Cultivating resilience: Participatory research and climate justice in Upper Pulangi, Philippines

Rowena Soriaga and Pedro Walpole SJ

Through the lens of climate justice, a community-based research initiative in 2024 assessed the food and water vulnerability of smallholder farmers in the Upper Pulangi Watershed in Bukidnon, Philippines that provided critical insights into the local food systems of a community deeply connected to, yet vulnerable within, their environment.

Environmental Science for Social Change (ESSC) and the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC), with technical inputs from Santa Clara University (SCU) and operational guidance from the Nabantaw Bendum Peoples’ Organization (NBPO) in Sitio Bendum, Barangay Busdi in Malaybalay, Bukidnon, undertook the Food and Water Security Survey 2024 as part of the practical research project and work experience of APC senior high school (SHS) students.

Climate change disrupting life and land rhythm

In the uplands of Mindanao, the rhythm of life is deeply intertwined with the land and the weather. As climate change intensifies, increasing unpredictable climate patterns, such as the El Niño conditions that threatened the region in 2023 and early 2024, disrupt this rhythm. For smallholder farmers who rely on rainfed agriculture, these shifts are matters of daily survival and food security, not just environmental statistics. Government interventions are unreliable as these often focus on lowland rice farmers and upland communities are frequently left to navigate these crises with limited external support.

Research design rooted in community and Indigenous knowledge

The core of the research initiative is a methodology built on Community-Based Participatory Action Research, ensuring that the research is not something “done to” the community, but rather “conducted with” them, recognizing the value of indigenous knowledge and local perspectives.

A key feature of the design is the role of nine SHS students who were trained as survey enumerators, transforming their academic requirements of their subject on practical research and work immersion into meaningful community service. The young researchers translated the survey tools into the local language, ensuring that the questions resonated with the cultural context of Sitio Bendum.

The survey tool is a synthesis of decades of research experience that drew from ESSC’s prior socio-economic surveys (1996 and 2018) and SCU’s food and water security survey tools applied in Nicaragua. By involving the NBPO’s Pulangiyēn ancestral domain management team, the project respected traditional governance structures, ensuring the research is aligned with the community’s long-term vision for their land.

The research approach makes the learning both contextual for the students and an interactive experience with the daily community, while broadening the process of change by helping the youth understand they can participate in making their future.

Insights from Bendum: A snapshot of local food systems

The 2024 Food and Water survey in Sitio Bendum, Barangay Busdi, involved 82 out of 116 households, with the results confirming the inseparability of water and food security in Bendum. Some of the findings are:

• Demographic profile: The median age of respondents was 39, with a significant 66% being female.
• Livelihood profile: Most respondents are small-scale upland farmers, managing plots of less than one hectare, highlighting the reliance on subsistence farming and the critical need for resilient agricultural practices.
• Vulnerability narratives: Stories of extended hunger periods following recent harvests emerged, underscoring the precarious nature of rainfed agriculture in the face of climate variability.

As the community faces dry spells and droughts, their ability to produce food is directly compromised and makes the quest for agroecology practices that enhance biodiversity and soil health more urgent than ever.

Strengthening the path to climate justice

The survey results are a call to action and by documenting the specific vulnerabilities of upland communities, ESSC and its partners aim to advocate for more inclusive climate adaptation policies. Climate justice demands that those who contribute the least to global emissions but suffer the most from its impacts are given the tools and resources to build resilience.

Moving forward, the project seeks to share these findings across various platforms, from local community feedback sessions to international forums. For World Indigenous Peoples Day (WIPD) 2025, relevant findings from this research were shared during the Asian Sacred Wisdom webinar on 8 August 2025 that focused on Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Self-Determination: A Pathway for Food Security and Sovereignty. There is also a strong emphasis on exploring future collaborations, such as comparative analyses between upland and coastal communities to understand the diverse faces of vulnerability.

Ultimately, this participatory research affirms that the solutions to food insecurity in the uplands lie in the intersection of scientific rigor and indigenous knowledge. By empowering the youth of APC to lead the inquiry, the community is not just preparing for the next El Niño but also cultivating a future where their food systems are resilient, their water is secure, and their voices are heard.

Photo above: APC senior high school students for SY 2023-2024 conducted the Food and Water Security Survey in February 2024 with guidance from ESSC Programs Director Rowena Soriaga as a year-long project that helped them apply lessons in four subjects: Practical Research 1, Practical Research 2, Inquiries and Investigation, and Work Immersion.