SURVIVAL
The Batak live in the forests of northern Palawan in the western Philippines. They depend on a varied mix of cultivation, hunting, gathering and fishing.
Not to be confused with the populous and ethnically diverse Indonesian Batak of northern Sumatra, the Batak of the Philippines are a ‘negrito’ people.
They are believed to have originated from the first wave of human populations who crossed the land bridges connecting the Philippine islands with mainland Asia, some 50,000 years ago.
Many threats
Today, the Batak are threatened by conservation schemes such as a government ban on shifting cultivation and the declaration of ‘protected areas’ within their ancestral lands.
There are now around 300 Batak, down from about 700 in 1900. Land seizure, logging and exposure to disease are great dangers.
Severe undernourishment has made them more vulnerable to diseases such as malaria, measles and tuberculosis.