Coffee, Oysters, 100% Pinay Farmers:  Tapping the Gender and Development (GAD) Budget in the Philippines

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TAMBARA, NEGROS OCCIDENTAL – We’re squishing our way up a muddy mountain trail in Sitio Tambara, Negros Occidental. It’s surprisingly cool, with fog and mist blanketing the tree line. There’s even a herd of horses grazing up a glade. So very Lord of the Rings.

“We planted around a hundred Robusta coffee bushes up here,” explains Johnny Percival, member of the Tambara Forest Settlers Association, a women-led people’s organization celebrating its 20^th year in 2027.

“We pick only ripe and red coffee cherries, then dunk them in water to weed out floaters. Good cherries always sink. We dry and remove the pulp, then roast and grind the beans in our village. We produce Fine Robusta Coffee with an earthy, muscovado aroma.”

With 14 women and eight men, the association champions environmental conservation through sustainable upland agriculture and related livelihood opportunities for its members – who plant high-value crops like coffee, cacao, cinnamon and various fruit-bearing trees, ranging from marang to mangoes.

“We sell our produce mostly through private orders or via trade fairs,” says association chair Ronalyn Dela Vega, who formerly worked as a department store salesperson. “I didn’t consider myself a farmer at first, but I knew how to sell things to people. Now I convince customers to buy coffee and cacao instead of clothes. Our roasted beans retail for around PHP750 per kilogramme and we’ve so far had good feedback.”

Largely Untapped: GAD Funds

Together with local government units (LGUs) from Negros Occidental, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and United Nations Development Programme’s Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP-BIOFIN) are working to include and mainstream Gender and Development (GAD) into government programmes.

Under the General Appropriations Act of 1995 and the Women’s Magna Carta (RA 9710), all government agencies are mandated to apportion 5% of their annual budgets for GAD initiatives. Based on the Philippines’ 2026 national budget, the GAD budget of Negros Occidental alone is in the range of PHP340 million.

“Stewarding our natural resources requires substantial investments. GAD is a largely untapped resource for LGUs to promote both gender equity and biodiversity conservation,” explains UNDP-BIOFIN Philippines Project Manager Anabelle Plantilla. “LGUs across the country can use GAD to fund local projects that help women play greater roles in sustainable upland farming, fishing and managing our vital ecosystems. GAD is an entry point to ensure that projects are climate-resilient, biodiversity friendly and gender equal.”

Active in 41 countries, BIOFIN is a global UNDP initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility, European Commission and the Governments of Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Flanders, Canada, France and the United Kingdom. It contributes to closing the financing gap for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity by identifying, accessing, combining and sequencing sources of biodiversity funding.

In the Philippines, BIOFIN is working closely with the DENR to narrow the financing gap for the implementation of the Philippine Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PBSAP), the country’s roadmap to conserving its biodiversity. To mainstream GAD and biodiversity conservation in LGU plans, BIOFIN trained over 300 officials from 32 LGUs in February 2026.

“The women of the Tambara Forest Settlers Association nurture hundreds of coffee bushes and other trees that provide not just a steady income stream for their families,” notes Luisa Tutor of the Negros Occidental Provincial Management Office (PEMO). “Trees also help stabilize soil in upland areas, preventing landslides and floods, while providing food and habitats for many bird species. This is why their coffee plantations are also ecotourism destinations for birdwatchers.”

From the misty mountains of Tambara, we travelled to the sea to visit another ladies’ group – one which has been farming shellfish for generations.

Farming Oysters in San Enrique

Now we’re paddling down a choco-hued brackish water river in San Enrique, a local haven for oysters – evidenced by several talaba stands flanking the coastal highway. We approach several floating bamboo rafts. Suspended beneath are rows of oyster lines brimming with shellfish.

Long considered an aphrodisiac, oysters are farmed worldwide, with Asia contributing over 90% of global output. Oyster farming in the Philippines started over a century ago and it all began here in Negros Occidental. In 1921, the first Pinoy oyster farm sprouted up in Hinigaran. Since then, the country has been producing over 50,000 metric tonnes of oysters annually, valued at over PHP1 billion.

“Oyster farming can definitely be lucrative. If you’re lucky, you can earn hundreds of thousands of pesos per season,” says Juvy Guiñabo Jamaybay, chairperson of the Luguay Talaba Growers Association, which is comprised of 16 women and 14 men. “We drop our oyster lines for six or more months to let baby oysters encrust old shells that we tie on strings. The longer we wait, the larger and heavier the oysters get. There’s money to be made in this industry, for all my children are college graduates because of talaba.”

While providing vital livelihoods, oyster farms can also be beneficial for the environment. All oysters are ‘filter-feeders’ that eat free-floating plankton and other suspended particles. Adult oysters can filter around five liters of water every hour – cleaning water while simultaneously absorbing both nitrogen and carbon dioxide to slow down climate change.

Oyster reefs or oyster beds – habitats dominated by oysters – are the less-celebrated cousins of coral reefs. Whereas coral reefs are colorful and biodiverse, oyster reefs are fast-growing, extremely resilient to climate change and are more effective at filtering water. Philippine oyster beds still thrive in Bacoor Bay, Lingayen Gulf and parts of the Visayas, especially in Negros Occidental.

Not merely an oyster haven, San Enrique is part of the Negros Occidental Coastal Wetlands Conservation Area, a RAMSAR site and renowned area for photographing shorebirds. “Local women and men make extra income as bird guides, with Pinoy and foreign visitors partaking of local produce like oysters and fruits whenever they visit,” adds Lisa Paguntalan-Marte, Executive Director of the Philippines Biodiversity Conservation Foundation Incorporated (PBCFI).

When led by the local community and supported by both the government and nonprofit organizations, the potent combination of ecotourism and sustainable production buoys local livelihoods.

“Many sustainable livelihoods like coffee growing and oyster farming can directly be linked to conservation, which works best when both women and men make decisions and share the responsibilities and benefits of natural resource management,” concludes  Jacqueline Bacal, gender lead for UNDP-BIOFIN. “This Women’s Month, let’s enhance the role of women in conservation by learning to tap the GAD budget to support lady-led projects.”

Back on land, we’re reveling at the sunset and talking about ways to mainstream women’s work in conservation. Suddenly a serbedora serves a trayful of oysters, plucked fresh from the river. We dig in, each creamy bite bursting with the taste of the sea. We all chuckle and thank GAD for gender-sensitive, sustainable farming.