Like other indigenous peoples in Northern Luzon's Central Sierra Madre mountains, the Bugkalots have been victimized by commercial logging, expansion of agriculture, and migration. Over time, they have benefited less and less from the bounty of their diverse natural forests and learned to be less mobile within their cultural-physical jurisdiction. They have to protect their ancestral domains from the escalating incursions of outsiders. Over time, they have been pushed to eke out a living in marginal upland areas as campaigns for forest extraction competed with their indigenous use of the forests.

This situation improved when the Bugkalots, a fter many years of uncertainty, were awarded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim or CADC in 1994, covering 139,000 hectares in the provinces of Quirino, Aurora, and Nueva Vizcaya. The CADC was eventually converted to a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title on February 2006.

A major legal victory, the title meant the Bugkalots could finally call the land their own. However, owning the land was not the same as making it productive. The reason? The Bugkalots didn't have an ancestral domain management plan that gave them direction, a rallying point, socio-cultural integration, and cohesiveness.

This changed dramatically this year when the Bugkalots completed an Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan for their area. It was a collective effort by the three provincial governments with help from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples, the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Philippine Environmental Governance 2 (EcoGov2) Project, and other concerned agencies and NGOs.

Close to a hundred Bugkalot tribal leaders signed an agreement to safeguard their territory and make it productive last August 28. Three groups signed the agreement in Cabarroguis, Quirino and in Dipaculao and Maria Aurora in Aurora Province, while Bugkalots from Nueva Vizcaya signed in the town of Bayombong.

The plan provides mechanisms for the improved management of forest resources so they can be more productive and sustainable. It also seeks to preserve and enrich the Bugkalot’s cultural heritage.

“This is an answered prayer,” says Romeo Cawad, Bugkalot provincial chieftain of Aurora. “Some of us have even lost hope, but we kept our faith. Now we will be guided in working for a better life for our children. We hope the influx of migrants and the problems they bring will soon be put to an end.”

The Bugkalots participated in the formulation of the ADSDPP through consultations, area assessments and mapping activities. Now they have a direct hand in managing their territory and are assured of a fair share of the benefits accruing from the productive use of the land.

The CADT covers at least 90,000 hectares of the Quirino Protected Landscapes. It is home to more than 6,000 Bugkalots who are committed to protect the biodiversity of the area which harbors a wide array of ecologically and economically important species of flora and fauna.

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