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Handuraw Panaw
Restoring and Re-Storying Cebu’s Watersheds
“Handuraw” evokes both memory and imagination in the Visayan language of the Cebuano people. In a deeper sense, it also brings to mind a dream, a past experience longed for and a desired future that we want.
This duality is at the heart of the project's approach: Memory (Remembering): bringing back and valuing our biocultural heritage deeply connected to nature. Imagination (Reimagining): working together to design better solutions to adapt to future challenges.
“Panaw” means journey in the same language, inspired by the Wayfinding tradition of our Austronesian ancestors navigating unknown territories and futures across the waters. Just as Sugbo, the precolonial name of Cebu, means “to wade in water,” we discover our water identity and sense of place and belonging
through our panaw below.
OUR PANAW
LEADERSHIP
INITIATIVE
How might we lead our selves, with others, and with nature?
We are an ecosystem leadership program inspiring bioregional stewardship, sacred ecology, and cultural values rooted in kinship with nature.
LEARNING JOURNEY
How might we learn from our place and our people in designing from resilience to regeneration?
We are a learning community working with universities and demonstration sites to foster knowledge and practice in ecosystem regeneration.
LIVING
LAB
How might we innovate existing and emerging solutions to scale up, wide, and deep?
We are prototyping a regenerative solutions to address our disaster risk by scaling our innovations up to influence policy, wide to replicate wise practice, and deep to build trust for deeper collaborations
WHY WE EXIST
Our home island of Cebu, in the Philippines has 2 % left of its forest cover left due to historical logging from colonization and ultimately from large-scale urbanization. Natural ecosystems have largely been converted to residential and commercial areas that have contributed to the disaster risk and impacts that took place.
We are responding to the increasing impacts of extreme weather related events such as Supertyphoon Haiyan (Yolanda) in 2013, Supertyphoon Rai (Odette) in 2021, and Typhoon Kalmaegi (Tino) in 2025. After Typhoon Kalmaeigi (Tino) in 2025 dumped 1 month of rain in 24 hours that swelled its rivers and caused severe landslides leading to loss of life, homes, and livelihoods, Cebu, home to 5.23 million people is now at the crossroads to help decide its future in the face of the climate emergency, biodiversity loss, and the ongoing global security risks.
The project supports the people of Cebu to not only in restoring its watersheds but to re-story its narrative of its climate vulnerability and fragmented governance.
OUR CO-CONVENERS
