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. They had to abandon their lowland settlements and retreat to the less fertile hills.

In 1969, the Philippines government tried to resettle the Batak and turn them into permanent farmers. They failed, but great damage was done.

In the 1970s demand for forest products grew and the Batak became increasingly involved in the cash economy. However, many found themselves trapped by debt.

Logging companies invaded the most remote areas of Batak territory in the 1980s, felling vast swathes of kauri trees. The tribe 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 they relied.

In 1997, the Philippine government passed an ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act’ to protect their land and way of life.

However, lack of political will and the difficult requirements of the Act mean that very little of it is put into practice.

Read more about the background to the challenges facing the Batak’s way of life in the article Cycles of Politics and Cycles of Nature: Permanent Crisis in the Uplands of Palawan</em by Dario Novellino.