NTFP - EP Philippines

NTFP - EP Philippines Linking People & Forests in the Philippines 🌿
Supporting Indigenous rights, ICCAs, culture, and NTFP-based livelihoods

NTFP-EP Philippines (Non-Timber Forest Products Exchange Programme) is a network of non-government and people’s organizations working towards the empowerment of Indigenous Peoples and forest-dependent communities in the Philippines. We strengthen, develop, and promote NTFP-based forest management strategies that are sustainable, culturally appropriate, and gender-responsive / gender-transformative

, for future generations. Our work is anchored in four core program areas:

• Tenure & Governance (inclusive policies and participation of IPLCs, women, and youth)
• Community-Based Livelihoods & Enterprise Development (sustainable NTFP livelihoods)
• Community-Based Conservation & Resource Management (safeguarding forest landscapes)
• Safeguarding Culture (practice, celebration, and transmission of cultural heritage)
We believe Indigenous communities are at the heart of effective conservation and forest restoration so they can survive and thrive .

25/06/2026

| On this week last year, we gathered in Iloilo for the NTFP-EP Philippines Partners Meeting and 10th Anniversary Celebration. It had been a week of looking back, giving thanks, visiting partner communities, honoring culture, and asking together: what does the next decade of linking peoples and forests call from us?

This Philippine Environment Month, we return to that question, and for , conservation works when communities lead. Forests are living territories held through relationships with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, elders and youth, women leaders, forest products, rivers, watersheds, culture, and future generations.

This is the strength of the network. Through community-led conservation, partners continue to protect forests, watersheds, biodiversity, and ancestral domains. Through community-based livelihoods and enterprise development, NTFP-based livelihoods show that forests can support life without being cut down.

As we open our 10th Anniversary Content Series, we honor a decade of partnership and the shared work still ahead.

Living forests. Rooted livelihoods. Indigenous futures.

We welcome this important step toward the stronger recognition of Indigenous Community Conserved Territories and Areas (...
22/06/2026

We welcome this important step toward the stronger recognition of Indigenous Community Conserved Territories and Areas (ICCAs) in the Philippines.

On June 16, the discussion on the proposed National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Administrative Order on ICCAs, convened with government and civil society partners including DENR-Biodiversity Management Bureau , WCS, PAFID, Inc. , United Nations Development Programme - UNDP , Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center , Global Environment Facility , and NTFP-EP Philippines, is a timely and meaningful development alongside ongoing efforts to advance the ICCA Bill.

For Indigenous Peoples, ICCAs are not just conservation areas. They are living territories cared for and safeguarded through customary laws, traditional knowledge, and Indigenous governance.

Recognition of ICCAs means recognizing the communities who have long protected biodiversity through their ways of life, leadership, and relationship with their ancestral domains.

Ang ICCAs ay buhay na teritoryo, buhay na pamamahala.

This , we listen to the who are already protecting the forests that give life. 🌿For Mamilmar “Mhar” Dubria Jr., a Pel...
05/06/2026

This , we listen to the who are already protecting the forests that give life. 🌿

For Mamilmar “Mhar” Dubria Jr., a Pelawan/Palaw’an youth leader from Brooke’s Point, Palawan, conservation is more than planting trees. It is also standing with communities when their forests, farms, rivers, ancestral lands, and future are threatened.

From discovering his Indigenous roots, to serving his community, to becoming Chairperson of UGNAYIN PH, and now hosting Bantay Kalikasan on DZIP 864 Radyo Palaweño , Mhar continues to carry one message across gatherings, airwaves, and public spaces: “Para sa mga katutubong kabataan, ang kagubatan ay BUHAY.”
(For Indigenous youth, the forest is LIFE.)

In Brooke’s Point, where communities continue to face mining pressures, the voices of Indigenous youth remind us that conservation also means preventing harm, defending living territories, and making sure future generations inherit forests that are still alive.

Read Mhar’s full story:
https://www.ntfpepphilippines.org/post/mhar-dubria-indigenous-youth-defending-brookes-point

This youth story feature is produced in connection with Nature’s Heartbeat Philippines, supporting locally-led conservation in South Palawan through strengthened Indigenous and community leadership. Mhar’s earlier leadership journey was documented through engagements supported under the Green Livelihoods Alliance – Forests for a Just Future Programme (2021–2025).

Isang makabuluhang hakbang para mas marinig at maisulong ang boses ng mga katutubong kabataan. 🌿Sa pagbisita ng National...
04/06/2026

Isang makabuluhang hakbang para mas marinig at maisulong ang boses ng mga katutubong kabataan. 🌿

Sa pagbisita ng National Youth Commission sa I-YES Camp 2026, naibahagi ng Ugnayin National Indigenous Youth Network Philippines (UGNAYIN PH) ang Diliman Declaration at ang kanilang mga panawagan para sa mas matibay na pagkilala, suporta, at pakikilahok ng Indigenous youth sa mga usaping may kinalaman sa kanilang kultura, kapakanan, kagubatan, at lupaing ninuno.

Bilang katuwang ng , patuloy na sinusuportahan ng NTFP-EP Philippines ang mga katutubong kabataan sa pagdadala ng kanilang mga tinig at adbokasiya mula sa kanilang mga komunidad tungo sa mga pambansang espasyo.

Mabuhay ang katutubong kabataan! ✊🏽🌱

🌿 INTRODUCING: NTFP COMMUNITY STORIES | MAY FEATURE: FOREST HONEY 🐝What can a bottle of wild forest honey tell us about ...
31/05/2026

🌿 INTRODUCING: NTFP COMMUNITY STORIES | MAY FEATURE: FOREST HONEY 🐝

What can a bottle of wild forest honey tell us about a community, a river, and a standing forest?

NTFP-EP Philippines begins a series featuring non-timber forest products (NTFPs) and the Indigenous and local communities whose knowledge, livelihood, and care keep these forest relationships alive.

We begin in Sagpangan, Aborlan, Palawan, with the Samahan ng mga Katutubong Tagbanua sa Sagpangan (SAKTAS) Inc. Through the story of Loreta “Ate Inday” Alsa, we follow wild forest honey from flowering trees and clean rivers, to Tagbanua harvesters who listen for the right time, gather only what can be taken without destroying the hive, and process honey with strengthened hygienic practices.

Rooted in around three decades of community work, SAKTAS shows how a community-based enterprise can be more than livelihood: it can keep Indigenous knowledge in practice, protect bees and biodiversity, and sustain the forest on which honey depends.

“Pag wala na rin ilog, wala na rin talagang bees. Konektado silang lahat.”
— Ate Inday, SAKTAS

Follow the honey trail: from bees, blooms, and water to Indigenous knowledge, responsible hands, and a forest kept alive.

🔗 Read the full story: https://www.ntfpepphilippines.org/post/following-the-honey-trail-saktas-wild-forest-honey-palawan

What do NTFPs mean in the Philippines?NTFPs, or non-timber forest products, are often described as forest resources that...
06/05/2026

What do NTFPs mean in the Philippines?

NTFPs, or non-timber forest products, are often described as forest resources that are not timber, but for many Indigenous Peoples and local communities in the Philippines, they are much more than that.

They are food gathered with seasonal knowledge; fibers woven into baskets, cloth, and everyday tools; resins harvested from living trees with care; honey gathered through forest knowledge and respect for bees; plants used for food, color, shelter, household care, and community enterprise.

NTFPs are deeply interlinked to livelihood, culture, forest governance, biodiversity, and the protection of ancestral lands. They also remind us that forests do not need to be cut down to be valuable.

A standing forest can sustain food, income, identity, memory, and life when communities have the rights, support, and recognition to care for it.

This is why works with and local communities to strengthen NTFP-based livelihoods, protect forests, and keep culture alive for future generations; because in the Philippines, forest stories are also community stories.

This Earth Month, we honor the annual Panlaoy of the communities of MAHITRIGA in Malitbog, Bukidnon, and PAMALIHI in Bal...
23/04/2026

This Earth Month, we honor the annual Panlaoy of the communities of MAHITRIGA in Malitbog, Bukidnon, and PAMALIHI in Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. 🌏🌿

Panlaoy is a cultural activity where community members go to the forest to practice their traditions. Elders and youth walk kilometers across their forest, monitor its health, identify species, plan ways to keep it intact, and perform rituals to honor their ancestors, seek guidance, and give thanks. Along the way, knowledge is passed on through ways of praying, listening, and recognizing what the forest is saying.

This reminds us of something important: forest conservation is not only about protecting trees. It is also about protecting the living systems, values, and relationships that have cared for those forests for generations. NTFP - EP Philippines' own framing recognizes that Indigenous forest monitoring, community-led conservation, and safeguarding culture all belong together.

During the activity, the communities also conducted a Rapid Biodiversity Assessment, with community members themselves identifying species and assessing forest health. It is a strong example of how traditional knowledge and scientific approaches can work hand in hand.

In a time when the Earth is often treated as a resource to be extracted, Panlaoy offers another way: to relate with the forest as kin, teacher, memory, and life-source.

A healthy planet needs more than protection on paper; it also needs peoples, practices, and cultures that keep care alive. 💚

This activity was supported by Forest Foundation Philippines as part of efforts to protect the Kimangkil-Kalanawan-Saumagaya-Pamalihi landscape and its remaining forest.

International Mother Earth Day 🌍 (Philippine Earth Day)ICCAs 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏾 vs Protected Areas 🏛️Both aim to protect nature, bu...
22/04/2026

International Mother Earth Day 🌍 (Philippine Earth Day)
ICCAs 🧑🏽‍🤝‍🧑🏾 vs Protected Areas 🏛️

Both aim to protect nature, but they are not the same.

Same goal, different governance. Governance shapes whose rules apply, whose rights are respected, and whether conservation becomes lasting or harmful.

When a Protected Area overlaps with an ICCA / ancestral territory, the risk is having two decision-making systems on one land, often leading to restrictions, conflict, and the weakening of customary governance.

At NTFP-EP Philippines, we believe conservation must be rights-based: Indigenous and community governance should be recognized, consent (FPIC) must be respected, and solutions must be community-led.

📌 Start here (ICCA 101): https://www.ntfpepphilippines.org/icca
💬 What’s one ICCA/PA misconception you want to help correct?

01/04/2026

Women’s Month ends. Women’s work does not.

Hindi lang babae. Ina. Kaibigan. Lider. Katutubo. Tagapagtaguyod ng komunidad. Tagapagtanggol ng kalikasan.

As Women’s Month comes to a close and Earth Month begins, we carry this truth with us: our recognition of women must not end with the calendar. This longer compilation brings together the voices of six women interviewed during the National Women’s Assembly 2025. Their stories show that women’s leadership is already present in everyday life in care work, in livelihood, in community, in culture, and in defending land and forests.

But they also remind us of something deeper: women need more than celebration. They need representation, accreditation, and meaningful participation in decision-making spaces.

Because to honor the Earth is also to honor the women who help protect it. And to remember women only in March is not enough.

Kababaihan, May SAY Ka: Voices of Women Defenders

30/03/2026

Women need seats at the table. In this reel, Norima Mablon speaks about accreditation, representation, and women’s place in Local Special Bodies and other governance spaces.

Her voice reminds us that women are not only “ina ng tahanan.” They are also leaders, defenders of nature, and community members with clear conviction and purpose.

Kababaihan, May SAY Ka: Voices of Women Defenders

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