The Habitat
Mount Sagyaan is an intact montane rainforest in the mountains near Iligan City on the large island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines.
This sacred rainforest serves as the last home for the Higa-onon Indigenous people and is the basis of their culture and connection with nature. This land contains sacred protected areas, serving as places of worship and burial. The rainforest also provides the Higa-onon with ecosystem services, including harvesting fruits from the rainforest, collecting medicinal plants to cure community illnesses, and income from ecotourism.
Some of the threatened species now protected in Mount Sagyaan include:
- Critically Endangered Philippine Eagle (Pithecophaga jefferyi; local name: Agila)
- Endangered Native Barbodes freshwater fish (Barbodes montanoi; local name: Pait)
- Endangered Giant Golden-crowned Flying Fox (Acerodon jubatus)
- Vulnerable Philippine Warty Pig (Sus philippensis; local name: Baboy Ihalas)
- Vulnerable Philippine Deer (Rusa marianna; local name: Saladong)
- Near Threatened Mindanao Flying Dragon (Draco mindanensis)
- Near Threatened Philippine Tarsier (Carlito syrichta)
The rainforest also boasts sacred medicinal plants that can cure diseases, as well as forest foods that can boost energy for rainforest survival. These include what the Higa-onon call sagay, dalagangan, kasapi, biliya vine, balagon (Calamus rotang), pangi, and other unnamed medicinal plants.
Local Partner NGO
Tribes and Natures Defenders Inc.
Tribes and Natures Defenders is an Indigenous peoples–led nongovernmental organization based in the Philippines that was founded in 2007 to address the challenges faced by Indigenous peoples, wildlife, and the ecosystem.
Status of registration at the national level
Indigenous peoples–led nongovernmental organization in the Philippines
Governance and management structure
The organization is governed solely by tribal members, including elders, leaders, women, and youth.
The organization has a management structure comprising a Board of Directors, Founding Chairman, project managers, finance officers, bookkeepers, and community organizers.
Tribes and Natures Defenders is fiscally sponsored by Far Away Projects, a California-registered 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 82-1917723).
Conservation Plans
Tribes and Natures Defenders has established policies/processes to enable and deliver sustainability; protect traditional ecological wisdom; implement free, prior informed consent; as well as ensure the financial and technical viability of the project. Tribes and Natures Defenders will be the governance and reporting organization, managing and monitoring the project to achieve sustainability and conservation success.
Working with international partners and advisors, new technologies (e.g., satellite/remote management and reporting) for environmental protection will be incorporated and achieved through training, workshops, and technical capacity-building with the tribal community, including youth, women, and other groups to ensure the protection in perpetuity of the purchased land.
