Some 80 Indigenous People (IP) leaders from Mindanao gathered for a two-day conference at the Island Garden City of Samal.
The gathering, dubbed as Mindanao Conference of Indigenous Cultural Communities Socio-Economic Development Innovation and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Strategy bannered the theme: “Fighting Climate Change and Ensuring Socio-Economic Development.”
It was held at the Camp Holiday Resort from March 8 to 9.
The conference carried an objective of allowing IP leaders in Mindanao to take part in discussing sustainable socio-economic development within their ancestral domains.
The leaders were also given inputs on understanding climate change and its effects to IP communities and the various mitigation strategies that they can implement in their respective communities.
Discussions were also focused on the status of ancestral domains in Mindanao, the mandate of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples on IP communities, economic development and climate change mitigation and adaptation.
The IP leaders were also given an input on the status of the Enhanced National Greening Program of the government; the Integrated Micro Solid Waste Resource Recovery, Conversion and Optimization: As Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation Strategy; the Challenges of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation and Bamboo Roadmap and Its Effect on Climate Change Mitigation/Adaptation and Eco-Development.
IPCP National President Datu Amarillo Marcelo Alejo Jr. said the conference also provided time for the participants to discuss specific and technical concerns other than those regarding climate change adaptation and mitigation.
The conference also set time for workshop sessions on the role of IPs in the implementation of development programs of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (PIA 11/ Jeanevive Duron Abangan)
