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Ang Kagubatan ay Buhay: Mhar Dubria and the Indigenous Youth Defending Brooke’s Point
- NTFP-EP Philippines
- Jun 5
- 10 min read
A Philippine Environment Month Youth Story | Nature’s Heartbeat Philippines
On World Environment Day, one month after a peaceful anti-mining rally in Brooke’s Point, Palawan, an Indigenous youth leader reminds us that conservation is also the courage to stand, speak, and protect what gives life.
On May 4, 2026, Indigenous youth and community members gathered in front of the municipal hall of Brooke’s Point, Palawan, to peacefully call for the protection of their forests, farms, waters, and future from mining expansion. Among them was Mamilmar “Mhar” M. Dubria Jr., a Pelawan/Palaw’an youth leader from Brooke’s Point and the current Chairperson of the Ugnayin National Indigenous Youth Network Philippines (UGNAYIN PH). For Mhar, the rally is part of an ongoing journey that began years earlier: first with questions about his own Indigenous identity, then with the stories and struggles of his elders, then through youth organizing, learning spaces, community work, and finally, a public commitment to stand with other young people for the forests that continue to sustain their lives.
As the Philippines observes Philippine Environment Month, and as the world marks World Environment Day, Mhar’s story asks an urgent question: What does it truly mean to conserve nature when communities are already defending it from destruction?
For Mhar, conservation is not limited to planting trees or protecting what remains after damage has already been done. It also means preventing harm; standing beside communities before forests become excavation sites, before rivers carry silt downstream, before fear becomes the inheritance of another generation.
“Mahalaga kasi yung mga peaceful rally. Mahalaga siya sa conservation. Bakit? Kasi unang-una, ang pag-protekta sa kalikasan, hindi yung dahil nagtanim ka lang ng puno, hindi dahil hindi mo kinalbo ang puno, kasama na rin doon yung panawagan.”
(Peaceful rallies matter to conservation. Why? Because protecting nature is not only about planting a tree or choosing not to cut one down; it also involves making the call be heard.)
Photos of the May 4 peacefull rally held in front of Brooke's Point Municipal Office (photos from the Municipal Information Office - LGU Brooke's Point Facebook account)
The Beginning of a Voice
Mhar grew up in Brooke’s Point with roots from both his father’s Bisaya family and his mother’s Pelawan/Palaw’an community. As a child, he did not immediately understand himself as Indigenous. It was only in high school, while answering questions about his parents’ backgrounds, that he began to recognize his mother’s identity as Pelawan/ Palaw’an, and through her, a part of himself that he would later choose to know more deeply.
Photo of Mamilmar Dubria, Jr. from the I-Yes Camp 2025 proudly wearing indigenous cultural attire
That realization awakened a curiosity in him. He began learning about his Indigenous community, the difficulties many families faced, and the sacrifices of relatives and elders who had long defended their land and forests. He remembered seeing his grandparents and other family members stand for the community at a time when only few young people appeared ready to follow. At one point, Mhar tried to turn away from this path. He focused on school and on the possibility of building a more conventional future for himself. His parents worried that advocacy might place his opportunities and his safety at risk.
But the questions did not leave him. Neither did the pull of the community.
“Pero hindi yun yung calling ko. Parang iniisip ko talaga na ang calling ko bilang isang katutubong kabataan ay tumulong magserbisyo para sa komunidad.”
(That was not my calling. I truly felt that my calling as an Indigenous youth was to help serve the community.)
For Mhar, being Indigenous gradually became more than ancestry. It became responsibility. To know that the forest gives food, medicine, livelihood, memory, ritual, and identity was also to know that remaining silent while it is destroyed would mean abandoning a part of oneself.
From Service to Leadership
Before leading a national network, Mhar began with small acts of community service. Around 2017, he was involved in a local youth organization whose members went up to Indigenous communities on weekends to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Believing that public service could help him do more, he later ran for and became an elected Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) leader. Soon after, he was invited to a youth camp in Brooke’s Point, where he met other people working on Indigenous rights and environmental protection. That gathering opened a wider world for him: a space where his questions, values, and desire to serve could be sharpened into action.
Over the years, Mhar became involved in youth organizing in Palawan and eventually in the Ugnayin National Indigenous Youth Network Philippines (UGNAYIN PH), a national network of Indigenous youth organizations and leaders formed to advance Indigenous youth concerns on rights, environment, livelihood, culture, education, and health. Through learning spaces, camps, trainings, and exchanges supported under the Green Livelihoods Alliance – Forests for a Just Future Programme, Mhar developed not only the confidence to speak but also the discipline to listen, assess risks, study policies, understand community processes, and help create space for other young people to participate.
Photos from the I-YES Camp 2025
This transformation mattered in concrete moments. During community processes related to mining, Mhar and fellow youth leaders helped gather and mentor other young people so they could better understand processes such as Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), document community concerns, observe proceedings, and contribute to petitions supported by evidence.
The change in him became clearer: From wanting to represent a community, he was molded to wanting to help his generation find their own voice.
Carrying the Call Through the Airwaves
Mhar’s advocacy today continues beyond rallies and meetings. Every week, his voice also travels through the airwaves of Palawan. Mhar currently hosts Bantay Kalikasan, an environmental radio program aired through DZIP 864 Radyo Palaweño, based in Puerto Princesa City, and livestreamed on the station’s Facebook page. Through the program, he discusses environmental issues affecting Palawan and creates space for people to better understand the struggles, responsibilities, and hopes surrounding the island’s forests and communities.
For an Indigenous youth leader who once spoke about needing courage to stand and be heard, the radio program reflects how far his journey has come. His voice now reaches beyond gatherings and community processes. It enters homes, mobile phones, social media feeds, and public conversations across Palawan, where he invites the program’s listeners to see environmental protection as a shared responsibility. From time to time, Mhar also uses the platform to bring forward the work of UGNAYIN PH and the perspectives of other Indigenous youth in Palawan. In an episode aired after the I-YES Camp 2026, UGNAYIN PH Secretary Monitte Lantas, together with fellow youth guests, shared about their engagements during the camp, including their meeting with the National Youth Commission, their visit to the House of Representatives, and the continuing efforts of Indigenous youth to bring their concerns into government spaces.
This is also part of a bigger conservation: defending forests on the ground also goes hand in hand with ensuring that communities are informed, youth voices are amplified, and environmental issues are spoken about in places where public understanding and collective action can grow. In this sense, the May 4 rally also belonged to a wider practice of standing, speaking, listening, and making space for others, from places like the front of Brooke’s Point’s municipal halls, to events within UGNAYIN PH, or behind the microphone of Bantay Kalikasan.
When the Mountain Is Life, Mining Is Lived Reality for Indigenous Communities
Brooke’s Point is part of Southern Palawan, a landscape of globally significant biodiversity and living Indigenous territories. It is also among the places facing persistent pressure from mining. In March 2025, the Provincial Government of Palawan adopted a 50-year moratorium on endorsements for new mining applications, including endorsements for exploration permits, mining agreements, and financial or technical assistance agreements.
The measure was welcomed by communities and advocates as a significant victory after years of organizing. However, a moratorium on new endorsements did not automatically stop all mining threats. Existing mining operations had not been closed by the ordinance and certain renewals and activities may fall outside of its restrictions. In 2026, environmental advocates continued to raise concerns over ongoing applications, proposed expansions, local endorsements, tree-cutting permits, and the incomplete establishment of the monitoring and oversight mechanisms envisioned under the ordinance.
In Brooke’s Point, these gaps affected community experiences with anxiety over forests, farms, rivers, ancestral lands, and safety. Public reporting in 2026 has described continued controversy around mining operations and proposed expansion in the municipality, alongside community concerns about possible environmental impacts. Mining operators have disputed claims that their activities are directly responsible for reported damage.
This is why, for Mhar and other Indigenous youth, the question cannot simply be whether mining contributes economically. The deeper question is: What kind of development can be called progress if the people who live closest to the forest carry the risks while others take the gains?
“Mahalaga ang pag-unlad, mahalaga din ang pagmimina, pero mas mahalaga ang buhay.”
(Development is important. Mining is also important, but life is more important.)
Mhar speaks of development not as roads, buildings, or wealth accumulating in only a few hands, but as a community’s ability to live with dignity, security, food, culture, and a healthy environment. For him, mining in the natural forests and ancestral landscapes of Brooke’s Point threatens precisely the foundations that allow Indigenous communities to live and thrive over generations.
A Forest Is Not an ATM
Mhar’s understanding of the forest comes from a worldview that refuses to reduce land to profit alone. In his community, the forest is not simply a collection of resources awaiting extraction. It is where food is grown and gathered; where sacred places are held; where practices, stories, and relationships with the land continue, and a living space that sustains both livelihood and culture.
This is also the heart of Nature’s Heartbeat Philippines, which supports locally-led conservation in South Palawan, including landscapes such as the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape (MMPL), the Victoria-Anepahan Mountain Range (VAMR), and Mount Bulanjao. These territories are not simply biodiversity-rich areas, but are also as importantly, cultural landscapes where Indigenous communities continue to steward forests facing threats from mining, deforestation, governance gaps, and climate change.
Seen through Mhar’s story, youth participation in a peaceful rally is deeply linked to conservation. It is conservation in action. It is the defense of a living landscape before it is turned into an afterthought of development.
“Bakit naman natin sinasabi na dapat ang kagubatan ay buhay at hindi ATM? Kasi nga, tayong mga katutubo, tinitignan natin ang kagubatan bilang nagsusupply ng buhay sa atin, pero yung mga mayayamang tao, yung mga investors, tinitignan nila yan bilang ATM.”
(Why do we say the forest is life and not an ATM? Because we Indigenous Peoples see the forest as supplying life to us, but wealthy people, investors, see it as an ATM.)
The contrast is crystal clear. People go to Automated Teller Machines (ATM) to withdraw money. Indigenous peoples approach the living forest with relationship, gratitude, responsibility, and the knowledge that taking everything today leaves nothing for tomorrow.
From Brooke’s Point to a National Youth Agenda
Today, Mhar’s leadership continues in many forms: in community mobilizations against mining, through weekly public conversations on Bantay Kalikasan, and as Chairperson of UGNAYIN PH, where he helps carry the concerns of Indigenous youth from different landscapes across the Philippines. Formed in 2022 by Indigenous youth leaders from Sierra Madre, Palawan, Visayas, and Mindanao, UGNAYIN PH brings together youth groups working for forest conservation, Indigenous rights recognition, safeguarding culture, education, livelihood, and health.
At the center of its advocacy is the Diliman Declaration, developed by Indigenous youth during the 2023 I-YES Camp. The declaration names a reality faced by many young Indigenous people – uncertainty that they will inherit healthy, safe, and secure ancestral lands and forests. It calls on government, civil society, and the private sector to recognize Indigenous youth as partners in protecting nature and ancestral domains; to strengthen their participation in decision-making bodies; to respect Indigenous rights; and to support laws and mechanisms that protect forests and community-conserved territories.
Photos from the I-YES Camp 2026 held from May 18 to May 22 in Quezon City
With current support from Synchronicity Earth, UGNAYIN PH is continuing to advance this Indigenous youth agenda through the Diliman Declaration. Following the I-YES Camp 2026, youth representatives also engaged government institutions, including the National Youth Commission, where Usec. Jeff Ortage himself attended and discussed a partnership for Indigenous youth, and Cong. Mauricio Domogan at the House of Representatives, as part of their continuing efforts to bring Indigenous youth realities and recommendations into policy conversations. These engagements were later shared by fellow youth through an episode of Bantay Kalikasan, extending the conversation from formal government spaces back to the public.
This national work returns, again and again, to local realities like Brooke’s Point. The peaceful mining rally on May 4 is among the many parts of the mission of UGNAYIN PH and its members. The peaceful rally was also the Diliman Declaration integrated through Indigenous youth standing for the right to inherit a future with forests still capable of sustaining life.
What the Youth Choose to Inherit
Mhar does not deny that standing for the environment can be difficult. In his interview last year, he spoke about fears faced by young advocates, including intimidation, threats, and red-tagging when they speak publicly for nature and their communities. But hope does not escape the youth leader. Seeing more and more young people joining the call, learning to speak, and realizing that the work of protecting land cannot belong only to elders is hope in action.
For Mhar, the task of Indigenous youth isn’t just to sit quietly and passively; the task is to begin solving the intergenerational problem of environmental destruction in the present, so that future generations can have lives living abundantly within forests that remain alive. His dream for Brooke’s Point is simple yet immense: that ten or twenty years from now, the municipality’s forests will remain thriving; that children will grow up without fearing every heavy rain or flood; that communities will feel safe; and that Indigenous culture will remain rooted in the mountains that have always sustained it.
On World Environment Day, Mhar’s story is a stark reminder that environmental protection is not just protection on paper, but about listening to the communities already protecting them. Conservation is also ensuring that youth who speak for forests are welcomed with pride, recognition, safety, and support.
Environmental advocacy is understanding what youth like Mhar has come to know his whole life:
“Para sa mga katutubong kabataan, ang kagubatan ay BUHAY.”
(For Indigenous youth, the forest is LIFE.)
Acknowledgements and References
This youth story feature is produced in connection with Nature’s Heartbeat Philippines, which supports locally-led conservation in South Palawan through strengthened Indigenous and community leadership. Mhar’s leadership journey and earlier story documentation were developed through UGNAYIN PH engagements supported under the Green Livelihoods Alliance – Forests for a Just Future Programme (2021–2025).
Primary interview references:
Interview with Mamilmar “Mhar” M. Dubria Jr. for the Green Livelihoods Alliance, 10 July 2025
Interview with Mamilmar “Mhar” M. Dubria Jr. for Nature’s Heartbeat Philippines, 8 May 2026
Supporting references:
UGNAYIN PH, Diliman Declaration, November 2023
UGNAYIN PH, About UGNAYIN PH and Master Information document, 2025–2026
NTFP-EP Philippines, World Day of Social Justice: Why Palawan’s 50-Year Mining Moratorium Still Matters (and What’s Happening Now), February 2026
Environmental Legal Assistance Center, Palawan Mining Moratorium at a Crossroads, March 2026
United Nations Environment Programme, World Environment Day 2026
DZIP 864 Radyo Palaweño, Bantay Kalikasan Facebook Live episodes featuring Mhar Dubria and Indigenous youth guests, March–May 2026, including the 23 May 2026 episode featuring Monitte Lantas, Jonavie Nais, Glaiza Mae Sindol and Belle Reyes
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