Cultural conflict occurs when different cultures interact in the context of development; and often times in the case of development aid, the failure to adapt proposed projects to local conditions has exerted unexpected impacts on the host communities. This articles looks into the process involved in the conversion from swidden to irrigated rice cultivation within indigenous communities brought about under development aid programs, and the accompanying socio-cultural problems created in the process, by focusing on the experience of the indigenous peoples in the Palawan Province, the Philippines.
Palawan is of special concern to the Philippines due to its rapid population growth that has continued since the 1960s, which has severely affected the Province’s indigenous peoples, and their livelihoods. The Palaw’an are indigenous swidden agriculturalists who live in the southern part of the Provinces. Due a rapid acceleration in migration to that region, the Palaw’an have found it increasingly difficult to hold on their resources. Today they are experiencing production problems due to declining soil fertility, and they face extreme poverty. Agricultural Development is a priority in the national government’s agenda to reduce poverty, and irrigation is the key to increasing agricultural productivity there. In Palawan, several irrigation projects were begun through development aid, but the Palaw’an were not the primary beneficiaries since the project were introduced by non-Palaw’an agents. Many Palaw’an still rely on swidden agriculture and supplement their income by hiring out to the farms of migrants at low wages.
In many cases the implementation of developmental projects has left indigenous peoples as a very disadvantaged sector of local society, due mainly to treatment that ignores their culture and historical distinctiveness. Development aid should be offered to indigenous peoples and other stake holders in a mutually beneficial way.
