Palawan is the westernmost province of the Philippines and is made up of over 1,700 islands. Its reputation as the country’s last frontier conjures up images of lush tropical forests and rich seas fringed by coral reefs and mangrove trees.

The Tabon cave, in Southern Palawan, is among the earliest known sites of human habitation in Southeast Asia. Archaeologists have unearthed remains stretching back over 50,000 years, evidence of the islands’ ancient cultures. In glacial times, when seas dropped to 120 metres below their current levels, Palawan was linked to Borneo by land. This allowed people to pass from one island to the other and accounts for the Bornean character of Palawan’s flora and fauna.

Palawan is geographically remote yet it is now rapidly developing in response to national and global forces. One hundred years ago, Filipinos preferred to stay away from Palawan - it was known mainly for endemic malaria, the Iwahig prison camp and the Culion leper colony. But as populations swelled in other parts of the Philippines, Palawan gained its reputation as a land of promise – for agriculture, fishing and work in the new logging and mining companies.

Over the past 60 years migrants have flooded to Palawan, increasing the population tenfold and putting unprecedented strains on natural resources. Most immigrants settled on the coastal plains forcing the indigenous people, the Batak, Pala’wan and Tagbanua, to retreat to the mountainous interior.

The rapid transformation of the population and landscape of Palawan has awakened a strong social movement to preserve native cultures and the natural environment. The Palawan archipelago is in transition.