Co-opting conservation: Migrant resource control and access to national park management in the Philippine uplands

The history of political and economic inequality in forest villages can shape how and why resource use conflicts arise during the evolution of national parks management. In the Philippine uplands, indigenous peoples and migrant settlers co-exist, compete over land and forest resources, and shape how managers preserve forests through national parks. This article examines how migrants have claimed lands and changed production and exchange relations among the indigenous Tagbanua to build on and benefit from otherwise coercive park management on Palawan Island, the Philippines. Migrant control over productive resources has influenced who, within each group, could sustain agriculture in the face of the state's dominant conservation narrative - valorizing migrant paddy rice and criminalizing Tagbanua swiddens. Upon settling, migrant farmers used new political and economic strengths to tap into provincial political networks in order to be hired at a national park. As a result, they were able to steer management to support paddy rice at the expense of swidden cultivation. While state conservation policy shapes how national parks impact upon local resource access and use, older political economic inequalities in forest villages build on such policies to influence how management affects the livelihoods of poor households.

Entry elevation, Stradbroke Island House, Stradbroke Island

As seen from adjacent shed spaces, looking towards house and water beyond.

Holiday house, Judge House, Camp Island

View from ocean to holiday house pavilions.

Holiday houses, Judge House, Camp Island

As seen from hill behind.

Covered walkway, Judge House, Camp Island

View past bedroom pavilions, through the covered walkway to living room pavilion.

Judge House, Camp Island

Caretakers house in foreground, holiday house and ocean beyond.

Covered walkway, Judge House, Camp Island

View down covered walkway with kitchen pavilion on the left and the living room pavilion on the right.

Judge House, Camp Island

Caretakers house in foreground, holiday house and ocean beyond.

Owner's residence and guest house, Judge House, Camp Island

View over owner's residence to holiday house pavilions and ocean beyond.

Manson House, Macleay Island, Moreton Island

View of north-west elevation from exterior.

Manson House, Macleay Island, Moreton Island

View of north-east elevation from exterior.

Manson House, Macleay Island, Moreton Island

View of north-east elevation from exterior.