Indigenous people are the world’s biggest conservationists, but they rarely get credit for it

In a lush swath of tropical forest on the eastern coast of Mindanao, the second-largest island in the Philippines, you can glimpse the brilliant plumage of the rare rufous-lored kingfisher or — if you’re lucky — hear the shrill cry of the large Philippine eagle, a critically endangered species. Wildlife is abundant here, but not because the region was left untouched in a protected area, or conserved by an international environmental organization.

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