Third Transformative Pathways In-Person Meeting

This article was originally published by the Forest Peoples Programme team on the Transformative Pathways website.

In February 2025, the thirteen partners of the Transformative Pathways consortium gathered in the Philippines for the project’s third in-person annual meeting, hosted by Partners for Indigenous Knowledge Philippines (PIKP). 

The gathering took place in the Cordillera region, the heart of Northern Philippines, starting in the municipality of Sagada, Mountain Province, and continuing in Baguio City. The event brought together more than 50 participants, including representatives from all country partners – Kenya, Thailand, Peru, Malaysia and the Philippines, joined by local partners of PIKP and indigenous community members.

The central themes of this year’s meeting were communications and indigenous knowledge transmission, both of which were explored through inspiring presentations, exchanges, and community visits.

A ceremonial welcome

The meeting opened in Sagada with a traditional ceremony led by Ama Tigan-o, an elder from the Kankanaey Indigenous community. The elder began by inviting participants to honour their connection with nature and each other, emphasising the importance of maintaining harmony in all our relationships. To mark the occasion, a ritual of rice and wine sharing symbolised unity among the participants and presented a good omen for the remainder of the meeting.

“All our relationships – with the environment, with our ancestors, with our culture and beliefs and with the Unseen, create our values. If you are detached from all these elements, you are tempted to be corrupted and exploited. This is why we need to maintain all these relationships in order to maintain our harmonious relationship with nature.” – Ama Tigan-o, Kankanaey community elder’s opening speech

Over the next two days, each project partner presented the activities they had carried out within the project in the previous year, showcasing how their work had strengthened biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and the plans they have for 2025.

“This year, AIPP will be focusing on indigenous women. There will be a lot of knowledge sharing and video documentation focusing on the leadership of indigenous women in biodiversity conservation.” – shared Lakpa Nuri Sherpa from AIPP

 

“Through the Transformative Pathways we are going to develop educational materials on indigenous knowledge and in relation to community-led conservation.” – said Fred Kibelio from CIPDP

While in Sagada, attendees had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the region’s rich indigenous culture and traditions. They visited several dap-ays—sacred venues where the council of elders meets to discuss indigenous laws, settle disputes and make decisions that affect the entire community. The dap-ay remains a vital part of the indigenous community’s traditional governance system, functioning as both the legislative and judicial body for the Igorot people. Within the circular structure of the dap-ay, elders hold community meetings, rituals and ceremonies, and share their knowledge with the youth.

Visit of Payew Community and Learning Site

On the second day, the annual meeting participants visited the Municipal Government of Besao where the Payew farming learning site is located.

This learning site serves as a place where indigenous rice farming can be practiced as it was traditionally done by the Payew people, before practices changed to modern agricultural methods, such as monocropping and using synthetic fertilizers and chemical pesticides.

“In the past, many people were staying in the village. We did our farming by growing the plants using natural fertilisers. Our rice was abundant. We could fill up our rice granaries with our harvest. But nowadays, we are getting old, and no one is taking over. The younger generation who are farming use pesticides and other chemicals. The harvest is not as good as before.” – Pancy Pangcog, Payew female elder

In Besao, PIKP works alongside the Payew Indigenous Farmers Organization (PIFO) to revitalise traditional food systems, with hopes for the community to attain self-sufficiency in food and to address the biodiversity loss resulting from the modern high-input monocrop agriculture.

“We are establishing learning sites to show that indigenous farming systems are viable. The role of the Transformative Pathways project is to revitalise these endangered practices, so that farming can be again sustainable.

Nowadays, our objective is to revitalise, innovate and introduce nature-friendly technology to make agriculture a viable source of food and income for the community.” – Matthew Tauli, learning site trainer, PIFO

“Through the Transformative Pathways project, we work with the government in relation to ancestral domain management and protection. We have also asked the government to provide composting machines and shredders to the community. The community is also introducing bio-farming innovations, such as fertilisers made from the plants around here or the living things in the field.” – Annie Tauli, PIFO

During an exchange with the Payew community, participants from partner countries also shared similar experiences on food security, emphasizing both the challenges they face as indigenous peoples and their ongoing efforts to restore and innovate traditional agricultural practices. The exchange underscored how different indigenous communities across the world are confronting similar challenges, from the depletion of natural resources to the erosion of traditional agricultural knowledge and practices.

“We learn from our ancestors that the sun taught us how to hunt, the birds taught us how to gather or collect food, and the water taught us how to heal. […] In Peru, we hunt animals in the forest and we practice fishing in the water basins. Nowadays, we notice that we are only consuming and we are losing the productive aspect of our lives. 

For example, we have large rice fields but we are not taking advantage of them and we are still bringing rice from outside, instead of producing it ourselves. So we need to focus on production, not only consumption.” – Neil Encinas, GTANW, Peru

“In Sabah, the situation is similar – we have huge ricefields and it is unfortunate they have been left behind. Some inherited [community] land is sold, so in the end, communities don’t have anything, and their land becomes commercial areas. Communities are also very vulnerable in terms of food security, because they don’t have enough rice so they have to import from Vietnam and Thailand. But with our community organisation – PACOS Trust, we try our best to have even small plots of land for rice and it is a success.” – Gordon John Thomas, PACOS, Malaysia

These shared experiences underscore the crucial need for continued collaboration between indigenous communities, local and country governments, and conservation actors to create transformative pathways toward food security and sovereignty, while reclaiming indigenous knowledge and practices.

The role of youth and children in indigenous knowledge transmission

Later in the week, participants took part in a panel discussion focused on the critical role of youth and children in preserving and revitalizing indigenous knowledge. This session was a key highlight of the Annual Meeting, linked to one of its two central themes.

The panel featured an intergenerational group of speakers, including youth representatives from the Philippines, Kenya, and Thailand, as well as an Ibaloy elder from the Philippines, Manang Vicky Macay. Together, they discussed how children and youth can strengthen the vitality of indigenous knowledge, and explored how the Transformative Pathways project can support this ongoing effort.

“The youth are the inheritors of the knowledge. They have to keep the indigenous knowledge system alive for the community to keep going. The role of the elders is to transmit to the youth. The youth must listen to the elders and their knowledge, and the elders must trust the youth in keeping the knowledge.” – Jason Verzola, PIKP

Encouraging youth leadership, building trust between youth and elders and maximising the use of technology in the process of knowledge transmission were themes brought up by various of the panel speakers.

Milka Chepkazi from CIPDP shared a compelling example from her community, where technology played a key role in engaging the youth. In the Ogiek community of Mount Elgon in Kenya, they use the Mapeo app for biodiversity mapping and monitoring activities—an app that can only be accessed on smartphones—which proved highly effective in drawing young people into biodiversity conservation efforts, as most of them are eager to engage when technology is involved.

It’s important that knowledge transmission is integrated with technology so the uptake among youth can be higher. – Milka Chepkazi, CIPDP

We encourage the youth to take up leadership spaces. When they lead the process, they own it and then it is easier to cultivate the learning. – Edna Kiplagat, IIN

For us it’s essential to allocate space for the learning between the youth, the elders and other members of the communities. New ideas and knowledge emerge when they gather together. – Sunaree Phuengphalerd, PASD

The panel also touched upon some of the barriers indigenous youth face in the process of knowledge transmission, including challenges in inheriting their traditional languages and communicating with elders, and mental health struggles arising from day-to-day pressures youth may encounter.

The panel concluded with a touching speech by Manang Vicky Macay, an indigenous elder and educator, who shared her story about the importance of traditional gardening.

Now 71 years old, Manang Vicky recalled how, as a child, she would go to the garden before school. While many indigenous children today seek formal education, they often overlook traditional practices like gardening, which is central to Ibaloy culture. Manang Vicky expressed joy in seeing younger generations, including her six-year-old grandson, take an interest in planting. Through initiatives like the Ibaloy Heritage Garden, Manang Vicky and her community teach children the importance of caring for the earth, passing down vital indigenous knowledge for future generations.

The Communications expo and solidarity night

Another key highlight of the Annual Meeting was the Communications expo where each project partner showcased their communications work and materials developed over the span of the project. The expo provided a platform for sharing the wealth of creative and educational resources produced by global and in-country partners, centered around the theme of indigenous knowledge and other themes that the Transformative Pathways project addresses.

In this dynamic exchange, a rich diversity of materials was presented, including books, photographs, films, cultural artifacts, and publications that reflect the depth and breadth of the project.

Some of PIKP’s local partners were invited to join the expo, contributing with a variety of items carrying significance for the indigenous peoples in the Philippines, including local produce, fabrics, arts and crafts, and other unique cultural materials.

Through the sharing of these resources, the expo not only highlighted the rich and ongoing contributions of indigenous peoples to biodiversity conservation and cultural preservation but also demonstrated the value of mutual collaboration and learning from each other.

The event also allowed participants to explore the different ways in which these materials have been used to engage both indigenous and non-indigenous audiences, promoting traditional knowledge and land rights, amongst other important issues.