Sr. Kathleen Melia SSC
Missionary Sisters of Saint Columban
Philippines
Sr.
Kathleen Melia SSC, Missionary Sisters of Saint
Columban, works as Project Manager in Zamboanga/Midsalip,
Philippines.
On September 13, 2007, the United Nations
Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples
was adopted in the General Assembly. This
historic occasion was a beacon of hope for
indigenous peoples all over the world. A central
focus of the Columban Sisters’ mission among the
Subaanen indigenous people in Midsalip has been
finding ways of accompanying and enabling them,
as they struggle to have their basic rights as
enshrined in this Declaration recognised and
protected.
Of pivotal importance to the survival of the
Subaanens is their cultural, religious and
economic relationship to their Ancestral Domain.
This relationship was threatened initially by
large-scale logging. The resulting erosion and
soil depletion led to scarcity of food, while
the building of logging roads led to an increase
in the population of lowland settlers, causing
pressure on land resources. As a result the
Subaanens were no longer able to move from place
to place and thus allow the forest to be
regenerated. In order to help the people adapt
to settled methods of agriculture, to protect
the remaining forests and to restore soil
fertility, the Subaanen mission with assistance
initially from Irish Aid and then from misean
cara, was able to implement a number of
Agro Forestry Programs. Fruit trees were
planted. Steep slopes were terraced using
leguminous hedgerow plants and ongoing training
on sustainable agro forestry was carried out.
The results were very positive. In some barrios
the people are already harvesting the fruit
trees, landslides have been prevented, soil
fertility has improved and the children have
become healthier.
The efforts of the Subaanens is helping not just
themselves but lowland rice farmers, since three
large river systems originate in the Midsalip
Watershed area. Despite logging, there are still
considerable areas of dipterocarp forests on the
Midsalip Mountains and in 2002 they were
included in a Biodiversity Area declared as
Extremely High Critical.
Unfortunately, while the people struggle to
protect their lands, their forests and their
water sources, the President of the Philippines
is actively supporting open pit mining in order,
she claims, to boost the country’s economy. The
Midsalip mountains are rich in minerals and
despite the fact that watershed areas should be
excluded from mining and IP’s have the right to
refuse projects in their Ancestral Domain, large
scale mining companies have made applications
covering nearly all of the municipality.
Because the Free, Prior and Informed Consent
which is their right by law, both national and
United Nations, was so flagrantly manipulated by
the Government agency responsible, the Subaanens
here have joined other IP communities in
bringing their complaint to the attention of the
U.N. Convention on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination. The campaign against mining is
ongoing but this campaign can ultimately be
successful only if the ecosystem itself is
restored and if the people can find ways to live
adequately within the ecosystem without putting
undue pressure on it.
In this regard, the provision of significant
funding by misean cara has been of enormous
importance. Rubber seedlings were provided to
441 farm families. Since this is a permanent
crop, as well as replacing unproductive
grassland, it will help protect steep slopes,
and in the future provide an all-yearround
income to the farmers. A lot was bought in the
town centre and a building to facilitate storing
and marketing of fruit and abaca was
constructed.
Training in processing the fibre and making
ropes and twine has taken place in the centre
and when the people have mastered these arts
further trainings will be availed of. A kitchen
for herbal medicine making and food processing
has been built. As a result of their training
some farmers are selling their surplus
vegetables and fruit in the town market. Our
preschool coordinator is availing of education
units in college, thus putting the preschool
program which serves around 250 children in
remote barrios on a more secure footing.
The Subaanen people know that if mining goes
ahead the rivers will die, the forest will be
destroyed, the silence which is so important in
their lives and their rituals will no longer be
possible. Their culture will gradually die and
they will have no place else to go. This is why
our work must continue.