LAG holds its 2nd meeting

The BRP Local Advisory Group (LAG) held its second meeting on 24 March 2004 at the Protected Area Office (PAO), Oroquieta City. Mr. Iver T. Alabanzas, BRP Site Coordinator, presented the biodiversity conservation framework to update the LAG members of on-going BRP activities.

The primary concern of the LAG was the rate at which the research results are disseminated to the participating communities and other stakeholders. The LAG members worry that the time it takes to translate research results into tangible actions for biodiversity conservation might be too long resulting to the loss of interest of local community members to pursue further conservation efforts.

Accordingly, local communities immediately look for concrete results in any undertaking on how they can directly benefit from it. Thus, to sustain their interest and support, a mechanism to inform the local communities of the status and significance of on-going activities should be developed.

Hon. Mequiades D. Azcuna, Jr., Municipal Mayor of Lopez Jaena and Chair of the LAG, stressed that BRP activities must be responsive to the needs of the local communities.

Mr. Alabanzas explained that since BRP is a research undertaking, it has to follow "scientific protocol" which requires review and validation of research results before it is published and/or disseminated.

Mr. Andy O. Pestaño, Director of CARE-AWESOME then posed a question, "Should we wait for the results to be published before we act upon the recommendations? Mt. Malindang would be gone by then!"

On the other hand, Protected Area Superintendent Rolando S. Dingal reiterated his request for BRP researchers to inform the PAO and the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) of any activities to be undertaken within the scope of the protected area prior to its actual implementation, suggesting that this should be part of the research protocol. Researchers should also take the initiative to pay courtesy calls with the municipal/barangay officials before proceeding to the research sites.

On the issue of obtaining the Free and Prior Informed Consent (FPIC) certificate, Matadong Arsenio Samson, Jr., the National Commission on Indigenous People (NCIP) representative said that the long process cannot be avoided. It was therefore suggested that NCIP should assist BRP on this matter.

back