INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AS CUSTODIANS IN NATURAL FOREST RESOURCE MANAGEMENT An Evaluation of Dumagat/Remontado Tribe as Potential Forest Resource Managers in Upper Marikina River Basin Protected Landscape

Indigenous people have a broad knowledge of living sustainably and they have developed strong ties to their lands as a result of living there for generations. They are the original inhabitants of the forest and for them forest is not only the source of their economic subsistence but part and parcel of their cultural distinctiveness as well. To them it has aesthetic and spiritual values and their definition of homeland includes all the existing elements in it, mountains, rivers, trees animals and plants. A sustainable conservation of the forest and all its components is necessary to maintain their existence as viable communities.Indigenous people however, seems to be invisible in decision making to mainstream planners and policy makers moreover the pressure of modern living and technological advances that dominates our everyday lives has made most of the young generations to lose their interest in their ancestral lands and life in it, many are moving to urbanized areas searching for better life and losing their indigenous knowledge, identity and culture.This research stresses the important role of indigenous people in sustainably managing and conserving their forest lands. It considers the complex relationship of indigenous people to their lands and this relationship is studied together with forest resources management, landscape resource management, cultural resource management and human resource management.

Keywords:

Indigenous people , Forest , Knowledge , Sustainability