Isla Biodiversity Conservation, Inc.

A conservation action plan was developed by stakeholders on Calayan Island in May after a series of consultation activities covering 8 sitios and barangays on the island. The action plan includes activities that contribute to major goals such as: controlling kaingin farming, providing livelihood assistance, intensifying information and education campaigns, establishing a protected area or sanctuary and strengthening enforcement of environmental laws.

Community consultations were held from May 11-28 in each of the following barangays and sitios: Cabudadan, Centro-2, Dilam, Dibay(Pilid), Longog, Magsidel, Kaniwalan and Dadao. Attendance in the consultations varied from a low of 21 participants to a high of 45 participants that usually included barangay officials, representatives from farmers’ organizations, women’s organizations, health workers, and community members that are dependent on forest resources such as kaingin farmers and chainsaw operators. All in all 244 community members participated in the consultations. Representatives from the DENR and the LGU were present in three of the eight consultation workshops. In addition, eight ISLA volunteers helped facilitate the consultations.

In these workshops, the Calayan Rail project team introduced ISLA and its mission, and the Calayan Rail project and its goals. They gathered: (a) the community’s idea of nature; (b) the changes that they have observed in nature during their lifetime; and (c) actions that they propose to conserve their natural environment. They shared an overview of the results of our study on the abundance and distribution of the Calayan Rail. Atotal of 169 t-shirts bearing the Calayan Rail Project logo were given out to participants as tokens of appreciation.

On May 30, a consolidation and action-planning workshop was held at the Calayan Multi-Purpose Hall. Twenty-four participants from the different barangays and the following departments/sectors: the Municipal Environment and Natural Resource Office, the Municipal Agriculture Office, the Municipal Planning and Development Coordinator’s Office, the Sangguniang Bayan, the Philippine National Police and ISLA were present in this culminating activity of the consultations. In this activity, results from the eight barangay-level consultations were presented and the action points from the consultations in the different barangays and the 4-P workshop conducted in October were consolidated into a master conservation action plan. Copies of the master conservation action plan were distributed to some of the participants at the end of the workshop and to others within two days after the workshop.