at a glance
SINCE 1989, BIND has worked in more than 100 villages from northern to southern Negros Occidental implementing a range of programs and projects centering on food security, and the building of sustainable communities in various lowland and upland communities.
Its strategies include managing Kampo Berde, a research, training and demonstration farm promoting sustainable agriculture; alternative credit for organic farmers; scholarship for their children; agroforestry and integrated and diversified farming; and mountain forest conservation in over a thousand rural households.
BIND operates a satellite of community-based scientific researches and field trials on organic soil fertility, farmer's selection and bred seeds adaptation, ecological pest management under its School in the Ricefield Program.
To empower its partner communities to reclaim control of their seeds and management of their community-based natural resources, BIND assisted farmer's organizations to achieve tenurial security over their farms and community resource use rights, actively promoted plant genetic resource conservation (PGRC) on rice, corn, herbal plants, native varieties of vegetables, fruits and endemic and exotic tree species.
New programs and projects are organized around fair trade of organic communities, organic standards and certification, popular governance, coalition building, forest resource inventory, survey-mapping, reforestation, assisted natural regeneration and non-timber forest products (NTFP) development as an alternative means of conserving natural forest resources.
The main arenas of work are the rural communities of Negros Occidental and the global community and with strategic focus in the mountain ecosystem and communities in the Northern Negros Forest Reserve (NNFR) and the Mount Kanlaon Natural Park (MKNP). Gender equity and human rights cross cut across its programs and projects.
BIND forged partnership and ties with the Swiss Interchurch Aid (HEKS), Oxfam America, the f International union for the Conservation of Nature-Netherlands (IUCN-NL), FSSI, the Foundation for Philippine Environment (FPE), SEARICE, Task Force-NTFP, Woman Health Philippines..
It is a member of global organizations like the International Partnership for the Sustainable Development of Mountain Regions, otherwise known as the Mountain Partnership.
