The Batak are ‘negrito’ peoples who live on Palawan island in the Philippines. They are shifting cultivators who also hunt, gather and fish. Their way of life has been threatened by conservation schemes which seek to ban shifting cultivation and other subsistence practices. Survival’s campaign helped to partially lift this ban but they still face food shortages.
The Batak live on an island in the western Philippines, where they live from a rich and varied combination of cultivation, hunting, gathering and fishing. There are now around 300 Batak (down from 600-700 in 1900); land seizures and exposure to diseases continue to threaten their survival.
The Batak live in the forests of northern Palawan island, where for generations they have successfully combined hunting, fishing, and gathering of forest products with shifting agriculture.
Rice, root crops and vegetables are grown, and at the peak of the dry season (in March) the gardens are burned to the ground. After the Batak have cultivated a field, they leave it fallow for several years. New gardens are planted in April, when the rain arrives. An intimate knowledge of rice allows them to recognise and name at least 70 different varieties.
Women fish with a hook and line, whilst the whole community works together to catch fish by stunning them with a plant-based poison. The most highly prized game is the wild pig, which the Batak hunt using spears and dogs. They also collect leaves, fruit, tubers and palm hearts for food, as well as resin, rattan canes and wild honey to sell.
Not to be confused with the Indonesian Batak of northern Sumatra (who number around 6 million and are made up of many different cultural and ethnic groups), the Batak of the Philippines are a Negrito people. They are believed, like the other Negritos, to have originated from the first wave of human populations who crossed the land bridges connecting the Philippine archipelago with mainland Asia, some 50,000 years ago.
Today, the Batak are threatened by conservation schemes such as a government ban on shifting cultivation and the declaration of ‘protected areas’ within their ancestral lands. Chronic undernourishment has made them more vulnerable to diseases such as malaria, measles and tuberculosis. They also suffer from high infant mortality and low fertility rates The low Batak population means young people often have to marry outside the tribe.
The Batak’s problems are not new. After the first road was built through Batak land in 1956, huge numbers of settlers came to the region. The Batak had to abandon their lowland settlements and retreat to the less fertile hills.
In 1969, the Philippine government tried to resettle the Batak and turn them into permanent farmers. They failed, but the damage was done. In the 1970s, as demand for forest products grew, the Batak became increasingly involved in the cash economy. Many found themselves trapped in debt bondage.
Logging companies invaded the most remote areas of Batak territory in the 1980s, felling vast swathes of kauri trees. The Batak had depended on these trees for the gathering of resin to sell, which became even more important after the government banned the system of shifting cultivation upon which the Batak relied.
In 1997, the Philippine government passed an ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act’ which should make it easier for them to protect their land and their way of life. However, lack of political will and the cumbersome requirements of the Act mean that very little of it is implemented.
When the local government banned the Batak’s system of shifting cultivation in 1994, the Batak’s rice yields fell dramatically and the tribe was on the brink of devastation. They had little choice but to collect and sell more forest products, but this meant an overall depletion of vital resources.
Survival launched a campaign, which resulted in a partial lifting of the ban. The authorities admitted that the Batak had been ‘adversely affected by the policy’.
Survival is lobbying for the recognition of the Batak’s rights to live on and use their own lands according to their own wishes.
Donate to the Batak campaign (and other Survival campaigns).
Write to the President of the Philippines expressing your concern
Write a letter to your MP or MEP (UK).
Write to the President, your senators, congressmen or other elected officials (US).
Write to your local Paraguayan embassy (you can find their address through embassiesabroad.com)
