Collective Action on Land Tenure and Climate Change – Restoring ecosystem services led by indigenous peoples in Mt. Kalatungan Range, Philippines

This case study in the Philippines by Xavier Science Foundation (XSF) documents the experience of Indigenous Peoples’ communities in the Mt. Kalatungan Range, Bukidnon, who have protected and conserved forest ecosystem for generations but were later displaced from their ancestral lands, resulting in severe social and environmental consequences. The responses of various stakeholders in the landscape highlight the critical interconnection between land tenure security and climate change in the care of our common home. XSF, in collaboration with multiple stakeholders in the Mt. Kalatungan landscape led by Indigenous Peoples, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academe and research institutions, cooperatives and people’s organizations, utilized information from local research, environmental studies, workshops, and multi-stakeholder forums. The study aims to contribute to mainstreaming land rights in climate change discourse, undertaken as part of GFAiR’s Collective Action on Land Tenure and Climate Change, coordinated by ANGOC and funded by the European Commission.

Founded in 1979, ANGOC is a regional association of national and regional networks of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Asia, actively engaged in food security, agrarian reform, sustainable agriculture, participatory governance, and rural development.