Environmental researchers and rangers visit Philippines as part of NT-Philippines exchange

Charles Darwin University (CDU) researchers and representatives from Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation completed a valuable exchange with Philippine leaders and rangers in June 2025.

Last year, a delegation of nine Indigenous leaders of Ancestral Domains in the Philippines visited Darwin and Northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory (NT), forming the first half of the exchange. 

The group was led by CDU alum Dr Jayson Ibañez – who is now the Director for Operations at the Philippine Eagle Foundation (PEF) and was accompanied by PEF’s Head of Culture-Based Conservation, Jimbea Lucino.

The collaboration was developed by Dr Ibañez during his PhD at CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods (RIEL). During his conservation-focused studies Dr Ibañez built a connection between the groups that developed this initiative to share ancestral knowledge and conservation efforts. 

This year the second half of the exchange was completed when CDU RIEL’s Professor Stephen Garnett and Dr Verónica Toral-Granda travelled to the Philippines with CDU’s Northern Institute Dr Rohan Fisher, Banula Marika and Wanharrawurr “BJ” Munungurr from Dhimurru.

Commencing in Manila, the group marked Philippine–Australia Friendship Day at the residence of the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, Her Excellency HK Yu. They also visited the Australian Embassy, where Dr Ibañez spoke about using knowledge shared in the Philippines based on his learnings in Arnhem Land, as well as his perspective on the Australia Awards Fellowship program which supported the initiative. 

“Because of the proximity between Darwin and the Philippines, and the support from the Australian Embassy and the Australia–Philippines friendship, we had the impression during the trip that CDU is seen as one of the most convenient and best-placed providers of courses for potential students from the Philippines, and the possibility of more initiatives together,” trip coordinator Dr Toral-Granda said.

The team continued to numerous locations across Davao, meeting with young and old community members and being welcomed with song, dance, and proclamations. Group members also had the opportunity to visit and speak at the University of the Philippines in Mindanao, Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines Los Baños, and Southern Luzon State University. Dr Fisher presented landscape visualisation technology, while Professor Garnett spoke about biocultural diversity and Dr Toral-Granda on marine invertebrates.

“We saw that CDU could continue to facilitate a lot of linkages between northern Australia and these universities in the Philippines and with the Philippine Eagle Foundation. There is a lot of interest in biodiversity research like what we do at RIEL, work on drones like at NACAS, or landscape mapping like at NAFI and the Northern Institute,” Dr Toral-Granda explained. 

Over the course of the trip, the CDU and Dhimurru representatives met with all of the fellows who had visited Darwin and Northeast Arnhem Land the previous year and were able to visit six of the Indigenous leaders’ Ancestral Domains.

Participants from both the Australian and Philippine delegations are looking forward to further strengthening ties and to developing more scholarship and exchange opportunities between the two countries.

This article was originally published in CDU Uni News August 2025