Best practices of the Pulangiyēn community in Bendum

Presentation by Jason Menaling at the Asian Sacred Wisdom webinar on World Indigenous Peoples Day (WIPD) 2025, 8 August 2025

Good evening to everyone. I’m grateful for this opportunity to share from the perspective of the Pulangiyēn community in Bendum, which is part of the upper Pulangi area in Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines,

The theme of this year’s celebration speaks very deeply to us – Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination: A Pathway for Food Security and Sovereignty. For us in Bendum, food sovereignty is not just about farming or what we eat. It is rooted in the land, our ancestral domain, and in our way of life as Indigenous Peoples.

Before I talk about specific practices, let me give a bit of context. We have an Ancestral Domain Sustainable Development and Protection Plan, or ADSDPP, which is a community-guided framework that helps us care for our land, our forest, and our water systems. It’s a way of ensuring that development is rooted in our cultural values, and that decisions about land use and resources are made by the community, for the community.

This responsibility was passed down to us from our elders, as they managed the natural resources knowing that all life depends on what God has provided such as water, forests, and land. These are gifts that require great care so future generations can still benefit from them.

Through these plans, we as youth are challenged to continue advocating for proper environmental management, by ensuring balance in the way we use natural resources so that everyone can benefit.

We believe our ancestral domain is a gift from God. Before the school was built, this land was already a place of learning for our ancestors, a market, and even a source of traditional medicine.

That’s why I believe traditional practices are very important to study, because our elders hold natural wisdom about sustainable ways of living that do not harm others or worsen global problems like climate change.

We also operate a culturally-rooted school at the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC) which provides education in the mother tongue and helps us connect what we learn in school to our culture, the forest, and the challenges we face in the community. The school is part of how we exercise our right to self-determination because it gives us the space to teach and learn in ways that reflect who we are.

To deepen our understanding of this relationship with nature, we have also started integrating natural resource management into our school curriculum so we can learn more about nature-based livelihoods.

Let me talk about some best practices that support our food security and sovereignty.

First, many families in our community still grow their own food. That may sound simple, but it is a powerful practice. In a time when many communities have shifted entirely to commercial crops, a good number of households in Bendum still maintain their own food gardens or fields, planting corn, root crops, vegetables, and fruit trees for daily consumption. This is often done with some fertilizer and basic tools, but the knowledge is traditional, passed on from elders and family members.

This self-reliance in food is an act of sovereignty. We are not fully dependent on markets. We eat what we grow. We decide what we plant. And we can also share when someone in the community is in need.

It’s also worth noting that while some farmers have shifted to planting commercial corn for animal feed, there is still a strong portion of the community who plant their own food. This is something we hope to strengthen. And it’s important to ask: how many are still growing food for their families, and how can that number grow?

A major challenge is that food security is threatened by the focus on commercial crops, which often drives economic activity but has led to the loss of traditional farming methods and community cooperation. Many small farmers have gone into debt through financing schemes for commercial corn. The real gain goes to corporate growers while indigenous communities suffer, sometimes even losing their land when they can’t repay loans.

Second, we have a strong practice of forest regeneration, which is closely linked to our water and food security. Our forests are not just a background to our lives – they are a source of life. They protect our watershed, regulate the climate, and provide wild food and medicine.

In Bendum, we’ve been working on regenerating our forests by planting what we call pillar species and filler species – native trees that help shape and strengthen the forest structure. This effort isn’t just about planting trees, but about restoring balance in the ecosystem. And what’s key here is that the community leads and sustains this effort, not outside organizations.

Because of this commitment, we’ve been able to establish and maintain a community water system in Bendum. The water we drink, use in our homes, and provide for the school, comes from a clean spring in the forested area. The forest protects the water source and in turn, the water system supports the daily needs of the community. It’s a clear example of how environmental stewardship connects directly to well-being.

The water system is managed locally, with the understanding that this is a shared resource. It’s part of our ancestral responsibility and our exercise of guardianship over the land not just for our generation, but for those to come.

Third, we’ve developed a small eco-agri area that brings together different farming practices in an integrated way. This area is not large, but it’s very important. It’s a demonstration site where we plant a mix of food crops, forest species, and herbal plants. We use it to teach the youth, to experiment with what works best in our soil and climate, and to show that farming can be both productive and sustainable.

All of these practices – growing our own food, regenerating our forest, protecting our water, and educating our youth – are not separate efforts. They are all part of one system that reflects our values as a people. And they are all made possible because we claim and live out our right to self-determination.

Based on our understanding of being self-reliant, this is essential to align with our way of life. In 2012, Typhoon Pablo caused massive destruction of agricultural crops and many people suffered hunger because of crop failure. But in Bendum, I saw resilience because we didn’t rely on one crop. Instead of monocropping, we used intercropping – planting camote, cassava, taro, and other crops that can survive disasters.

When we talk about sovereignty, we often think about laws or political systems. But for Indigenous Peoples, sovereignty is also about being able to live according to our values, to make decisions based on what is good for our people and our land, and to pass on this knowledge to the next generation.

So in Bendum, our food security and sovereignty are not just about what we eat. It’s about our food, our water, our forest, and our education. These are not separate things – they are connected. And we care for them not just as resources, but as part of our identity and our future.

Thank you, and I hope that in sharing these practices, others can also reflect on the importance of strengthening community-led pathways toward food sovereignty and environmental integrity.