Hineleban Foundation is at the forefront of a multi-stakeholder and multi-sector effort for enhancing ecosystem conservation and livelihood improvement through sustainable natural resource management and rural development programs on the island of Mindanao in Southern Philippines. The Foundation is leading the fight against poverty and hunger. It is building the capacity of communities and local institutions on how to conserve water, produce food and make a decent living, using precious resources around them, while maintaining the integrity of the pristine ecosystems and biodiversity of Mindanao. It is helping to ensure that the communities with different backgrounds, cultures, race or religion attain self-sufficiency and work together toward achieving a shared goal of peace and sustainable development.

Hineleban Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit social enterprise based in Bukidnon, shares this belief. The foundation, together with its parent company, the Unifrutti Group – which has over 36 years of experience in Mindanao including some 15 years in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has been working with local communities to protect the environment. It hasbeen undertaking rural development programs, investing in social infrastructure, reforesting denuded mountains, providing people with alternative means of livelihood, and engaging communities in efforts to guard the forests and prevent further destruction to the natural ecosystems.

Meaning of Hineleban and Its Logo

Hineleban is the name of the most sacred god on earth of the Bukidnons, represented by the Mother Tree of the forest that sustains life, without which the cycle of all life cannot be sustained. The foundation was given exclusive permission to adopt the name by the Council of Elders representing the Seven Tribes of Bukidnon – a permission given out of Trust.

This is a Trust built over the last 36 years that the foundation and its group have been fighting to protect the indigenous people’s resources, and consistently defending their rights. This Trust is based on the belief that the heart of the members of the foundation is the same as that of the IP communities. Hineleban, therefore, is the brand of Trust with the IP, and proof of our binding relationship with them.

This Trust is essential to the success of rainforestation, and our partners and clients need to understand that one cannot succeed without the cooperation of the IPs; and getting their cooperation rests on Trust, which takes years to develop.

The Hineleban Logo represents this most crucial relationship with the indigenous people – a symbiotic relationship bound not just by their shared concern for the land, trees and water physically, but by the Trust that sustains life. The cycle of life and man’s dependency on the Mother Tree is represented by the human figure (representing the physical being) embracing the tree, and the living tree (god, representing the spiritual being, Hineleban) reciprocating by providing the life-supporting anchor to human beings.

The spirit of Hinelaban and its logo is embodied in the foundation’s vision and mission. We feel uniquely qualified to carry out the strategy and plan for Mindanao Rainforestation and implement the flagship initiative or the Program for Equitable Advancement of Rural Livelihoods.

Vision and Mission

The vision of Hineleban is that of a peaceful and prosperous Mindanao – where fertile lands, pristine forests, lush watersheds, and clean rivers thrive even as they provide adequately for the needs of the population, living in harmony with one another in a sustainable ecosystem. On a bigger scale, Hineleban envisions all the people of the Philippines enjoying the abundance of nature’s bounty for generations to come. To attain this vision, Hineleban's mission is to build on its knowledge of Mindanao's ecosystems and its strong relationship with the local communities and tribal leadership, and, at the same time, draw on environmental and social sciences in formulating strategies and implementing programs for ecosystem management, rural development and livelihood improvement.

There was a time when Mindanao, the southern most and second biggest landmass in the Philippines, was covered with lush tropical forests thriving with wildlife, and was traversed by rivers teeming with aquatic life. The land was very fertile, the air was clean, food was bountiful, and there was a seemingly unlimited reserve of natural resources. People, plants and animals lived together and nurtured one another in a healthy ecosystem.



Today, however, only a small portion of the original forest cover remains. Massive logging, kaingin (slash-and-burn agriculture), and wild grass fires have, over the years, killed millions of trees and left large areas of the mountains bare. Many of the region’s vital watersheds have been destroyed, resulting in the drying up of rivers, thus depriving farms of year-round irrigation, siltation of lakes and seas causing death to coral reefs, and flash floods during the rainy season damaging people’s homes and livelihood. Hence, despite the vast tracts of land around them, many people in Mindanao are poor and hungry – they are among the poorest and hungriest people in the Philippines.

Bleak as Mindanao’s environmental situation may be, it is still better than in many other parts of the country. With vast areas of land still untapped for agricultural production, a population still less dense than in highly populated Luzon, and a climate that is still typhoon-free for most of the year, Mindanao presents great potential for development. It commands bright promise for becoming the Philippines’ next food basket, and supplying an even bigger part of the country’s food requirements than the 40 percent it is contributing today.

Hineleban wants to bring the forests of Mindanao back to life – rehabilitate the watersheds, revive the rivers, and renew the cycle of life that feeds the healthy coexistence among people, animals, plants and nature’s elements. In short, we want to undertake a massive “rainforestation” of Mindanao. Rainforestation means replanting the rainforests in order to rehabilitate the watersheds and revive the surrounding ecosystems. Through rainforestation, we not only protect the environment, provide food and livelihood, and promote development, we also empower communities and create socioeconomic states conducive to peace and harmony in the region.