Promoting peace and climate resilience in a post-conflict region of the Philippines

In the post-conflict Mindanao region, Philippine authorities are working to reintegrate into society thosee communities living in former rebel strongholds. The CGIAR Research Initiative on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR), in collaboration with Mindanao State University has conducted research, launched a community of practice, and put forward recommendations to ensure that new livelihood programs also foster peace and climate resilience. 

People living in the Mindanao Island group in the Southern Philippines are under constant threat from climate hazards such as typhoons, floods, landslides, and droughts. At the same time, they are also grappling with inter-clan feuds, community violence, and illegal economies, all of which are lingering effects of a decade-long armed conflict.  

Life is particularly challenging for people living in former rebel strongholds where the Moro Islamic Liberation Front ran operational bases until a formal peace agreement was signed in 2014. In these areas, which continue to house large numbers of former combatants, residents are now facing both the impacts of climate change and post-conflict tensions. 

To support these communities to take up farming and other sustainable livelihoods, Philippine authorities have set up a committee for localized normalization implementation (LNI). The committee is tasked with developing initiatives to reintegrate into society those communities living in the six areas of the Mindanao region that are officially labeled as former rebel strongholds.  

“The fact that we are the only academic institution that is part of the committee for LNI is thanks to our collaboration with ClimBeR and our joint research outputs,” said Mark Anthony Torres, acting director, Institute for Peace and Development in Mindanao at the Mindanao State University’s Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT). “We’ve always been very vocal about this impact because we needed a credible voice and that’s what this collaboration gave us. This is one of the reasons why we were even put in the position to contribute to the localization of normalization implementation.” 

Through this collaboration with MSU-IIT, researchers from ClimBeR have launched the first community of practice on climate security and environmental peacebuilding in the Mindanao region. In addition, this partnership enabled MSU-IIT to influence regional and national conversations, and landed the institution a seat on the influential LNI committee. As a result, Torres and colleagues have been able to inform its decisions to foster greater peace and climate resilience in local communities. 

Creating a community of practice  

“The war had a really big impact on our livelihoods. We cannot do our farming as we did before. We don’t have freedom. [] Not only our livelihoods, but also our social lives. Our shelters and houses burned, and we don’t have the capacity to rebuild them because we cannot do our livelihoods as before,” testified an elderly farmer in Butig, a former rebel stronghold. 

This farmer spoke to ClimBeR and MSU-IIT researchers during fieldwork that collected communities’ views on how climate change impacts are linked to risks of insecurity. Community members highlighted, for example, that poor management of increasingly scarce resources increases the risk of conflict and violence. On a more positive note, however, communities also had ideas on how to boost their climate resilience and strengthen social cohesion – through conflict-sensitive climate-smart agriculture and conflict-sensitive fisheries management, for example. 

To reflect on the communities’ proposed solutions, ClimBeR went on to organize a workshop that gathered 24 experts, representing humanitarian, development, and academic institutions. Through their discussions, participants zeroed in on how improved management of natural resources could help build peace—an approach known as environmental peacebuilding.  

They identified ten potential entry points to environmental peacebuilding—such as enabling previously feuding groups to collectively harvest crops from conflict zones—that ClimBeR and MSU-IIT detailed and published in a joint whitepaper. 

At this event, ClimBeR researchers also laid the foundation for the community of practice on climate security and environmental peacebuilding. It is now led by ECOWEB—a non-profit organization working in Mindanao to address poverty, conflict, environmental degradation, climate change impacts, and poor governance—and by three Mindanao universities: MSU-IIT, Caraga State University, and Agusan del Sur State University College of Agriculture and Technology. 

“It is the first time we see these universities working on this topic that is very complex. Before, each of these universities did their own research on peacebuilding and then separately on climate change,” explained Torres. “Now, we have realized the importance of tackling the nexus between climate change, environment, and conflict, and we have benefitted from the co-learning space that was established by ClimBeR.” 

At MSU-IIT, researchers have adopted tools and approaches introduced by ClimBeR—such as analyzing climate change impacts through a gender lens—and have included environmental peacebuilding in the institute’s curriculum, added Torres. Finally, he said, the credibility rendered through joint research efforts with ClimBeR has sparked interest from national actors, including the University of the Philippines, which has resulted in MSU-IIT being invited into national conversations on the climate change, environment, and conflict nexus. 

Informing interventions for climate resilience and peace 

MSU-IIT’s contributions to the research on environmental peacebuilding and the community of practice has also led to other outcomes; the institute was also invited to become a member of the committee for LNI. Given this influential position, MSU-IIT draws on insights and recommendations from ClimBeR’s research to inform the committee’s work: 

“As a member of the committee for LNI, we provide the science when the committee considers proposals for interventions related to livelihoods. So, what usually happens is that we influence the decision-making with regards to how we can repackage some of these livelihood programs so that they are mindful of the effects of climate change and its connection with conflict,” said Torres. 

For example, when authorities redirected mediation discussions to focus on reestablishing trade of agricultural raw materials and products, communities that were previously feuding over natural resources such as land were now able to find common ground. 

“Previously it was really difficult for them to just discuss the land dispute face to face,” explained Torres. “But, by focusing on fostering economic co-dependency, it is possible that communities are able to thrive and live harmoniously.” 

What’s more, when in early 2024 Philippine authorities approached MSU-IIT researchers, requesting their input on how to both foster agricultural livelihoods and peace in the former rebel strongholds in Mindanao, Torres and his colleagues turned to ClimBeR to develop a joint proposal. 

“We used the insights from the affected communities to develop a joint proposal for an environmental peacebuilding program, drawing heavily on CGIAR’s past experiences with climate-smart villages,” said Adam Savelli, climate, peace, and security specialist at ClimBeR. “The basic premise is that by finding ways for communities to manage natural resources together in climate-smart ways, we can create new livelihood opportunities, while lowering the risk of conflict and increasing the chances of durable peace.”  

The proposal, which is currently under review, outlines a five-year program that would require a 100 million Philippine peso (approximately USD 1,700,000) investment and could benefit up to 60,000 people.

Author: Marianne Gadeberg, Independent Communications Consultant

This work is carried out with support from the CGIAR Initiatives on Climate Resilience (ClimBeR). We would like to thank all funders who supported this research through their contributions to the CGIAR Trust Fund:https://www.cgiar.org/funders/