In response to the nation's escalating forest resource crisis, community forest management has been the major emphasis under the 1990 Master Plan for Forestry Development (MPFD). Among other measures, the MPFD places restrictions on logging, forbidding harvest of remaining old growth and all high-elevation secondary forests, and limiting extraction to selected secondary forests and plantations slated for production. To ensure more equitable access to forest lands, the plan specifies the following measures: 1) reduction in number of TLAs; 2) replacement of remaining TLAs with corporate-community Timber Production Sharing Agreements (TPSAs); 3) pilot programs for community-based forest management; and 4) transfer of forest areas through leases to local communities.
Although supportive policies are intact and the DENR appears politically committed to the empowerment of communities as forest managers, a host of implementation problems have prevented any significant application of the MPFD. For one, the plan requires the identification of protection forests, including mapping and boundary-marking supported by legal registration. The definition and role of relevant community groups in this process and the mechanisms to facilitate their participation remain poorly defined. Given the immense scale of the task, with up to 18 million people residing in upland areas (which cover some 56 percent of the nation's land area), such operational barriers demand priority attention by DENR (
FN 21). Furthermore, the current devolution of national government funds and the processes and implications of decentralized planning and governance are still unclear at the local level. No proposed mechanism exists to ensure that local government will effectively plan and enforce environmental programs and accountability. There is also concern that local government may place priority on funding fast-track economic development projects such as the construction of infrastructure and other facilities and may have considerable difficulty in its early years establishing long-term, community-based resource management programs.It is also unclear how the transfer of former TLAs to TPSAs will benefit communities when the proposed partnership, dominated by business and corporate interests, may prompt the reopening of logged-over areas, further fragmenting efforts to promote natural forest regeneration. To date, 85 percent of the original TLA concessions have been cancelled, predominantly due to expiration of contracts and exhaustion of forests. The shift to co-management through community partnerships with timber entrepreneurs not only raises questions of equity, but also emphasizes management systems based on further exploitation of natural resources which are already severely depleted.
The primary thrust of national forestry programs developed in the 1980s has been reforestation. While seedling survival rates have been less than 30 percent, plantations are expected to provide a sustainable supply of timber and pulp to meet future market demand. Yet experiences from other countries indicate that plantations often fail to relieve pressures on natural forests. In fact, they can further add pressure as natural forests are targeted for clearing and conversion to plantations. At the same time, plantations provide an attractive investment option for development and commercial banks. For the period between 1988 and 1995, under such programs as Industrial Tree Plantations (ITP), which utilized lands formerly under natural forests, the Asia Development Bank (ADB) has extended two loans totaling $220 million for plantation development. Based in part on consultation and pressures from NGOs, the ADB now includes community participation as an integral component of plantation reforestation. However, any significant government or donor agency investments in community-based watershed protection and natural forest regeneration are still lacking. This oversight seems closely linked with the larger failure of national government programs and policies to protect the nation's remaining forests.
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Roberta, a mestizo-Dumagat grandmother, has hunted and gathered rattan in the Dupinga since childhood |
Ridge above Lingod creek, logged and later opened for swidden farming; landslides result from geological mass wasting |
Natural forest regeneration in deforested Dupinga watershed foothills is suppressed by periodic fires which perpetuate green cogon grasses.
Dumagat man completes a two-day inner-tube trip transporting rattan harvest down the Dupinga River
Dumagat woman cuts and skins rattan cane into poles in preparation for sale to local agents