About BRP

BRP was a partnership between Philippine and Dutch academic, research, government and non-government agencies, which were committed to “undertake and promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research that will enable sustainable use of biological resources, and effective decision-making on biodiversity conservation, to improve livelihood and cultural opportunities (of communities).” (BRP Mission Statement, Bohol, 1999). It started its activities in July 2000 for a period of five years.

The Netherlands Ministry for Development Cooperation (DGIS) provided funding support for the BRP through the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) in the Philippines for 2000-2005. SEARCA served as the National Secretariat. A Joint Philippine-Dutch Programme Committee (JPC), in which three Filipino researchers and three Dutch researchers have a seat, had been formed to be the programme’s policy and decision-making body.

BRP conducted research and support activities in the province of Misamis Occidental, northern Mindanao, a geographic wedge covering the coastal areas of Murcielagos Bay in the north (from the municipalities of Sapang Dalaga to Aloran) up to Don Victoriano in the south, including portions of the protected natural park on the north peak of Mt. Malindang.

The guiding principles of the BRP were that its results and activities should be:

• Location-derived and development-oriented – obtaining the research agenda from the needs of the people and biodiversity in the area.
• Promoting multi-stakeholder participation – involving not only the scientific research community, but more importantly the local communities and stakeholders.
• Systems-oriented and interdisciplinary – aiming to understand the interaction of different elements of the system, through the various disciplines of natural, social and physical sciences coming together.
• Using a landscape approach – analyzing the interaction of the elements in a range of ecosystems and the flows of materials, energy, people and others among the ecosystems.

The research projects were defined based on research themes that have been identified from field scanning activities and the first generation research projects in the coastal and terrestrial ecosystems in the Mt. Malindang environs. Support activities, on the other hand, were those that build partnership with and involvement of local communities and stakeholders in the research or enable them to understand or even partially make use of research results for their felt needs.