Celebrating Territories of Life in Southeast Asia

Published by the Non-Timber Forest Products – Exchange Programme Asia (NTFP-EP Asia) with support from the Green Livelihoods Alliance, WWF Sweden, and Sida, this volume documents and celebrates territories of life — ICCAs — across multiple Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Myanmar. It features vivid case studies written by community members and their partners, offering ground-level perspectives on customary governance of lands, forests, and seas.

The book highlights how Indigenous and local communities have sustained rich biodiversity through their own systems of stewardship, often without formal government recognition. Stories range from T'boli fisherfolk maintaining sacred lake ecosystems in the Philippines, to Dayak communities defending ancestral forests in Borneo, to upland communities in Myanmar managing an Indigenous protected park known as Thawthi Taw-Oo.

Intended as both documentation and advocacy, Celebrating Territories of Life makes the case that ICCAs are not merely conservation areas but expressions of cultural identity, self-determination, and ecological knowledge. The book calls for stronger legal recognition and support for these territories as essential contributors to regional biodiversity and climate resilience goals.