More Than Resin: Almaciga, Livelihood and Forest Care in Palawan

From the forest, without cutting a tree

When Joel Pardas was young, his father would take him into the mountains of Aborlan, Palawan.

“Sama ka sa bundok para manguha tayo ng almaciga para makilala mo ito.” (Come with me to the mountains so we can harvest almaciga and so you can learn to recognize the tree.)

Come to the forest. Learn the tree.

For Joel, now president of Nagkakaisang Tribu sa sitio Tina (NATRITI), that was how his relationship with almaciga began.

Through his father and other elders, he learned how to recognize the tree, where to find it, how to collect its resin, and, just as, and if not more importantly, when to leave the trees alone. Young trees cannot be tapped and older trees were harvested carefully and given time to recover before people can return.

These were lessons about livelihood, and lessons about restraint. Passed down through generations, these lessons reflect a way of harvesting built around keeping the tree alive.

Source: Department of Environment and Natural Resources – Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (DENR-ERDB), Equitable Revenue Distribution for Almaciga Resin, 2023

Almaciga has long helped families in Joel’s community meet their everyday needs. He remembers its resin being used as medicine and sold for food and household expenses. As he grew older, he began carrying resin down from the mountains himself.

For Joel, the tree’s value comes from the fact that earning from almaciga does not require destroying the tree.

Joel’s experience is part of a much longer livelihood story across Palawan. A 2025 study published in the Philippine Journal of Science notes that Palawan has been a major producer of almaciga resin since at least 1977, based on Philippine Forestry Statistics. The study also documents the long-standing dependence of Indigenous groups and resin-tapping associations on the almaciga industry.

Source: Evangelista, K.P.A. et al. (2025). Supply Chain Analysis of Almaciga (Agathis philippinensis, Warb.) Resin in Palawan, the Philippines. Philippine Journal of Science, 154(3), 723–736

“Yung hindi kailangan putulin ang puno, yun po ay pinakamahalaga kasi pang habang buhay na kabuhayan yun. Hindi nababawasan yung puno sa gubat, napapanatiling mayabong ang kagubatan.” (What matters most is that the tree does not have to be cut down, because it can provide a livelihood for a lifetime. The number of trees in the forest is not reduced, and the forest can remain abundant and thriving.)

That relationship goes beyond harvesting.

Joel describes the almaciga resource as communal, with families taking turns accessing harvesting areas. Trips into the forest also become opportunities to observe the condition of trees and watch for possible damage. Community members bring what they see back to the wider group.

“Ngayon po wala pa rin pong permit, so kaya wala po halos nangunguha… ang isa sa mga pinapangarap po natin, na magkaroon ng sariling permit ang association ng NATRITI.” (“At present, we still do not have a permit, so almost no one is harvesting… one of our hopes is for the NATRITI association to have its own permit.”)

For NATRITI, addressing this barrier means enabling the community to legally continue a livelihood they have practiced and cared for across generations. The community is calling on the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) and the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) to work together toward the recognition of their ancestral domain as a Tribal Ancestral Zone, so that NATRITI can secure the necessary resource-use permit without further delay.

Today, Joel has also seen what happens when that balance is disturbed. Some trees have been lost to storms, termites and overharvesting. For NATRITI, protecting almaciga therefore means strengthening community rules, continuing forest monitoring, caring for younger trees, and thinking about how the resource can be replenished.

And perhaps most importantly, it means passing that knowledge and relationship on to the youth.

“Hindi po basta puno lang (It is not just a tree),”  Joel says. “Ito ay mahalaga simula pa po ng mga ninuno namin (It has been important to us since the time of our ancestors).”

He hopes younger generations will continue to know the tree more than a livelihood, but as part of their culture, their forest, and what he calls “karugtong ng aming pamumuhay”: an extension of community life.

Today,  the future that Joel envisions is not empty forests to be used solely for livelihood, but forests that can continue thriving and providing precisely because the trees remain cared for and standing.

About the Project

This story forms part of Indigenous Leadership for Biodiversity Protection in Philippines’ Last Ecological Frontier, a project working in two Key Biodiversity Areas in Palawan to strengthen Indigenous leadership and forest governance, support the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices, promote biodiversity-friendly NTFP and agroforestry livelihoods, and strengthen sustainable resource management and biodiversity protection.

The project is implemented in partnership by IUCN NL, NTFP-EP Philippines, IDEAS, ELAC, and Both ENDS. Funded by the UK Government through Darwin Initiative.