to sustain their communities' precarious hold on their lands and
resources. It is anachronistic to invoke indigenous peoples communities as a
profoundly rich and important symbol of sustainable resource use. The cur-
rency of sustainable development has translated traditional resource use and
indigenousness into icons of popular discourse, yet this argument is merely
an assumption. Given the contemporary realities and experiences of indig-
enous communities, such an assumption should be explored to find out
whether it is 'only a case of imagining a past, but in an unintended way, also
imagining the present' (Resurreccion 1999:262). To speak of indigenous

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 Rethinking Sustainable Development 625

peoples employing an essentially sound and sustainable livelihood system is,

more often than not, selectively invoking history to suit contemporary pur-
poses (Cohen 1985).
Traditional subsistence practices may have been sound and, to a certain
extent, sustainable, but advocates of this discourse need to investigate
whether these practices are still viable given the present day realities of
indigenous peoples. Economic and ecological conditions continue to change
rapidly in many indigenous peoples' homelands as new resources are identi-
fied for expanding the cash and commodity economy (for example, as a
result of new open-pit mining or more aggressive campaigns for cash crop-
ping), stimulating further variation and flux within the communities. Indig-
enous peoples do not live just as their ancestors did, and though there are dif-
ferent levels of response, many indigenous communities are capable of
responding by referring to past ways of living, where possible. In many
ways, these groups are also evolving novel and syncretic methods as they
confront, negotiate and try to reconstruct the discourse of sustainable devel-
opment. This seems to be the formidable task facing indigenous peoples
today.

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