To mark the 16th anniversary of the Mt. Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL), Indigenous communities, local officials, and environmental groups gathered in Sitio Ubodon, Barangay Ransang in Rizal, Palawan for a day-long celebration centered on forest protection, ancestral ties, and grassroots conservation.
Carrying the theme “Katutubo at Kagubatan: Ugnayan ay Panatilihin, Kalikasan ay Mahalin,” the event emphasized the intergenerational link between the Indigenous Palaw’an community and the forests they have long protected, long before government recognition came in 2009, when the area was declared a protected landscape.
Conservation International facilitated a focused discussion on forest conservation and the Forest Carbon Project in MMPL, which aims to scale up Indigenous participation in forest management and support climate mitigation strategies. According to organizers, the effort is part of a broader vision to align local knowledge systems with global climate goals.
And in a moment that drew the loudest cheers, a traditional agawan ng biik sent adults chasing a squealing piglet, the prize going to a lucky resident who would take it home as a starter for a livelihood project.
The event was co-organized by the Rizal Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), the Barangay Council of Ransang, the Protected Area Management Office (PAMO), and local guide group MEGA, which helped transport supplies to the mountain site.
Covering five municipalities in southern Palawan, Mt. Mantalingahan is among the country’s last biodiversity corridors, home to species found nowhere else on Earth. But conservationists say it is the people, not just the trees, who are key to keeping it alive.
