The uplands and other less favored areas in Asia are home to some 40% of the rural poor. They are rainfed farmers, forest dwellers, highlanders and indigenous peoples (IFAD, 2001).
In the Philippines, the uplands are the preferred destination for rural migration. In 2000, some 20 million Filipinos (26% of the national population) live in the uplands. According to Dr. Guiang, more than 8 million hectares of the 11.9 million hectares classified as uplands in the country “are under some kind of cultivation” in 1998 ( Tacio, 2000).
This is disquieting as the denuded uplands are so fragile and highly susceptible to erosion. With the forest gone, the denuded areas can be easily transformed into acidic, infertile grasslands susceptible to fire. Moreover, the upland farmers are barely surviving. Productivity is very low. Many of the children are malnourished and are infected with internal parasites due to lack of sanitary facilities and health services.
And yet, if properly managed, the uplands can offer opportunities for economic development while improving the quality of life of upland farmers and forest dwellers. It can be a major source of water, power and biological diversity. The uplands can also produce medicinal plants and high-value products such as organic foods, morels and fine wool (IFAD, 2001; Ramos 1991).
Amidst this background, the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC) initiated a project among upland farmers in the rural areas of Cagayan de Oro, a city in Northern Mindanao, Philippines. Majority of the farmers are Higaonons, an indigenous people in Mindanao.
Cagayan de Oro's development, considered the economic hub of Northern Mindanao, has two faces. Its metropolis is the site of a lucrative trade and industry, sprawling subdivisions, modern infrastructure and busy commercial centers. But more than half of its one million population eke out a living that barely meet their basic needs. This includes the Higaonons and other farmers who were gradually pushed into the uplands to till ecologically-fragile lands of what used to be forest lands.
Though relatively near, around 25 kilometers from the urban center, their communities are deprived of basic services. Many have no access to drinking water, health services and sanitation. Access to these areas is very difficult. The agricultural resource base, a major source of their livelihood, is degraded. Poor farming practices further degrade the soil. Moreover, some continue to strip the forest cover in a desperate move for survival.
The forestlands of Cagayan de Oro have been logged three times over. As a consequence, Cagayan River has become heavily silted, and in 1993 the city's coastline communities experienced heavy flash floods - the first in the city's memory. But even now, the indigenous communities occupying ancestral domain lands continue to be threatened by the encroachment of illegal loggers.
Figure 1. Map of Northern Mindanao highlighting Dansolihon in Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines
