members of the tribe to articulate their needs, assess their practices in natural resource management, chart a collective vision and identify the priority development interventions that could serve well the interest and welfare of the indigenous.

The project was designed essentially to:

• Locate the IP settlements within the watershed area;
  

• Provide a comprehensive profile of the IP settlements and the IP households;
  

• Construct the needs-assessment of IP households and solicit recommendations from identified IP leaders;
  

• Generate a deeper understanding and appreciation of the IP culture among other watershed stakeholders and policy makers; and
  

• Help develop an IP-focused program and projects in the Talomo-Lipadas watersheds.
  

Concretely, the project is envisioned to deliver the following outputs:

• Profile of the IP households and Settlements;
  

• Consolidated Needs Assessment of the IP Households;
  

• Articulated Development Agenda of the IPs in the watershed; and
  

• Recommendations for IP focused programs and projects.
  

Guided by the definition in the IPRA and in consideration of the realities of change, the research team adopted the term Indigenous as those who have traced their roots from the lineage of known tribal clans in the area and who have acquired, in varying degrees a distinct way of doing and imbibed an orientation as members of the tribe.

Thus, even those households of children born of parents with mixed ethnicities, are considered indigenous as long as one of their parents are descendants of a tribal clan and they are integrated with the IP settlements and ways of doing and behaving.

The conduct of the census, which was highly recommended by the Tribal leaders and the NCIP, started in November of 2002 and lasted until April of 2003. For about three months (from January to March) the fieldwork was temporarily suspended because of some institutional constraints. The tabulation processes started in May and lasted until September of 2003.

Likewise the processes of the participatory rural appraisal (PRA), which was limited only in the Lipadas areas, had been initially started in December 2002 and went in full swing during the period April to May. The PRA was finally accomplished in June and the results were presented to the Tribal leaders for validation and further refinements.