An Upland Community in Transition: Institutional Innovations for Sustainable Development in Rural Philippines 9789814345163

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AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION

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The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) is one of the regional research and training centres of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), an intergovernmental body founded in 1965 to promote cooperation among Southeast Asian nations through activities in education, science, and culture. SEARCA’s programmes are designed to strengthen institutional capacities in agriculture and rural development in Southeast Asia through graduate education, short-term training, research, and knowledge exchange. It is hosted by the Philippine Government on the campus of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, which is based in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines. It is supported by donations from SEAMEO member and associate member states, other governments, and various international donor agencies. The Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) was established as an autonomous organisation in 1968. It is a regional centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and development in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic environment. The Institute’s research programmes are the Regional Economic Studies (RES, including ASEAN and APEC), Regional Strategic and Political Studies (RSPS), and Regional Social and Cultural Studies (RSCS). ISEAS Publishing, an established academic press, has issued more than 2,000 books and journals. It is the largest scholarly publisher of research about Southeast Asia from within the region. ISEAS Publishing works with many other academic and trade publishers and distributors to disseminate important research and analyses from and about Southeast Asia to the rest of the world.

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AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION Institutional Innovations for Sustainable Development in Rural Philippines Agnes C. Rola

Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture College, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines

INSTITUTE OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES Singapore

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First published in Singapore in 2011 by ISEAS Publishing Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace Pasir Panjang, Singapore 119614 and Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) College, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines 4031 E-mail:[email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. © 2011 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore The responsibility for facts and opinions in this publication rests exclusively with the author, and her interpretations do not necessarily reflect the views or the policy of the publishers or their supporters. ISEAS Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Rola, Agnes C. An upland community in transition: institutional innovations for sustainable development in rural Philippines. 1. Rural development—Government policy—Philippines. 2. Sustainable development—Government policy—Philippines. 3. Rights of property—Philippines. 4. Uplands—Philippines—Management. 5. Philippines—Rural conditions. I. Title. HN720 Z9C6R74 2011 ISBN 978-981-4345-14-9 (soft cover) ISBN 978-981-4345-15-6 (hard cover) ISBN 978-981-4345-16-3 (E-book PDF)

Photo credits: Agnes C. Rola for the book cover Cover artist and designer: Achilleus dM. Coronel Copyeditor: Marie Cyddyqa Jaya C. Rogel Lay-out artist, maps and graphs illustrator: Joel Anthony T. Cardenas Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte Ltd

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v

Contents Tables Figures Acronyms Foreword Preface Acknowledgements 1

INTRODUCTION Upland Economic Development and Institutional Evolution: An Analytical Framework Tension in the Uplands and Its Institutional and Policy Context Approach to the Study

2

AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION Introduction Biophysical Conditions Social and Economic Conditions Agriculture Environment and Natural Resources Governance Conclusions

3

THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY Introduction Surveys Social and Demographic Characteristics of Households Agricultural Economy and Trends The Poor in a Market-based Upland Economy Conclusions

4

LAND USE AND LABOR ALLOCATION Introduction Farm Land and Labor Use Decisions Propensity to Participate in Non-farm and Off-farm Employment Impact of Non-farm Employment on Soil Conservation Decisions Conclusions and Policy Implications

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viii xi xii xvii xviii xxii 1 2 5 11 17 17 19 27 31 40 45 46 53 53 53 61 65 77 80 83 83 85 93 97 101

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vi 5

DEVELOPMENT PATHWAYS OF UPLAND HOUSEHOLDS Introduction Drivers of Change and Development Pathways: An Analytical Framework Determinants and Outcomes of Development Pathways: Empirical Methods Determinants and Outcomes of Pathways: Results and Discussion Changes in Farm Practices Across Pathways The Faces Behind the Pathways: Farmer Case Studies Conclusions

6

PROPERTY RIGHTS, EXTERNALITIES, AND UPLAND SUSTAINABILITY Introduction Evolution of Property Rights in the Uplands Evolution of Property Rights in Bukidnon Who Owns the Water in the Uplands? Conclusions

7

DECENTRALIZATION, GOVERNANCE, AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Introduction Decentralized Environmental Governance in Practice in Bukidnon Province Municipal Governance Under Decentralization: The Watershed Management Plan in Lantapan Challenges for Sustainable Outcomes Conclusions

8

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107 107 108 109 113 123 127 140 149 149 150 151 153 162 167 167 169 175 187 190

TOWARDS A SUSTAINABLE UPLAND COMMUNITY

199

Introduction Lantapan’s Transition to a Sustainable Community: The Institutional Context Institutions, Resource Use, and Environmental Outcomes Cultural Diversity in a Modern Rural Economy Conclusions

199 201 209 211 214

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vii 9

CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND LESSONS LEARNED Summary Conclusions Recommendations A Researcher’s Perspective

Epilogue About the Author

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219 219 222 223 226 233 235

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Tables 1.1

An analytical framework of economic development and institutional evolution for environmental management

2.1

Lower and upper watershed barangay characteristics in terms of population growth, land area (ha), elevation (m), and distance from Poblacion (km), 1990-2002 Total area and barangays covered by sub-watersheds in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines Land use pattern in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994 and 2001 Population growth rate in Lantapan, Bukidnon (by location) and the Philippines, 1970-2000 Annual per capita poverty thresholds Number of farms by size in Bukidnon and Lantapan, 1971, 1980, 1991, and 2002

20

Trends in area (ha) of selected crops in Bukidnon, 1991 and 2002 Respondents’ perception on the consequences of pesticide runoff from banana farms to the rivers in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 2000 Number of households, estimated number of agricultural households, and sample size by barangay Number of respondents included in the survey, 1994-2006 Frequency distribution of reasons for dropping out of farming in 2006 from the 2002 survey

35 43

Relative frequency (%) of sample population by age, and dependency ratio of the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1996, 2002, and 2006 Mean educational attainment of sample population adult members, by gender, ethnicity, and class, in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1996, 2002, and 2006

61

3.6

Mean educational attainment by age group in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1996-2006

63

3.7

Distribution of tenure of the largest parcel of farmer (%), 1994, 2002, and 2006 Number of households with plots in the lower watershed, upper watershed, and both watersheds in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994, 2002, and 2006

65

2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5

3.8

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3

23 25 28 32 34

55 57 58

62

66

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ix 3.9

Relative distribution of trends in cropping pattern (%) in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

69

3.10

Poverty incidence among sample households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1998-2006 Comparison of characteristics of families below poverty income threshold in Lantapan in 2006 from 1994 (n=37) Summary statistics of variables Random effects Tobit estimates Elasticity estimates from random effects Tobit model Average daily wages by occupation and location (PhP/day), 1998-2002 Distribution of dry season employment by household members over 15 years old, 1996-2002 Logit estimates on the propensity to participate in off-farm and non-farm activities (1=participating; 0=not participating), 19961998 Logit estimates on the propensity to participate in off-farm and non-farm activities (1=participating; 0=not participating), 20002002 Labor supply function estimates and propensity to adopt soil conservation measures in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1996-2000 Frequency of households classified according to their pathways, in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, based on 2002 and 1994 economic activities Descriptive statistics of biophysical traits of plots and socioeconomic characteristics of households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 Market integration indicators by development pathways in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 Summary of statistically significant determinants of the pathways in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002

78

3.11 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4

87 89 90 92 93 95 96 100 111 114 117 118

5.5

Mean predicted probabilities of choice of development pathways in Lantapan, Bukidnon (derived from multinomial logit model), 1994-2004

119

5.6

Mean change in outcome variables, except for household income (2002-1998), in the lower and upper watershed, 2002-1994 (in 1994 prices for monetary values) Qualitative analysis of economic and soil quality outcomes of development pathways in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1998-2002 (N=109)

121

5.7

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79

122

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x 5.8

Changes in soil and pest management practices by proportion of upland households (%) in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002

124

5.9

Changes in soil conservation practices by proportion of upland households (%) in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 Existing environmental programs and projects in Lantapan, 2002 Proposed development projects by ecozone in the four main tributaries of the Manupali watershed in Lantapan

126

7.1 7.2

179 180

Appendix Tables A5.1

A5.2 A5.3

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Multinomial logit regression results of determinants of the pathways of lower and upper watershed households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 (N=109) Multinomial logit regression results of determinants of the pathways of lower watershed households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 (N=40) Multinomial logit regression results of determinants of the pathways of upper watershed households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 (N=69)

142

144 145

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xi

Figures 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 4.1 5.1 7.1 7.2

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Location map of Lantapan Location map of the Manupali watershed The four main tributaries of the Manupali River in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines Slope map of Lantapan Land use map of Lantapan Average farm size by ethnicity of all farms in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

19 21 22

Farm area (%) planted to annual crops in the (a) lower and (b) upper watershed Trends in yield (kg/ha) of (a) white corn, (b) yellow corn, (c) coffee, and (d) cabbage, by watershed, in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006 Trends in production cost (per kg) and farm price (per kg) of various crops in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006 Distribution of monthly income of household (%; in real term, 1994=100), based on their dominant cropping pattern, in the lower watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1998-2006 Trends in the nominal protection rate for corn in the Philippines An analytical framework of household development pathways in the uplands Operational structure of the Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council Linkages of management entities of Lantapan environmental resources

70

24 26 67

71 74 77 84 109 172 176

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Acronyms

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A and D ABC ACIAR ACM ADB APRAAP ATSAL AusAID BAS BENRO BIDANI

Alienable and disposable Association of Barangay Captains Australian Center for International Agricultural Research Adaptive Co-Management Asian Development Bank Agricultural Policy Research-Advocacy Assistance Program Agroforestry Tree Seed Association of Lantapan Australian Agency for International Development Bureau of Agricultural Statistics Bukidnon Environment and Natural Resources Office Barangay International Development Approach for Nutrition Improvement

BSWM BUSCO BWPDC CAC CADC CADT CARP CBFM CBFMA CCLE CDF CDO CENRO CFMA CFP CHP CIDA CLOA CLT CMU CNI

Bureau of Soils and Water Management Bukidnon Sugar Milling Corporation Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council Community Advisory Council Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program Community-based Forest Management Community-based Forest Management Agreements Center for Continuing Legal Education Countrywide Development Fund Cagayan de Oro Community Environment and Natural Resources Office Community Forestry Management Agreement Community Forestry Program Cold Chain Program Canadian International Development Agency Certificate of Land Ownership Award Certificate of Land Transfer Central Mindanao University Commission on National Integration

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xiii COE CPPAP CSC DA DA-GMA DA-HVCC DAR DECS DENR DILG DSWD ECC EIA EMB ENRO EO EP ERDS ERP ESCAP-ADB FAO FASPO FFS FIDA FITS FORI FPIC FPL GATT GDP GMACARESHCPP GNP GOCC GVA Ha

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Council of Elders Conservation of Priority Protected Areas Project Certificate of Stewardship Contract Department of Agriculture Department of Agriculture-Ginintuang Masaganang Ani Department of Agriculture-High Value Commercial Crop Program Department of Agrarian Reform Department of Education, Culture, and Sports Department of Environment and Natural Resources Department of Interior and Local Government Department of Social Welfare and Development Environmental Compliance Certificate Environmental Impact Assessment Environmental Management Bureau Environmental and Natural Resources Office Executive Order Emancipation Patents Environmental Research Development System Effective rate of protection Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific-ADB Food and Agriculture Organization Foreign-Assisted and Special Projects Office Farmer Field Schools Fiber Industry Development Authority Farmers’ Information and Technology Services Forest Research Institute Free and prior informed consent Free Patent Law General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade Gross Domestic Product GMA-Countrywide Assistance for Rural Employment and Services for Hybrid Corn Production Program Gross National Product Government Owned and Controlled Corporations Reform Gross value added Hectare/s

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xiv HPI HPI-SANREM HVCC HYV IARCs ICC ICRAF IFMA IIRR IP IPM IPM-KasaKalikasan IPRA ISF ISPPS-UPLB IWMI kg KGV KIN km LGA LGC LGSP LGU Livecor LLCA LWMC m MA ManRIS MAO MARDI MARO mcm

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Heifer Project International Heifer Project International-Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management High Value Commercial Crop High Yielding Varieties International Agricultural Research Centers Indigenous Cultural Communities International Council for Research in Agroforestry (World Agroforestry Center) Industrial Forestry Management Agreement International Institute of Rural Reconstruction Indigenous person/people Integrated pest management IPM-Kasaganaan ng Sakahan at Kalikasan Indigenous People’s Rights Act Integrated Social Forestry Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies of the University of the Philippines Los Baños International Water Management Institute Kilogram/s Kitanglad Guard Volunteers Kitanglad Integrated NGOs Kilometer/s Local Government Academy Local Government Code Local Government Support Program Local Government Unit Livelihood Corporations Lantapan Landcare Association Lantapan Watershed Management Council Meter/s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Manupali River Irrigation System Municipal Agricultural Office Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute Municipal Agrarian Reform Office Million cubic meters

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xv masl MENRO MKAVI MKRNP MLGU MMO MMT MMWDP MOA MOL MSEC MTWG NAPOCOR NCIP NDL NDLA NEDA NFA NGA NGO NIA NIPA NIPAS Norminveggies NRM NRMC NRMP NRMDP NSCB NSO NVS NWRB OPV PA 21 PAEDA PAMB PAO PASu

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Meters above sea level Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office Mt. Kitanglad Agri-Ventures, Inc. Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park Municipal Local Government Unit Municipal Management Office Multi-agency Monitoring Team Muleta Manupali Watershed Development Project Memorandum of Agreement Municipality of Lantapan Management of Soil Erosion Consortium Municipal Technical Working Group National Power Corporation National Commission for Indigenous Peoples Non-destructive livelihoods Non-destructive livelihood activities National Economic and Development Authority National Food Authority Non-government agency Non-government organization National Irrigation Administration NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas National Integrated Protected Areas Systems Northern Mindanao Vegetable Producers’ Association, Inc. Natural Resources Management Natural Resources Management Council Natural Resources Management Plan Natural Resources Management Development Plan National Statistical Coordination Board National Statistics Office Natural vegetative strips National Water Resources Board Open pollinated variety Philippine Agenda 21 Philippine Agricultural Economics and Development Association Protected Area Management Board Provincial Agricultural Office Protected Area Superintendent

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xvi

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PCSD PENRO PLA PLUS PO PTA RA RABA RACSA RDE RH RHA RIS RMA SA SAFDZ SANREM CRSP SEA

Philippine Council for Sustainable Development Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office Participatory Landscape Approach Producers’ Linkage with Users People’s organization Parent-Teacher Association Republic Act Rapid Biodiversity Appraisal Rapid Carbon Stock Appraisal Research, Development, and Extension Relative humidity Rapid Hydrological Appraisal River Irrigation Systems Rapid Market Appraisal Sustainable agriculture Strategic Agricultural and Fisheries Development Zones Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program Southeast Asia

SB SEC SEF SIFMA TLA TR TSS TULSEA USAID USDA VSO WB WEPP WRI WTO WWII

Sangguniang Bayan Securities and Exchange Commission Special Education Fund Socialized IFMA Timber License Agreement trans-diciplinary research Total suspended solids Trees in Multiuse Landscape in Southeast Asia United States Agency for International Development United States Department of Agriculture Voluntary Services Overseas World Bank Water Erosion Prediction Project World Resources Institute World Trade Organization World War II

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Foreword

Sustainable agriculture is desired now more than ever; its necessity becoming increasingly apparent. With the advent of agricultural commercialization and expansion, the growing need for easily accessible income sources in rural areas, and the degradation of the natural environment due to the exploitation of the natural resource base, the creation and evolution of policies and institutions that will safeguard the environment are imperative; even more so, proper implementation of such policies and competence of such institutions. In the Philippines, upland communities in transition serve as excellent examples of how innovations; community and individual decisions; and the historical, institutional and economic context of upland farming shape economic development in rural areas. They also reflect how economic growth and the introduction of new technologies affect future decisions related to agriculture and the use of natural resources. It is also vital to note that upland activities affect events in the lowlands—with outcomes manifesting almost immediately or in the long term. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA), as a regional center for agriculture and rural development, realizes the significance and urgency of telling this story of an upland community in transition. The Philippines has a rich natural resource base; if not given due attention and protection now, future efforts to conserve it may become futile. As the environment continues to exhibit both predicted and unforeseen changes, this book sheds light on measures that could reduce the impacts of such changes and strategies for coping with the effects of environmental aberrations. It aids in promoting a greater understanding of sustainable development, not only in the Philippines but also in other developing countries.

Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr. Director, SEARCA

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xviii

Preface

The global program on Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management (SANREM) is part of the Collaborative Research Support Program (CRSP) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). SANREM CRSP is expected to generate research results that can contribute to the development of sustainable agricultural technologies and natural resource management strategies in the developing world. It is meant to be a long-term undertaking with partnerships between and among scientists of developing and developed countries, including collaborations with both government and non-government organizations. As articulated by the United States National Research Council in its seminal document about SANREM, the knowledge partners’ gain from the SANREM research is expected “to advance both the theory that explains sustainability and the design of practices that promote sustainability at the farm, landscape, and agroecosystem levels” (NRC 1991). In Southeast Asia, the SANREM CRSP study site was in the Philippines. Field activities started in 1994 with 27 workplans altogether. In 2010, the program started its fourth phase, which will run for the next five years. At this point, the program has produced a wealth of literature about agricultural sustainability and natural resources management strategies. However, most of these focus on landscape management strategies.

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xix This book, on the other hand, focuses on the lifescape component of the program. It relates how upland households responded to economic shocks and climate aberration and other national policy reforms; and how upland local governments addressed institutional changes. It asks how an upland community can attain sustainability, given these external shocks. STRUCTURE OF THE BOOK The subtext of this book is a story about institutions and how they may have to evolve to address the economic and environmental tensions in the uplands. Institutions, rules that may be set officially or may have evolved unofficially, make human behavior predictable (North 1990). There are four levels of institutions, as described below and referred to in the different chapters, according to Williamson’s (2000) classification: “First-level institutions are embedded and are shaped by informal rules, customs, cultural beliefs, norms, traditions, and religion. Second-level institutions include the institutional environment, such as laws and property rights… the formal rules of the game. Third-level institutions concern the way the game is played, aligning governance structure with transactions… Fourth-level institutions concern the rules for resource allocation and employment” (in Koester 2005, p. 104). In this book, it is argued that the primary driver of upland resource degradation is intensive agriculture sans the necessary institutional features for sustainable practices. The brakes to intensification are hypothesized to be in the form of (1) favorable market incentives from the broader economy that can reduce stresses on the fragile upland resources; (2) institutional innovations supportive of a vibrant upland economy such as easy access to appropriate agricultural technologies; (3) well-defined property rights of land and water agricultural resources; and (4) a responsive political or governance structure facilitative of optimal local resource management. When properly tuned, these brakes could bring upland communities to a more sustainable path than the current one. Chapter 1 presents the book’s analytical framework, which considers economy and the environment during the three stages of development: (1) the prehistory or subsistence economy; (2) the early development or just about the end of World War II to the 1990s; and (3) the late development or around the 1990s to the present.

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xx The book focuses on the transition to the third stage using the experience of an upland town in the Philippines chronicled from 1994 to 2006—the turn of the 21st century. The introductory chapter provides the background for discussing the sources and consequences of tensions between economic growth and the commercialization of agriculture, and the evolution of institutions and policies for managing natural resources in the environmentally fragile uplands of Southeast Asia. Chapter 2 describes the elements of Lantapan, the study area and “an upland community in transition,” during the study decade. Using secondary data, it presents the town’s biophysical, social, and economic characteristics. It illustrates agricultural expansion and intensification at the turn of the 21st century; the observed impact of agricultural commercialization on the environment and natural resource base; the local institutions and governance mechanisms that have encouraged such commercialization; and the need for an evolution of appropriate social structures for sustainable upland agriculture. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 contain analyses of data from the surveys and annual resurveys of the same set of households and plots in the study community of SANREM CRSP Southeast Asia (SEA) from 1994 to 2006. The data and analyses are presented by elevation: the lower watershed villages are areas below 1000 meters above sea level (masl) where corn is a predominant crop; the upper watershed villages are located 1000 masl and higher, and are predominantly vegetable areas. Chapter 3 explains the trends in the town economy using the panel data. It discusses the evolving features of the study community’s agricultural economy via analysis of trends in agricultural productivity, farm incomes, and household incomes. This chapter also describes the survey methodology. Chapter 4 investigates farmers’ decisions on the use of key resources under their control, namely, use of agricultural land, allocation of labor, and management of soil quality through on-farm conservation decisions. Using the data summarized in the previous chapter and some econometric methods, this chapter quantifies upland household responses to output price and wage changes. It also discusses the links of economic variables to soil conservation practices. Chapter 5 deepens the analysis of land use and labor allocation decisions by identifying the conditioning factors that have led such decisions to a particular pathway, the economic and environmental outcomes of which are also analyzed. It also presents nine farmer cases that give a microscopic view of the milieu of factors affecting native tribe members’ and migrants’ resource-use decisions. These essays illustrate the heterogeneity and the complexity of the social and personal conditions

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xxi of upland households—important considerations in planning upland development programs. Chapter 6 elaborates the consequences of community resource use and chronicles the evolution of property rights arrangements in Philippine uplands based on the study site’s experience. It discusses the role of property rights in the access and use of upland resources. Property rights arrangements in the Philippines have also evolved as economic development unfolded. Customary rules prevailed during the predevelopment period while the State was most powerful during the early development period. Theoretically, the late development period is characterized by the return of these rights to local communities. In this chapter, the opportunities and constraints of the Philippine government in devising more effective rules on bundles of rights of upland land and water are analyzed. Chapter 7 elucidates on the opportunities and constraints of decentralization policy as a mode of upland resource governance in the Philippines. It broadens the analysis of environmental management from communities to watersheds, highlighting that upland communities’ good environmental governance will affect the watershed on a wider scale. The analysis focuses on how Lantapan practices its newly delegated power as provided for in the Local Government Code of the Philippines. It also points out issues accompanying this power shift: (1) the central office’s reluctance to yield such power; (2) the multiplicity of local institutions assuming such power; (3) the national and local offices’ non-coordination in environmental concerns; (4) and the partners’ general lack of capacities to promote environmental management. It describes the municipal government’s efforts in and lessons learned from watershed management planning and implementation. Chapter 8 describes the state of a sustainable community, measured by welfare indicators that are integrated indices of economic, environmental, and social wellbeing. It integrates the points raised in previous chapters to illustrate the study community’s progress towards sustainable development pathways. Chapter 9 synthesizes study findings, recommendations, and lessons learned from the research. Lastly, an epilogue suggests that the study municipality is in the transition mode to a sustainable community.

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xxii

Acknowledgements

This publication would not have been possible without the cooperation and collaboration of partners: the farmers, both the indigenous persons and migrants; and the local officials both of the municipality of Lantapan and the province of Bukidnon. The author thanks them for their willingness to tell their story. The research reported in this book was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the generous support of the American people for the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP) under terms of Cooperative Agreement of Award No. PCE-A-00-98-00019-00 given to the University of Georgia and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Award No. EPP-A-00-04-00013-00 to the Office of International Research and Development (OIRED) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech); and terms of sub-agreement 19070A425632 between Virginia Tech and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA&T). In the Philippines, this program was coordinated by the Heifer Project International (HPI) for Phase I and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry, and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) for Phase II. In all the phases including Phase III, the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) was among the active partners. To these institutions, my heartfelt thanks for this opportunity to delve into an interesting albeit difficult topic. Three very special people have contributed to the fruition of this endeavor: Ian Coxhead of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, my long-term research colleague, had substantially contributed to put form to the early drafts of this manuscript and

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xxiii especially for his contributions in Chapters 1 and 4; the late Dr. Antonio T. Sumbalan former Bukidnon Provincial Planning and Development Officer, in whose memory this book is dedicated, has been a source of deep inspiration for the several personal stories that are told and also for his contribution in Chapter 7 of this book; and SANREM CRSP SEA’s field research assistant, Ms. Isidra Balansag-Bagares, now an employee of the Bukidnon Environment and Natural Resources Office, who diligently established the data especially for the farmer stories in Chapter 5. Philippine National Scientist Dr. Gelia T. Castillo combed through the draft chapters and needed to know the “big picture” of this small upland community. Jennifer P.T. Liguton of the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) provided plenty of expert editing that made this manuscript more comprehensible. Dr. Josefina T. Dizon and several other colleagues also read through the manuscript and provided feedback that contributed to the betterment of this publication. Much gratitude goes to the various SANREM-CRSP SEA research assistants and data managers based at UPLB: Elmer Tagarino, Celia Tabien, Salve Mugol, Erica Villavelez, Adrian Albano and John Paul De Mesa who have deftly formulated tables and ran a voluminous number of regression equations; and the author’s ISPPS colleagues, Dulce Elazegui, Miriam Nguyen, and Maren Umali for assistance in the survey work. Fieldwork was fun because of the company of SANREM-CRSP SEA’s site coordinators, Dr. Gladys Buenavista and Dr. Vel Suminguit. The author wishes to thank the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) and its current director, Dr. Gil C. Saguiguit, Jr. and Deputy Director Dr. Francisco F. Peñalba, as well as its past director, Dr. Arsenio M. Balisacan; and the ISEAS Publishing at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) Singapore for seeing to it that the story told here will see the light of day. The assistance of Dr. Maria Celeste Habito-Cadiz and her staff, Dr. Mariliza V. Ticsay, Claudia Svetlana Z. Cabrera, Ella Kristina Domingo-Coronel; Joel Anthony T. Cardenas for the layout; and Marie Cddyqa Jaya G. Rogel for copy-editing, in the final stages of the publication of this book is acknowledged with much gratitude. Any opinions expressed in this book do not reflect the views of the institutions named above. All errors are the author’s full responsibility. Finally, the author thanks her husband and children for their patience and understanding for the time she spent away from them to finish this manuscript.

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INTRODUCTION

1

1

Introduction

“…Once upon a time there were traditional patterns of order and balance between a people’s needs and the sustainability of their resources. Authority and accountability were close to the source of need and nature. Then came a period of disorder and destruction as resources were redefined to meet centralized, commercial goals of distant accountability and whimsical market forces.” — William R. Burch, Foreword to Keepers of the Forest (Poffenberger 1990)

Southeast Asia’s uplands present a rich and diverse natural environment. In the past 50 years, these areas have been exposed to timber extraction, mining, intensified subsistence farming, plantation establishment, and other commercial activities that increasingly include highly capital-intensive horticulture and livestock-rearing operations. The expansion and commercialization of agriculture and rural industries have been propelled by a combination of demand factors, especially the search for land and forest as complements to labor; supply factors, including unregulated access to many resources; and reduced transaction costs due to the expansion of roads and other infrastructure. These activities have denuded forest cover, polluted rivers, eroded soils, and diminished biodiversity because the necessary policy and institutional support for environmental management had been absent. In many areas, damage to the natural environment has reached the point where the possibility of future production activities on the same resource base is already in question. Case studies of resource depletion associated with either rapid economic growth or a poverty-driven “optimal path to extinction” (Perrings 1989) abound in the

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literature. Many of these identify “institutional failures,” creating open access to natural resources as an enabling condition. But a longer time perspective reveals that open access was not always the norm in the uplands; if the experience of comparable areas in wealthy countries is a guide, neither does this institutional failure persist as economies develop. Clearly, how economic growth interacts with institutions and influences their evolution can potentially determine the uses of natural resources and, through bio-feedback mechanisms, the health of upland economies as well.

UPLAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION: AN ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK Economic development in the uplands is usually accompanied by distinct phases of institutional development (Table 1.1). In the first phase—before colonization or massive internal migration, when upland populations are sparse and production is primarily for subsistence—customary law governs natural resource use. Here, tribes and communities manage the resources over which they have control. These institutions are effective in governing the commons because demand for the resources is low, technologies for their exploitation are limited, and transport infrastructure is poor. Long-rotation bush farming fallow systems typical of this era of development are widely regarded as “sustainable.” Economic development and population growth in coastal cities and lowland rural areas rapidly change the upland economy. Commercialization, driven by the expansion of domestic and global markets; the increase in migration and natural population; and the introduction of new technologies all inflict new pressures on the resource base. Customary law and cultural traditions that define land control by usufruct rather than title cannot cope with such pressures. In the second phase, traditional resource use institutions are swept aside. The State primarily controls resource use and access, and new resource management institutions are imposed from the outside; local governments and local offices of national resource management agencies may be established. Be that as it may, these have limited effective authority and no autonomy. State power is low at the frontier; in effect, the resource base becomes open access. Moreover, there is no political will for environmental or resource use measures that could reduce current income-generating opportunities of severely impoverished people amidst a perceived abundance of natural resources. In addition, the State typically promotes resource depletion as a means to

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Table 1.1 An analytical framework of economic development and institutional evolution for environmental management Economy and Resource Use Prehistory/subsistence economy

Early development

Late development

Institutional Evolution

Low population growth Resource abundance Subsistence Slash and burn, long fallow period considered “sustainable” High population growth, migration Increased competition of resource use Intensive agriculture Commercializing economy Shortening of fallow period

Customary law, community resource management

Declining population density Highly commercial economy Declining resource use intensity (i.e., reforestation programs)

Ideally: Central and local institutional innovations Increased community stewardship of environment Well-defined property rights

State-designed institutions with no practical checks Property rights not well defined, resulting in “land grabs”

Alternately: Local elite gains power Incentives not compatible with benefits

generate household income and fiscal revenues. Thus, rapid deforestation, shortening of fallow periods, and general degradation of soil and water resources follow. This “period of disorder and destruction,” as Burch (in Poffenberger 1990) describes it, was characteristic of many upland regions from the 1960s through the 1990s. During that time, Southeast Asia established itself as the world region with the highest annual deforestation rate (FAO 2001), even as its leading economies grew at historically unprecedented rates. In highly repressed economies, the State itself became the primary agent and entrepreneur of resource depletion, having closed off most other means to generate jobs, government revenue, and foreign exchange.

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In Southeast Asia’s more open economies, economic maturation and the end of the demographic transition has ushered in a third phase. In this phase, lower rates of total labor force growth and rapid job creation outside of agriculture greatly reduce population-driven demand for upland land. This could have large implications on resource governance. The author deems that this phase may result in either continued rapid resource depletion or a shift to more conservative strategies. Whichever is more likely to occur will depend largely on the speed by which institutions catch up with the pace of economic growth. Now, countries of the region present a fascinating array of trends, with no clear, single pattern having emerged (Dupar and Badenoch 2002). In the third phase, community demand for environmental quality and resource conservation is growing. This trend is complemented by a more general decentralization of power and authority, as is currently taking place through formal means in the region’s large economies. In the best situations, decentralization and local demands for more environment-friendly development are complemented by national laws and policies; in the best outcomes, national agencies, local governments, and community groups collaborate to design—and more importantly, to implement—resource management policies compatible with individual and community needs and aspirations. But in the worst cases, with reduced power at the national government level and a “business as usual” attitude on the part of local elites, Burch’s “disorder and destruction” continues or even worsens. Burgeoning agricultural markets further complicate tensions over “sustainable development” strategies. Increased demand for traditional upland crops such as corn, and demand for new products such as vegetables, fruits, and oil palm increase the return on land. This promotes the expansion of farmed area, as well as intensified use of existing acreage as farmers respond to market signals. Except in the case of commercial plantations, individual farmers make most of these land use decisions and are constrained by idiosyncratic phenomena—household resources, knowledge, skills, and so on— and by at least some broader community-level factors, including cultural and legal institutions. Focusing on the transition to the third phase of institutional development, this book considers the sources and consequences of tensions between economic growth and agricultural commercialization, and the evolution of policies and institutions for managing natural resources in Southeast Asia’s environmentally fragile uplands. It considers the historical, institutional, and economic context of upland farming; using a decade-long data set from farm households in a Philippine upland village, it investigates the drivers of the recent evolution of economic behavior and institutional arrangements in upland and forest margin areas. Looking forward, one asks how

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institutions might evolve in the near future, particularly what changes might be wrought by the recent but far-reaching devolution of administrative and legal powers to sub-national jurisdictions. This book is inspired by the work of Hayami and Kikuchi (2000). Using a threedecade data series from a lowland Philippine village, these authors gave a microscopic view of how agricultural production systems, village community institutions, and rural people’s well-being changed from the mid-1960s to the 1990s under the pressure of commercialization and new technologies. This book also draws inspiration from a municipal-level study of the dynamics of land use change and the impact of government policies on economic development and the environment in the Brazilian Amazon from 1970 to 1996 (Andersen et al. 2002). Compared with these studies, the time span of this research is short—barely a decade. However, the data set employed is unique: it is the only time series of farm- and household-level data characterizing upland development in the Philippines at the turn of the 21st century. Moreover, the data cover a decade when significant global economic and local institutional transformations took place. These are excellent reasons to present the analyses developed so far. TENSION IN THE UPLANDS AND ITS INSTITUTIONAL AND POLICY CONTEXT Development in the Uplands The economies of Asia’s uplands—usually defined officially by slope but in practice also refer to relatively remote agricultural areas—differ both in structure and level of development compared with lowland zones. Less densely populated and more dependent on agriculture and other resource-based industries, their populations are poorer, less healthy, and less educated. Higher transport and transaction costs constrain market access. Though accurate counts are impossible, the population living on “fragile” lands in Asia and the Pacific is currently estimated at 469 million or 25 percent of the total world population (World Bank 2003).2 Poverty and Human Development Poverty is pervasive in the uplands. By all measures, upland poverty is more widespread and severe than among the population as a whole. This does not only reflect the paucity of resources but also the endogenous move of poor people to the frontier. Upland poverty is also evident in other ways: upland populations are poorly

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educated and, as shown by epidemiological studies, less nourished. By virtue of their ethnic origins, the indigenous groups that largely comprise contemporary upland populations are routinely denied equal access to public services—even taking account of their remoteness—and may face linguistic or cultural barriers to mobility in labor markets and access to credit and the legal system. Markets and Policies in the Upland Economy As recently as a generation ago, infrastructure constraints, travel costs, and even ethnic and political divisions largely isolated upland populations from lowland and non-farm economies. In spite of continued remoteness and relatively poor infrastructure, upland population trends, markets, policies, and institutions are now very strongly influenced by the development of the national economy and increasingly, the integration of the latter with global markets. Roads and telecommunications integrate upland markets with the national economy. As markets expand, they create new economic opportunities immediately seized by upland and migrant populations in general. In so doing, they also alter the value of immovable resources such as forests and land. In a subsistence economy, such resources (and even labor) have values derived only from what the local economy requires. But market integration requires that resource valuations reflect returns based on or obtainable from new uses. In the Philippines, upland with an 18-degree slope is not considered “alienable and disposable.” It normally belongs to the State and is considered public land. As such, past agriculture policies did not focus on the uplands. Upland crops research and development activities were likewise minimal. But these areas are now already intensively farmed, usually to corn, upland vegetables, and other crops such as sugar cane and bananas. Hence, current government programs focus on vegetable marketing, including establishing techno demos and conducting commercial testing of agro-based oriented enterprises, post-harvest and processing technologies. These further encourage intensive cultivation of high valued crops.

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Environmental Effects of Upland Development3 Population and economic activity expansion in upland areas is a primary factor in the depletion of forests and degradation of upland soils and watershed functions. The conversion of Asia’s forests—once the predominant land cover—to agriculture over the past century is a familiar story (Feeny 1982; Smiet 1990; Kummer 1992). However, the region’s upland soils are particularly susceptible to fertility loss and erosion (FAO 2000b). Accurate data on soil quality and propensity for erosion or land degradation are difficult to obtain except on a very fine scale; however, indicative data suggest that overall agricultural land degradation in Asian countries is a serious and pervasive problem (Doolette and MacGrath 1990; ESCAP-ADB 2000), particularly when sloping lands are intensively cultivated for short season or annual crops and tilled land is exposed to monsoon rainfall. The effects of deforestation and upland land degradation are not confined to upper watershed areas. Water pollution and soil transport also contribute to sedimentation in dams and canals; accelerated wear on turbines and other infrastructure for hydropower generation; eutrophication of lakes; increased health costs for downstream human and animal populations; and turbidity and related damage in coastal and estuarine ecosystems normally providing habitat for corals, seagrasses, and other flora and fauna, as well as incomes for households engaged in fisheries and tourism (Doolette and MacGrath 1990). The rural poor’s survival strategies aggravate these environmental damages to a greater extent. In the developing world, most of the poor’s livelihood depends directly or indirectly on the exploitation of natural resources such as soil, water, forests, animals, and fisheries. Poverty in developing countries is directly linked to labor productivity. Domestic savings and investment, and the inflow of foreign investment capital all raise labor productivity, as do investments in education and skills. But if labor productivity is low and/or stagnating, then typically, poverty is high and/or rising in the economy as a whole. This is true in tropical Asia; it invariably results in migration to the frontier because it is only there where poor, unskilled workers find productive resources complementary to their labor. With low wages found elsewhere in the economy, the disincentives of distance, remoteness, risk, and the move to an unfamiliar ecological and cultural setting all become less important and are ignored. As such, poverty and labor mobility contribute to environmental degradation in the uplands.

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The Institutional Context of Upland Development Economic development in the uplands is subject to tremendous influence from events in other sectors. Through markets and migration, policies directed at specific “lowland” sectors can also affect upland resource valuations, patterns of land use and production, and consequently, environmental outcomes (Coxhead and Jayasuriya 2003a). But one argument is that the policy and institutional context of upland environmental management conditions the effects of economic and policy changes. This is confirmed as one examines institutions most critical to forests and upland land resources. This book centers on resource management policies, as well as access and control (i.e., the property rights attached to the resource in question), as primary drivers of household and community decisions on natural resource management. Property Rights over Land and Forest Government centralization in general, and control over natural resource assets in particular, has long been a feature of governance in developing countries. In the Philippines, Spanish-era land law asserted the State’s ownership of all land unless a decree was issued to the contrary. This precedent has “remained the theoretical bedrock upon which Philippine national laws were based… Land not covered by official documentation is considered part of the public domain… regardless of how long [it] has been continuously occupied and cultivated” (Lynch 1987: 270). This doctrine persisted through the American administration and independence; although the area of declared public land had shrunk to only 62 percent of the total by the mid1980s, it still covered 90 percent of the uplands (ibid.). Moreover, a 1975 Philippine presidential decree explicitly prevented upland occupants from acquiring private property rights at the same time it declared that existing occupants of public lands were immune from prosecution (ibid.: 284). This act, given the lack of documentation and difficulty of enforcement, effectively legislated open access to forest lands by individuals. Other policies affecting forest and land management have arisen as side effects of other objectives. Most well-known among these are the various internal migration (or “transmigration”) initiatives from the 1960s to the 1980s, in which government agencies cleared and developed virgin land at the frontier to house and sustain sponsored migrants. Under these programs, large areas—most notably in Malaysia and Indonesia—were converted to plantations and upland fields, the latter sometimes supplied with irrigation at considerable expense, with mixed results.

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However, the degree of control over land use exerted by government agencies in transmigration areas varied. In Malaysia, where the spotlight was on development of rubber and other plantation crops, federal land development agencies sustained a relatively high degree of central control. In Indonesia, migrant communities frequently adapted infrastructural and land facilities to their own uses, which national agencies had little power or effective authority to contravene (Gérard and Ruf 2001). Forest policies began to change by the late 1980s. As commercially exploitable stocks dwindled, the damaging side effects of deforestation became more readily apparent, and domestic and foreign conservation movements gained voice. The evolution of forest policy away from centralized exploitation—and more recently, from centralized attempts at conservation—to a direction wherein communities and their representatives occupied center stage, is new. Even more so is the upland communities’ recognition of ownership, albeit the fact that earlier legal steps in the same direction had been made but remain quite incomplete. Upland Agricultural Resource Management In very recent years, upland agricultural resource management problems have increasingly been addressed through policies and projects targeted directly at some aspect or aspects of the upland economy and the environment (Coxhead and Jayasuriya 2003a). These include extension, research, and development aimed at generating new or more efficient upland farming techniques, forest protection measures, and soil conservation techniques. Agroforestry has also become a prominent technology package. This and other soil conserving technologies like contour hedgerows can potentially promote sustainable agriculture in the uplands. Government strategy in promoting these technologies has mostly been via direct approaches such as extension, but the farmers’ adoption of these technologies has been slow. Security of tenure and the broader economic environment both play influential roles in this adoption process (Rola and Coxhead 2002). Governance and Decentralization Decentralization is the devolution of the political decision-making process to the local level. In developing countries worldwide, this policy has been at the “center stage of policy experiments” in the last two decades (World Bank 1999). It has come in two phases; in the first phase, decentralization was a tool to deepen grassroots

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democracy (i.e., focus on political decentralization), and in the second phase, policies and programs were targeted to specific environmental and social sectors and served more than just local democratization (WRI 2003). Generally, proponents found this policy attractive mainly for two reasons: (1) it is a way to make government more responsive and efficient; and (2) it is regarded as a way of diffusing social and political tensions and ensuring local cultural and political autonomy (Bardhan nd). Others warn that decentralization is preferred only where there is heterogeneity and where there are no spillovers across jurisdiction (Oates 1972). There is also the problem of asymmetry (Bird 1995), where “central government may not know what to do, local government may not know how to do it.” This means that there are enabling environments in which decentralization can work, and corresponding policies and incentives will have to be in place. The period of decentralization has seen governments commit to giving more power to communities to manage environmental resources, but the legal basis for such actions is weakly established. For instance, community involvement is encouraged in forest management in Cambodia, but the absence of documented forest rights and responsibilities leaves the community with no authority to protect local forests (Poffenberger 2000). Similarly, Thailand has implemented a National Forest Policy but does not specify environmental rights and responsibilities to communities, and the legal basis for community resource management is still lacking despite decentralized powers. In Vietnam, the 1993 Land Law conferred use rights over agriculture and forest lands to communities and individuals, but the ownership of land and all other natural resources still rests with “the people,” i.e., the State (Tachibana et al. 2001). The Philippines is arguably the regional leader in institutional strengthening for environmental management, especially since the 1991 Local Government Code (LGC) was passed. In summary, policies that support community-based stewardship of natural resources are slowly evolving in Southeast Asia. But the emerging structures are different from earlier customary governance systems, not least in that there is collaboration between the State (national or local governments) and civil society. Incomplete decentralization of other areas of administrative control may have complicated forest and land management. In many cases, perhaps the majority, local control does not imply governance by the community; rather, there is an ongoing evolution of local power that mimics the centralized system it has replaced. Local elites, foreign interests, and other actors now also have access to resources— sometimes with less oversight than before. Therefore, whether decentralization is a better arrangement or not is still to be determined.

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APPROACH TO THE STUDY The issues above are investigated by examining data from a specific site over a period of time. More specifically, plot-, household-, and community-level data were generated from a single upland municipality in the Philippines over a time span of almost a decade to provide the empirical support to the tension between economic progress and environmental conditions, and illustrate the institutional shortcomings in mitigating such. These analyses were products of a program called Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources and Environmental Management Collaborative Research Support Program Southeast Asia (SANREM CRSP SEA) funded primarily by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). SANREM CRSP SEA brings together researchers from universities and specialist institutes in the Philippines, the U.S., and other countries, as well as the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), to work with farmers and other natural resource managers, communities, civil society institutions, and government agencies at local and national levels. The aim is to determine how to enable upland communities in making better natural resource management decisions. So far, the program has been implemented in three phases during the periods 1992-1995, 1996-2001, and 2005-2009. The analyses in this book span the period 1994-2006 only. The discussion of decentralization in this book is confined to the governing authority at the municipality level, although the household response will have a broader sphere of environmental impact (i.e., up to provincial-level resource quality). Globalization effects will be through prices and wages, which will also influence household resource-allocation decisions. Why study a single community? The reason is that aggregate data cannot tell the whole story. Though Asia’s uplands share many features and undergo many common experiences, each place and each experience is uniquely fashioned by the particulars of time, place, and context. To understand not just the big picture but also the details of how decisions are made—by the millions of individuals who make them—and why, there is a need to match aggregate and quantitative studies with the kinds of evidence and personal testimony that reveal the considered interplay of motives, constraints, and choices that make up each individual decision.4 This case study alone cannot expect to produce fully generalizable findings; however, it is believed that it can contribute to a broader understanding of the roles of institutions in attaining upland agricultural sustainability. Lessons can be learned by other upland communities that are now undergoing agricultural intensification.5

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Endnotes

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1

This chapter draws materials from Rola and Coxhead 2005.

2

“Fragility” is defined by criteria relating to aridity, slope, forest cover, and soil type.

3

This section was partly derived from Coxhead 2002 and Coxhead 2005.

4

Howell, C.J., R.T. Howell, and K.A. Schwabe 2006. Is income related to happiness for materially deprived? Examining the association between wealth and life satisfaction among indigenous Malaysian farmers. Social Indicators Research. 76:499-524.

5

A press release published on 14 May 2006 in the Philippine Star revealed that then Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had approved a proposal to release 5 million hectares for upland farming by upland dwellers and other interested investors. These included denuded public lands of the forest domains and watersheds for tree planting, and would involve a sizable number of upland villages in the Philippines.

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REFERENCES

Andersen, Lykke E., Clive W. J. Granger, Eustaquio J. Reis, Diana Weinhold, and Sven Wunder. The Dynamics of Deforestation and Economic Growth in the Brazilian Amazon. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Bardhan, P. “Decentralization of Governance and Development.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16 (4) (2002): 185-206. Bird, R. M. “Decentralizing Infrastructure: For Good or For Ill?” In Decentralizing Infrastructure: Advantages and Limitations, World Bank Discussion Papers 290, edited by A. Estache, 22-51. Washington, DC: The World Bank, 1995. Coxhead, Ian. “It takes a village to raise a Pigovian tax… Or does it take more? Prospects for devolved watershed management in developing countries.” Paper presented at the conference on Sustaining Food Security and Managing Natural Resources in Southeast Asia: Challenges for the 21st Century, Chiangmai, Thailand, January 8-11, 2002. Coxhead, Ian. “Globalization and the poverty-environment link in Asian agriculture.” Paper presented at the conference on Agricultural Development in Asia: Paradigms and Policies Three Decades After, Manila, Philippines, November 10-11, 2005. Coxhead, Ian and Sisira Jayasuriya. The Open Economy and the Environment: Development, Trade and Resources in Asia. Massachusetts, USA: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, 2003a. Doolette, J. B. and W. B. Magrath, eds. Watershed Development in Asia: Strategies and Technologies. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1990. Dupar, M. and N. Badenoch. Environment, Livelihoods, and Local Institutions: Decentralization in Mainland Southeast Asia. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute, 2002. ESCAP and ADB. State of the Environment in Asia and the Pacific. New York: United Nations, 2000. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). “Land Resource Potential and Constraints at Regional and Country Levels.” World Soil Resources Report No. 90. Rome: FAO, 2000b. FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Global Forest Resource Assessment 2000. Rome: FAO, 2001. Accessed August 20, 2004.http:// www.fao.org/forestry/fo/fra/main/pdf/main_report.zip

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Feeny, D. The Political Economy of Productivity: Thai Agricultural Development, 1880-1975. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1982. Gérard, Françoise and François Ruf, eds. Agriculture in Crisis: People, Commodities and Natural Resources in Indonesia, 1996-2000. Montpellier, France: CIRAD; Richmond, UK: Curzon, 2001. Hayami, Y. and M. Kikuchi. A Rice Village Saga: Three Decades of Green Revolution in a Philippine Village. Lanham: Barnes and Noble; Los Baños: International Rice Research Institute, 2000. Howell, C. J., R. T. Howell, and K. A. Schwabe. “Is income related to happiness for materially deprived? Examining the association between wealth and life satisfaction among indigenous Malaysian farmers.” Social Indicators Research 76 (2006): 499-524. Koester, U. “A revival of large farms in Eastern Europe-how important are institutions?” Agricultural Economics 32 supplement (2005): 103-113. Kummer, David. Deforestation in the Philippines. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila Press, 1992. Lynch, Owen J. “Philippine law and upland tenure.” In Man, Agriculture and the Tropical Forest: Change and Development in the Upland Philippines, edited by S. Fujisaka, P. Sajise and R. del Castillo, 269-292. Bangkok: Winrock International, 1987. National Research Council (NRC). Toward Sustainability. Soil and Water Research Priorities for Developing Countries, National Academy Press. Washington DC: 1991 North, D. C. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Oates, W. Fiscal Federalism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1972. Perrings, Charles. “An optimal path to extinction? Poverty and resource degradation in an open agrarian economy.” Journal of Development Economics 30 (1989): 1-24. Poffenberger, M., ed. Keepers of the Forest: Land Management Alternatives in Southeast Asia. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1990. Poffenberger, M., ed. Communities and Forest Management in Southeast Asia: A regional profile of the Working Group on Community Involvement in Forest Management. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN, 2000.

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Rola, Agnes C. and Ian Coxhead. “Economic development and environmental management in the uplands of Southeast Asia: challenges for policy and institutional development.” Agricultural Economics 33 supplement (2005): 503513. Rola, A. C. and I. Coxhead. “Do Non-farm Jobs Encourage or Retard Soil Conservation by Farmers in the Philippine Uplands?” Philippine Journal of Development 29 (1) (2002): 55-83. Smiet, A. C. “Forest Ecology on Java: Conversion and Usage in a Historical Perspective.” Journal of Tropical Forest Science 2 (4) (1990): 286-302. Tachibana, Towa, Trung M. Nguyen, and Keijiro Otsuka. “Management of state land and privatization in Vietnam.” In Land Tenure and Natural Resource Management: A Comparative Study of Agrarian Communities in Asia and Africa, edited by K. Otsuka and F. Place, 234-272. Washington, DC: Johns Hopkins for IFPRI, 2001. Williamson, O. “The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead.” Journal of Economic Literature XXXVIII (2000): 595-613. World Bank. Beyond the Center: Decentralizing the State. Washington, DC: World Bank, 1999. World Bank. World Development Report 2003. Washington, DC: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 2003. WRI (World Resources Institute). World Resources 2002-2004. Decisions for the Earth: Balance, Voice and Power. Washington, DC: United Nations’ Development Programme, UNEP, World Bank, and World Resources Institute, 2003.

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AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION

2

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An Upland Community in Transition

“Lantapan at the turn of the 21st century will be a viable agribusiness municipality where people will become self-sufficient and self-reliant, enjoying full life through vigorous and sustainable socio-economic, cultural, and political advancement.” — Vision Statement written in the Lantapan Municipal Annual Report 2002, Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines

The municipality of Lantapan in Bukidnon province, Philippines has been the site of nearly a decade of work to understand the implications of development trends and policies on upland economy and environment.1 The project proponents’ first glimpse of the study village was in early 1994, during a field trip of a local conference to plan the implementation of SANREM CRSP SEA.2 It was a typical sleepy upland town where roads were bumpy and dusty, and most houses were the native Filipino nipa huts. The main attraction was the different agro-ecological zones across the landscape of the Manupali River watershed, contained within one administrative unit. Lantapan—meaning “level on top,” a reference to the plateau at the head of the watershed—is located between the Kalatungan and Kitanglad ranges in Northern Mindanao. Formerly a barrio of Malaybalay, the capital of Bukidnon, it became a separate municipality in 1968 and was designated as sixth class, the lowest in terms of income (Lantapan Annual Report 2001). It was re-designated as fourth class in 1995 (National Statistics Office 1995) and as a third class municipality in 2001. The site also includes portions of the Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park (MKRNP), a protected and relatively undisturbed area of high biodiversity. Economically, it

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contains both land use-intensive and land use-extensive agricultural practices, various infrastructure, marketing and development impacts across the landscape, noticeable movement of resources, population and development or degradation processes, a large percentage of resource-poor farmers, and many active non-government organizations (NGOs), government organizations (GOs), and university programs operating within or near the site. In 1994, small-scale agriculture was the dominant source of livelihood in this area. By 2004, as the SANREM project ended its second phase, new investments had poured into the community as a result of overall growth in the Philippine economy, favorable local and national policies, and the enticements of foreign markets. These new investments were diverse; all exploiting the agricultural and natural resource wealth of the locality. Plantation agriculture and commercial hogs and poultry came to the town after 1998, after tax holidays for agribusiness firms establishing in the area were introduced. By 2001, the existing agribusiness sector had expanded from a few corn mills to include two banana plantations geared for the export market, two commercial piggeries, three commercial poultry farms, and a total of 12 corn mills. By 2006, there were five banana plantations whose produce all catered to the export market. The once-sleepy Lantapan has now set foot on the global market stage. Typical of the Philippine upland communities of the 21st century, this community is now on the cusp of the late development period or the third phase of institutional development (see Chapter 1). It faces the challenge of striking a balance between economic growth and environmental integrity. The pressures of increasing integration in the output, input, and labor markets, and the significant powers now bestowed on local governments as stipulated by the 1991 LGC will be important in this balancing act. Institutions that will guide the community towards sustainable development will have to evolve. This chapter provides a characterization of the study town and the changes that have taken place in its recent history. This is done using secondary data (from government records and other sources) and a decade of firsthand information gathered during site visits. The physical and social characteristics are first described, followed by development indicators such as population growth, employment patterns, health trends, and incomes.

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BIOPHYSICAL CONDITIONS Lantapan is located in the upper Manupali valley, some 15 kilometers south of the Bukidnon provincial capital of Malaybalay and 130 kilometers southeast of Cagayan de Oro, the closest city and port (Figure 2.1). Its landscape climbs from river flats (500600 m) through a rolling middle section (600-1100 m) to high-altitude, steeply sloped mountainsides (1100-2200 m). The lower elevation has a tropical climate while areas with a higher elevation have cooler temperatures—a distinction that defines separate zones of cultivation. Hence, it is convenient to say the area has a lower watershed (below 1000 m) and an upper watershed (above 1000 m). In local terms, the watershed has eight agro-ecological zones (Bellows et al. 1995). Moving downstream from the upper watershed to the floodplain, these are: (1) forests (lasang taas), (2) forest margins (lasang ubos), (3) intermittently cultivated

Philippines Southeast Asia

ΘΘCagayan de Oro ΘΘLantapan ΘΘ Valencia ΘΘ

Kibangay Basak Victory

Sungco

Kawayan

Davao City

Capitan Juan Kaatuan Alanib Baclayon Balila

Bantuanon

Poblacion

Bugacon

Kulasihan

Figure 2.1 Location map of Lantapan

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AGNES C. ROLA

grasslands (kasagbutan), (4) moderately sloping corn lands (kamaisan), (5) relatively level sugarcane and corn lands (kapatagan), (6) paddy rice lands (basakan), (7) intermittently flooded corn and paddy rice lands (tabunok), and (8) mixed agricultural and fishing zones (linaw). The lowland and upland watershed have seven barangays each (Table 2.1). The municipality has a total land area of 35,465 hectares, of which about 27 percent are classified as urban (poblacion) or urbanizing and the rest as agricultural. It has six major rivers and about 40 creeks and springs, reflecting its mountainside location. Lantapan, as mentioned, is wholly contained within the watershed of the Manupali River. The Manupali is also an important tributary of the Pulangui River, an irrigation and electric hydropower source in Bukidnon. The Pulangui drains into the Illana Bay, a major waterway for North and Central Mindanao. Thus, the agricultural activities

Table 2.1 Lower and upper watershed barangay characteristics in terms of population growth, land area (ha), elevation (m), and distance from Poblacion (km), 19902002

Barangay

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Census Years 1990 2002

Annual Growth Rate (1990-2000)

Land Area (ha)

Elevation (m)

Distance from Poblacion (km)

Lower Alanib Baclayon Balila Bantuanon Bugcaon Kulasihan Poblacion

3,623 1,171 2,215 3,697 2,886 2,870 3,926

3,864 1,439 2,306 4,292 3,874 6,006 4,612

0.605 2.081 0.373 1.463 3.112 9.933 1.588

3,010 613 484 2,819 1,646 1,543 1,633

800 900 500 800 500 700 600

6 2 1 6 13 9 0

Upper Basac Cawayan Capitan Juan Kaatuan Kibangay Songco Victory

1,654 1,290 1,392 1,224 4,465 2,282 886

2,257 1,404 1,574 1,686 4,781 2,921 1,367

3.314 0.803 1.189 3.431 0.643 2.546 4.935

2,841 1,444 1,222 3,265 5,993 4,386 921

1,100 2,150 1,240 2,150 1,200 1,135 1,280

28 16 18 13 22 12 19

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AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION

21

in the study site have the potential to affect a large downstream portion of Mindanao island. The Hydrology of the Manupali Watershed The Manupali River and four of its major tributaries have as their headwaters the MKRNP3 (subsequently referred to as the Park). The Park encompasses 40, 176 hectares covering the North-Central portion of Bukidnon. Seven municipalities and one city of the province share the boundaries at the summit (Figure 2.2). The range is headwater source of several major river systems draining North and Central Mindanao, including the Cotabato province. Its creeks and rivers flow in a radial pattern and feed into three major rivers, including the Pulangui River. For management purposes, Pulangui is divided into upper and lower areas. Upper Pulangui, where the Manupali River is contained, has a total area of 296,153 hectares with an estimated annual discharge of about 16,399 million cubic meters. It is one of the seven watershed clusters in Bukidnon,4 and Lantapan is wholly contained in this cluster (Figure 2.3). The Manupali River, which forms the southern boundary of the municipality of Lantapan and the northern boundary of the municipality of Valencia, has tributaries

BUKIDNON PROVINCE

CITY OF MALAYBALAY Manupali watershed LANTAPAN VALENCIA

Figure 2.2 Location map of the Manupali watershed

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AGNES C. ROLA

Tugasan Maaganao

Kulasihan

Alanib

M A N U PA L I R I V E R Figure 2.3 The four main tributaries of the Manupali River in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines

originating in both of these municipalities. The Manupali watershed contains 220 streams traversing a total of 636,000 meters and draining approximately 40,000 hectares (FORI 1982 as cited in Bellows et al. 1995). Lantapan covers about 60 percent of the watershed area. The different sub-watersheds in Lantapan are listed in Table 2.2. The remaining 40 percent of the Manupali watershed is in Valencia. The Manupali supplies water to the Manupali River Irrigation System (ManRIS), which had a service area of 4,395 hectares in 2003. Further downstream, it feeds the Pulangui River, which flows into the Pulangui IV Reservoir. The Pulangui IV Reservoir is one of the six reservoirs developed in Mindanao by the National Power Corporation (NPC) for generation of hydroelectric power. Slope and Elevation The elevation of the Manupali watershed ranges from 320 to 2,938 meters above sea level (masl) at the summit of Mt. Kitanglad. The mean elevation for the watershed is 1,561 masl and its slope ranges from slightly to moderately rolling terrain and hills. About 70 percent of the area has slopes greater than 10 percent (Figure 2.4).

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Table 2.2 Total area and barangays covered by sub-watersheds in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines Name of Sub-watershed Timago* Kinusuhan

Total Area (ha) 2,451 750

Barangays Covered Basak Basak

Tugasan*

5,067

Cawayan/Kimanga

2,398

Kibangay, Victory, Cawayan

Maagnao*

3,595

Kibangay, Victory, Songco, Baclayaon, Cawayan, Balila, Alanib

Alanib*

7,110

Songco, Alanib, Kaatuan, Baclayon, Poblacion, Balila

Kulasihan* Cabangahan

13,274 820

Basak, Kibangay

Alanib, Baclayon, Poblacion, Bugcaon, Kaatuan, Bantuanon, Capitan Juan, Kulasihan Bugcaon, Capitan Juan

* Tributary to the Manupali River. Source: Lantapan Municipal Watershed Management Plan, 2002

Climate The upper reaches of the Manupali watershed has a short dry season, lasting only from one to three months with no pronounced maximum rain period. The area, virtually cloud-covered throughout the year, has a temperature ranging from 22.7o C in January to 24.6o C in June. It receives the highest amount of rainfall in June and is driest in March. Meanwhile, the lower portion of the watershed has high relative humidity (RH). Rainy season generally starts in May and continues until October, with an average monthly rainfall of 224.54 millimeters. In high-altitude areas, rainfall is usually higher during dry months (LWMC 2002). The climate is very conducive for high valued crop agriculture. Soil Resources The soils of Bukidnon are generally of medium fertility. The most pressing soil fertility problem is high soil acidity, a result of the erosion of surface soils and

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AGNES C. ROLA

cliff-like stream sides/mountainous level to gently sloping rolling to hilly sloping to undulating steep hill to mountainous undulating to rolling landbase

N

Figure 2.4 Slope map of Lantapan

oxidation of organic matter following deforestation and regular cultivation. Except for the alluvial soils of the valley floors and those derived from limestone, which are slightly acidic to neutral, practically all soils in the uplands are moderately to very strongly acidic. In the more eroded areas, this combination of low pH and low organic matter results in soils of relatively low fertility, most often deficient in available phosphorus and to a lesser extent, potassium. In Lantapan, the volcanic soil belonging to the Adtuyon and Kidapawan clay are highly suitable for agriculture. Land Use Fifty-four percent of Lantapan’s total land area are devoted to agriculture. The remaining area consists of forest, built-up and open spaces. Land use pattern has not changed significantly for the past 12 years (Table 2.3). At the provincial level, the 2002 land classification showed that 321,576 hectares (38.77%) were classified as alienable and disposable while 507,802 hectares (61.23%)

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AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION Table 2.3 Land use pattern in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994 and 2001 Classification

1994 (%)

2001 (%)

Agriculture

53.42

53.83

Forestal (pasture, grasslands, and forest lands)

40.90

36.96

Built-up areas (commercial, residential, and agro-industrial)

5.68

11.35

Others

—

3.53

Total (in ha)

31,820.00

32,971.00

— no entry

Note: Total land area (ha) used in 1994 and 2001were 31,820 and 32,971, respectively. Source: Lantapan Municipal Annual Reports, 1994 and 2001

still remained forest lands. However, vegetative cover data revealed that only 227,062 hectares were forested while the remaining 280,740 hectares were brush lands and open or cultivated areas. More than half of Lantapan’s agricultural land area is classified as being under temporary crops (Figure 2.5). A small fraction of this, at the eastern boundary of the municipality, is irrigated; this area is devoted almost exclusively to rice production. The moderately sloped and rolling lower footslopes immediately to the west of that area produce corn and sugarcane; further up the watershed, sugarcane planting diminishes as distance and lower road quality raise the cost of travel to sugar-processing mills located outside the watershed. This renders the production of the high valued crop less profitable. In the upper footslopes that make up the largest agricultural area of the watershed, corn is the dominant crop. At middle altitudes, coffee is an important secondary crop while at higher elevations, corn is planted alongside coffee and temperate climate crops (e.g., beans, tomatoes, cabbages, and potatoes). Other minor agricultural enterprises include cassava, abaca, and tree plantations for firewood, livestock, and non-timber forest products. Soil erosion is evident in relatively steep areas because of intensive cultivation of annual crops. Depending on the slope, soil erosion may range from moderate to severe, the latter especially likely when land is planted with row crops. The present estimate of slight erosion in Lantapan is about 20.5 percent; moderate erosion, 39.36 percent; and severe erosion, 40.14 percent (MOL 2002; LWMC 2002).

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AGNES C. ROLA

AC Active Kaingin Corn Grassland Mossy Forest Primary Forest Secondary Forest

N

Figure 2.5 Land use map of Lantapan

Water Resources Actual data on water quantity in the watershed are not available. However, recent events showed the increasing competing uses of water that make this resource scarce. In 1999, two banana plantations established operations in Lantapan. Eleven commercial poultry and piggery enterprises were present in the municipality by 2001. All these operations demand a great deal of water. The average water requirement for banana plantation is 45 cubic meters per hectare per day. If there will be 500 hectares of banana farms to be irrigated, then the banana plants alone would consume 22,500 cubic meters per day (Tabien 2000). The agro-industrialization of Lantapan in the 21st century will surely put a dent to the integrity of environmental resources in a “business as usual” scenario.

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SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Population Trends Population growth greatly influences national economic development. Within an economy, population changes are due to natural increase and migration, which is partly a response to persistent differences in earnings opportunities. In the Philippine uplands, rapid population growth is fairly recent and has been a result more of migration than of natural increase. Between 1948 and 1980, the upland population increased by 4.4 percent and in some areas, at an even higher rate of 7 percent (Balangui nd). Upland migration was both voluntary and organized. Several government programs from the 1950s to the 1970s directed settlement to Mindanao, where agricultural tracts could be created through forest clearing. The arrival of large numbers of migrants in the uplands set the scene for many of the land rights conflicts that erupted in the 1970s. Recent programs of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) in the uplands of Mindanao also entailed that newly deforested areas be distributed as alienable and disposable lands, attracting more migrants into these fragile places. From 1970 to 1990, Lantapan’s population increased by 4 percent annually, much higher than the Philippine average of 2.4 percent (Table 2.4). The lower watershed’s population increased by about 5 percent from 1970 to 1980. But this rate declined to about 2.6 percent from 1990 to 2000, only slightly higher than the national average. The natural rate of population increase in this area was 1.76 percent. The upper watershed population also grew rapidly during the early years. But in contrast to the lower watershed, the total population growth rate declined sharply to an estimated 1.94 percent from 1990 to 2000. With natural increase estimated at 1.68 percent, migration was no longer a significant cause of population increase. Residents attribute this decline to several factors: implementation of the National Integrated Protected Areas Systems (NIPAS) law; the vigilance of indigenous people (IP) who claim the area as ancestral domain, seeking legal recognition for such claims under the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA); a widespread perception of rebel activity in the area; and out-migration by workers, especially the young, seeking opportunities for study and work elsewhere. While there is still population growth momentum because of the age structure of the population, the natural rate of increase is dropping. Age at first marriage is increasing—a promising indication of slower population growth in the future. In 1995, females first married at age 23; males at age 25. By 2003, this was observed

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Table 2.4 Population growth rate in Lantapan, Bukidnon (by location) and the Philippines, 1970-2000 1970-1980

1980-1990

1990-2000

Lower watershed*

4.95

4.26

2.62

Upper watershed

2.96

4.47

1.94

Lantapan

4.16

4.00

2.36

Philippines

2.75

2.35

2.34

* This estimate includes the middle section and the river flats of the watershed. Source: National Census and Statistics Office, various years; and Civil Registry Office, Municipality of Lantapan

to have increased by one year for both sexes. In other areas in the Philippines, rural population is aging (Paunlagui et al. 1999); however, this phenomenon is not yet discernible in Lantapan. Average family size of households was 5.5 in 1995 (Lantapan Annual Report 2003). Ethnic Composition Ethnicity could influence how resources are accessed. The earliest known inhabitants of Lantapan were IP from Bukidnon. Before the influx of migrants from other ethnic groups, these IP were semi-nomadic. They practiced shifting cultivation (kaingin) farming, the early forms of which could be described as “sustainable” because of long fallows and minimal soil disturbance. The area was vast compared to the very limited population, so they transferred from one place to another, subsisting on the resources within their environment. Such was their system of living before the Dumagat5 arrived. When these early migrants came, they noticed wide tracts of land apparently left untilled and communities located only at the edges of vast forest lands. The early Dumagat spread the news of land abundance, resulting in an influx of migrants from the early 1950s to the 1960s (Suminguit, Burton, and Canoy 2002). Lantapan is now a melting pot of different cultures because of these waves of migration. The current ethnic groups can be identified by their spoken dialect (Canoy and Suminguit 2001). Visayan (or Cebuano) speakers comprise the majority (about 41%) of the population, now outnumbering the Binukid-speaking IP. Igorot speakers

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29

from Mountain Province in Luzon comprise 12 percent of the population. Migrants from the Visayas would usually settle in the lower watershed and produce corn, their main staple; Igorot migrants, wanting to produce the same crops as in their temperate homes in Northern Philippines, would usually settle in the upper watershed to plant potatoes, cabbages, and carrots. Human Capital Indicators Literacy Rates In 1989, Bukidnon had a functional literacy rate of 76.5 percent, almost the same as the national average (75.4%). The Bukidnon figure and the national average were equal at 83 percent by 1994, although male literacy is lower and female literacy is higher in Bukidnon than the national average. This discrepancy is prevalent in the uplands where males usually leave school earlier to tend the fields while females go to school to develop human capital, a more mobile asset. Education is a powerful tool to escape poverty and dependence on agricultural labor. In 2002, Lantapan had 18 public elementary schools, two public and two private high schools. In the elementary schools, the number of graduates increased by 30 percent from 1996 to 2002. Local government budget for education also increased, based on available data. The Special Education Fund (SEP) also contributed to the increased budget. The increase in elementary graduates was due to better access to educational facilities, brought about not only by the mushrooming of elementary schools in the villages, but also by the improved roads and increased transportation facilities for schoolchildren. There was also a number of training programs that boosted the residents’ skills, enabling their involvement in livelihood activities. In the past years, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and other municipal agencies sponsored training on papermaking, garment making, hog fattening, and dressmaking. The Department of Agriculture (DA) also conducted Farmer Fields Schools (FFS). NGOs, such as the Heifer Project International (HPI), conducted training on swine production and management, cattle management, and forage. External donors also included training programs in their project-level activities. Some of these were the livelihood activities of the Conservation of Priority Protected Areas Project (CCPAP), training programs of the International Center for Research in Agro forestry (ICRAF), Landcare (an NGO), and SANREM. These training programs addressed sustainable farming,

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i.e., management of pests in vegetables, soil conservation techniques, agroforestry, and water quality monitoring. Both males and females had equal access to these training programs. However, in terms of class, residents closer to the center and with relatives in local government offices had more access to these informal training programs, as observed in other places in the Philippines (Rola et al. 1998). Nutrition and Health Malnutrition, the insufficiency of one or more nutritional elements necessary for health and well-being, is caused by the lack of essential foodstuffs—usually vitamins, minerals, or proteins—in the diet. In some areas of the world, a poor economy or regional conditions such as drought or overpopulation cause a scarcity of certain foodstuffs. This leads to the malnourishment of a certain portion of the population because essential nutrients are lacking. Incidence of malnutrition in Lantapan was higher than the provincial average, which in turn was higher than that of Malaybalay, the provincial capital. In general, prevalence of malnutrition was higher in Northern Mindanao where the study site belongs compared to the national average in 2001, as measured by the underweight and underheight among children aged 0-5 years (Philippine Statistical Yearbook 2006). In terms of health indicators, Lantapan exhibited changing patterns of mortality and morbidity causes during the study period. In terms of morbidity, the three leading causes were tuberculosis, bronchitis, and diarrhea in 2002; influenza, pneumonia, and injuries or accidents in 1994. The available death rate data showed a declining trend. In recent times, non-communicable illnesses such as cardiac arrest and vascular diseases have been the leading causes of deaths (Municipality of Lantapan Annual Report 2004). Earlier reports also mentioned that until 1988, many deaths occurred among children 5 years old and younger and those who were 60 years old and older (Paunlagui 1996). But by 1994, many of the recorded deaths were between and among the ages 25 and 29 years, and 65 years and older. There were no deaths reported among infants and children less than 5 years old. This seemingly improved health condition in Lantapan may be partly attributed to the advances in medicine and improved health services being offered by the government, especially in the implementation of its expanded immunization program (Paunlagui 1996).

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Economic Indicators Poverty Incidence Data on annual per capita poverty threshold incomes, magnitude of poor families, and incidence of poor families are available at the national, regional, and provincial levels only. Available data reveal that Northern Mindanao as a whole has declining incidence of poor families. This trend is also true for the Bukidnon province (Table 2.5). The Lantapan trend on poverty incidence was taken from analyzed SANREM survey data. For the period 1997-2000, the incidence of poor families declined from 75 to 59 percent. While still considered an agricultural economy, Lantapan households’ sources of income were increasingly coming from non-farm sources (as shown in subsequent chapters). This was in the form of wage incomes from industry, services, and agriculture plantations in the area. Employment In the later part of the decade up to 2005, business establishments flourished in Lantapan. From the available data, these establishments numbered 252 in 1999 but have since grown by an additional 185 in 2001 and 418 in 2005. These were sari-sari stores, agricultural input stores, tailoring shops, beauty shops, a furniture shop, and other service-oriented businesses. These establishments were a consequence of the “cash” economy generated by the banana plantations and other agribusinesses that set up shop in the area. AGRICULTURE Land Tenure There are three types of land classification in the Philippine uplands: (a) public lands that are owned by the State; (b) private lands owned by private persons or entities; and (c) ancestral lands, inhabited by tribal communities (Cornista et al. 1986). These tribal communities or native tribes in the study area claim that the land is theirs and should therefore be legally recognized as privately owned. But in the absence of land titles, these ancestral lands are legally classified as public lands unless the State declares them alienable and disposable. Only in this case could claims of ownership be legally instituted.

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No data

Bukidnon

No data

7,938

8,885

Real Price2

No data

361,057

4,531,170

No data

49.2

35.5

Magnitude Incidence of poor of poor families families (%)

8,868

9,051

9,843

Current Price

7,129

7,276

7,912

Real Price2

Annual per capita poverty threshold

42.5 75.3

70

1

2

37.8

28.1

78,914

199,618

3,982,766

Magnitude Incidence of poor of poor families families (%)

1997

1998 and 2000 SANREM survey of 93 and 84 respondents, respectively. Consumer price index for all income households in Region X (1994=100), Philippine Statistical Yearbook, NSCB 2003. Source: Philippines Statistical Yearbook 1997 and 2003

Lantapan

7,938

Northern Mindanao

1

8,885

Current Price

Annual per capita poverty threshold

Philippines

Location

1994

Table 2.5 Annual per capita poverty thresholds

8,982

9,881

11,605

Current Price

5,886

6,475

7,605

Real Price2

Annual per capita poverty threshold

50

65,036

176,210

4,338,780

59.5

32.2

32.9

28.4

Magnitude Incidence of poor of poor families families (%)

2000

32 AGNES C. ROLA

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33

This tenure insecurity in the uplands is a pressing problem brought about by the “imposition of the western-based national legal system on an indigenous customary legal structure and which has resulted in the displacement of a very large number of tribal communities from their abode and source of livelihood” (Lynch 1984). This conflict between the legal conception and actual realities of the upland tenure system has been one of the main sources of tenure problems in the uplands. For example, the State owns the area of the watershed belonging to the Park (in conjunction with the NIPAS program). Residency within the park boundaries is illegal except in the designated park buffer zone, which is considered a multiple use zone or an area that can be used for agriculture, worship, and as built-up areas. In reality, as of the latest census of households by a research group in the protected area, there were 451 households who are actual occupants in the buffer zone (Canoy and Suminguit 2001) where the total occupants are 2,512 members. Today, the municipality of Lantapan, like most upland communities in the buffer zone of the forests, avails national programs to secure rights to the land in the long term. Nationally, a significant proportion of the 15 million hectares of “timberland” under the control of the State was distributed to individual and community groups of resident upland tillers under various forms of stewardship. This is known as the Integrated Social Forestry (ISF) Program [later to be known as the Community-based Forestry Program (CBFM)] with Certificate of Stewardship given to communities. These are to provide them secure tenure and usufruct rights for 25 years, with the option to renew for a similar period. The implementing agency is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Several groups of farmers in Lantapan were able to avail the stewardship contracts from the DENR. On the other hand, the alienable and disposable lands declared by the DENR after the forests were logged are now subject to private ownership. These were forest lands where timber concessions operated. Based on the 1987 Constitution, an agrarian reform program6 to redistribute all public and private agricultural lands (regardless of crop or tenure management) to landless farmers and regular farm workers should be a priority of the State. Lantapan became eligible for the implementation of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law (RA 6657).7 At this point, there are 343 Certificate of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) and Emancipation Patents (EP) in Lantapan under 2,348 hectares which accounted for 24 percent of total agricultural land in 2002. As is typical of a recently settled area, most Lantapan farms were owned or in “owner-like possession” in 1980. In 1991, 82 percent of total farm area were owned

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or in “owner-like possession.” By upland standards, farm sizes were small. In 1971, the modal farm size class (1-2.99 ha) was represented by 39 percent of farms while 75 percent of all farms were smaller than 5 hectares (Table 2.6). In 2002, about 93 percent of all farms were below 5 hectares and 83 percent below 3 hectares. Land Use Patterns Land use data in Lantapan from 1994 to 2001 revealed that farm land constituted 53 percent of the total land area. Corn has been the dominant crop, as is typical of Philippine uplands. However, corn production in 2001 declined due to the increase in the area devoted to sugar plantations and the establishment of two banana plantations (Municipality of Lantapan 2001). Cabbage and potatoes were also economically important crops, especially in the upper watershed. At the municipality level, trends in area of selected crops are not available. But in the province of Bukidnon, trends of selected crop area from 1991 to 2002 revealed a decline in corn, coffee, and pineapple—all traditional crops in the province. Annually, commercial vegetable area grew by 27 percent and sugarcane area, by 12 percent (Table 2.7). Among the permanent crops, banana had the highest growth rate followed by fiber crops and mango.

Table 2.6 Number of farms by size in Bukidnon and Lantapan, 1971, 1980, 1991, and 2002 Farm size (ha)

1971

Bukidnon 1980 1991

2002

Less than 1

1,679

5,175

21,069

33,958 

25

340

1,003

1,657

1-2.99

18,865

30,530

56,776

57,188 

717

1,472

2,616

2,304

3-4.99

14,525

16,176

17,277

15,065

617

582

814

510

5-9.99

9,638

17,691

12,382

10,076 

276

508

455

232

10-24.99

3,982

4,708

3,811

3,122 

199

246

132

79

463

613

649

 608

32

47

37

16

49,152

74,893

111,964

120,017

1,833

3,195

5,057

4,789

25 and over Total

1971

Lantapan 1980 1991

2002

Source: National Statistics Office, Provincial Profile, Bukidnon

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35

AN UPLAND COMMUNITY IN TRANSITION Table 2.7 Trends in area (ha) of selected crops in Bukidnon, 1991 and 2002 Crops

1994

2002

Annual Growth Rate (1991 to 2002)

Area (ha)

%

Area (ha)

%

293,826 262,006 23,859

100.00 89.17 8.12

295,983 220,862 54,598

100.00 74.62 18.45

0.07 -1.43 11.71

5,337

1.82

12,803

4.33

12.72

1,360

0.46

5,440

1.84

27.27

1,264

0.43

2,280

0.77

7.30

69,851 9,700 12,891 11,328 17,229 17,747 956

100.00 13.89 18.45 16.22 24.67 25.41 1.37

119,416 17,569 53,614 17,862 10,958 16,717 2,696

100.00 14.71 44.90 14.96 9.18 14.00 2.26

6.45 7.37 28.72 5.24 -3.31 -0.53 16.55

Other cropsb

109,685

100.00

324,367

100.00

17.79

Total

473,362

Temporary crops Corn Sugarcane Tuber, root and bulb crops Vegetables Other temporary cropsa Permanent crops Citrus Banana Mango Coffee Pineapple Fiber crops

739,767

5.12

Includes tobacco, other fruits and other minor crops. Includes palay, coconut, other permanent crops and not reported crops. Source: Census of Agriculture, National Statistics Office, Philippines, 1991 and 2002 a b

Commercialization of Agriculture Agriculture still dominates the economy of the municipality and province, albeit a distinct structural shift observed in the past decade. For instance, in 1988, 71 percent of provincial employment was in agriculture, 5 percent in industry, and 23 percent in services (NSO 1990). In 2002, the figure for agriculture was down to 66 percent and for services went up to 28 percent. Employment in industry hardly changed at 6 percent (NEDA, Region 10 2003). Wages in the area had a steep increase, with the non-agricultural wage rate registering at PhP119.00 per day and agricultural wages at PhP88.50 per day in 1993. These figures jumped in 2002, with a smaller gap seen between non-agricultural

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wages (PhP185.00/day) and agricultural wages (PhP175.00/day) (Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board 10, Cagayan de Oro). However, actual wages paid are lower than these legislated wages. For example, average actual non-farm wage in Lantapan in 2002 ranged from PhP83.00 to PhP172.00 per day; actual farm wage in 2002 ranged from PhP73.00 to PhP83.00 per day (see Chapter 4). Within agriculture, there has also been a shift to commercial crops from the traditional corn and coffee as earlier mentioned. Changes in the composition of commercial crops and products were also seen in pineapple farms that used to line the roadside from Cagayan de Oro to Malaybalay in the late 1990s, being converted to intensive poultry farms, sugarcane, and banana. Since the 1950s, substantial crop substitution in response to new commercial opportunities was observed in Lantapan. At the end of World War II (WWII), most sloping and high-altitude land was forested. Agriculture in the mid- and highaltitude barangays consisted primarily of abaca, upland rice, corn, cassava, and coffee production, alongside the harvesting of logs and non-timber forest products. Corn and cassava were grown primarily for subsistence and, to a lesser extent, feed sold locally to Bukidnon’s cattle ranching industry. In the 1950s, migrants from Benguet province in Northern Luzon introduced commercial cultivation of potatoes, cabbages, and other temperate-climate vegetables to the locality. In 1977, the construction of the Busco sugar central about 25 kilometers south of Lantapan spawned the sugar sector now dominant in the lower reaches of the watershed. More recently, improved integration of the Bukidnon economy in national agricultural markets, coupled with increasing demand for some crops, has ensured that commercial agriculture in the province and in Lantapan continues to adapt and thrive. Road improvements and the 1986 expansion of the Cagayan de Oro port have stimulated agricultural exports from Northern Mindanao to markets in Cebu and Manila (APRAAP 1995). These infrastructural investments greatly increased the profitability of growing corn and (especially) vegetables for processing or sale in Manila and Cebu, where transport costs and bottlenecks had formerly yielded relatively low returns for such activities. Corn production has flourished, becoming a primary commercial crop whereas being traded very little outside the locality before. The entry of banana for export plantations in 1999, as a result of the incentives given by the local government to raise funds, has drastically changed the land use of this town. In the study site, corn areas have been transformed to banana farms via the land rental market. Meanwhile, coffee—another major traditional crop in the town—suffered a dramatic reduction in output due to market and policy forces. In 1991, the Asian

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Development Bank (ADB) estimated that coffee production in Bukidnon has fallen by 40 percent in less than 10 years. Many coffee plantations in Lantapan have been left untended while others have been uprooted; coffee-processing equipment (driers, graders, and hullers) have also become idle. Contrastingly, vegetable cultivation has continued to increase in area and economic importance; Lantapan’s upper watershed area is now sometimes described as a “second Benguet,” in reference to the Philippines’ primary temperate-climate vegetable production area in Northern Luzon. Thus, commercial crops such as exportable bananas, sugarcane, and yellow corn, together with the temperate vegetables in the upper watershed, dominate the agricultural landscape of the study town in the early 21st century. New Influences: Agricultural Technology and Markets Agricultural Technologies Agricultural technologies in the Philippines can be accessed via (1) the public sector extension and (2) the market of goods. In the recent past, Philippine rice and corn farmers depended on the public sector extension system for new technologies. For instance, to meet rice self-sufficiency in the past four decades entailed government expenditures on technology and technology transfer subsidies. Programs like the Masagana 99 during the Green Revolution in the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s promoted a package of seed-fertilizer-irrigation technology for rice farmers. These new technologies were available to farmers in more productive areas and places where public extension was strong. Upland areas, considered to be marginalized, were not included among the targets of extension programs. In contrast, the prevailing agricultural policy under the Macapagal-Arroyo administration is to “secure sufficient food for the country’s growing population.” In the current context, this is taken to mean that the government should exercise its political will to “support local production of goods by completing the facilities needed for ensuring food self-sufficiency.” Farmers, especially in the uplands, were provided with infrastructure and other post-harvest facilities for value addition. However, government support was directed more towards grains farmers—depicted as poor subsistence farmers—than to other upland crop farmers growing vegetables. Up to this time, vegetable growers depend on the market for their technology needs. But the new technology, which is the Bt corn, has not been introduced in Lantapan by the private sector.

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Market Access Policies Market access of the upland farmers has improved because of better road and communication facilities. The safety nets the government provided for farmers to be competitive in the global market were in the form of market facilities, including the post-harvest facilities. The Estrada administration (1998-2000) saw the launch of the Agrikulturang Makamasa for High Value Commercial Crops. This program provided national direction and framework for harmonizing local initiatives in the promotion of high value crops. One emerging arrangement that has intensified market access of vegetable producers in Bukidnon is the Northern Mindanao Vegetable Producers’ Association, Inc. (Norminveggies). This is composed of about 40 small- to medium-sized vegetable producers based in Bukidnon and Misamis Oriental. This organization was the first beneficiary of the Livelihood Corporations’ (Livecor, an attached agency of the DA) Cold Chain Program (CCP). Through this program, Northern Mindanao farmers have explored the possibility of exporting their high value crops to other Asian countries. This organization supplies the needs of restaurant chains, hotels, and supermarkets in Metro Manila. Aside from the new marketing modalities, the high value crops program also established technology demonstration and conducted commercial testing of agrobased oriented enterprises, post-harvest and processing technologies that could later be transferred to private sector or cooperative management. Market efficiency has increased in the area, as measured by the proportion of farm price (Lantapan prices) to wholesale prices in the Agora market in Cagayan de Oro City. For both yellow and white corn, this ratio has increased by about 2 percent from 1995 to 2001. Meanwhile, cabbage price ratio has increased by 17 percent during the same time period. The Rise of Corporate Agriculture Plantation agriculture and commercial hogs and poultry came to the town after 1998, the year the province passed an ordinance declaring a tax holiday for agribusiness firms to be established in the area. In 2001, additional establishment data included 2 banana plantations, 2 commercial piggeries, 3 commercial poultry farms, and 12 corn mills (Municipality of Lantapan 2001). By 2007, there were 4 banana plantations, 4 commercial piggeries, and 11 commercial poultry farms in Lantapan (Municipality of Lantapan 2007).

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Banana: Banana is considered the most important fruit crop in the Philippines in terms of volume of production and export earnings. In 1998, the country ranked fourth in banana world production following India, Ecuador, and Brazil, with a share of 6 percent of total world production. Average annual growth rate of production from 1990 to 2000 was 4 percent with yield increasing by 2 percent annually during the same period (Calderon and Rola 2003). Gross value added (GVA) of the banana subsector to total agriculture, fishery, and forestry sector showed an average annual growth rate of 5 percent from 1990 to 2000. A high average annual growth of 8.4 percent in GVA was seen during the period 1995-2000. It ranked second to poultry in terms of contribution to the agriculture sector GVA during the period 1990-2000. Growing demand and favorable trade policies seem to be the reasons for this growth. While Japan has been the consistent major importer of fresh bananas, the export market has expanded to other countries such as China, Korea, and the Middle East countries. Products were also diversified to include banana chips and banana catsup. The U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Canada are the major importers of Philippinemade banana catsup. Of the top five regional banana producers in the country, four are located in Mindanao. Due to area expansion, the locations of the banana plantations were not concentrated in one part of the region in the past decade. From Southern Mindanao, the industry has now expanded to Northern Mindanao. Hence, Bukidnon has become a new site of multinational banana plantations. In Lantapan, commercial banana production (consisting about 500 ha) began in mid-1999 as a direct result of a provincial resolution to encourage external investors to the province. These external companies chose Lantapan because of its high-quality bananas. The fruits harvested were claimed to be much sweeter than bananas produced in other parts of the world. These plantations were producing Chiquita and Cavendish banana for export. Commercial Livestock Operations: The livestock revolution (Delgado et al. 2000) is in the Philippines and in Lantapan. Livestock and poultry in the Philippines have been the top performers in the agriculture sector, with growth rates consistently accelerating after 1980. Within just two decades, their contribution to agricultural GVA rose from 12 to 25 percent (NSCB 2000). This remarkable performance appears to be because of increasing domestic demand, productivity gains from the shift to larger-scale operations, and adoption of new technologies embedded in imported breeds, veterinary medicines, and feed ingredients. Large contract growers prefer

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areas with open spaces to stay away from growing urbanization. Thus, one can see a rush of livestock farms in Lantapan because open spaces and free, abundant water are available. The preference to be near agricultural areas also makes economic sense, since some feed ingredients are available locally and some poultry manure at least have a market in the area. Philippine agricultural statistics showed substantial increases in shares of commercial to total hog inventories and broiler to chicken inventory in Region 10 (Rola et al. 2007). ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES Intensive agriculture, as described above, will have two consequences: on-site and off-site effects. On-Site Impacts of Upland Agricultural Intensification Soil Fertility Soil degradation is observed in the study site because of intensified agriculture. Through time, farmers who can afford to buy inputs have increased the use of chemical fertilizers to attain a respectable yield. Most farmers complain about soil acidity and infertility; technical studies conducted in the area confirm this observation. Valuation of soil erosion in general showed that between 1981 and 1999, soil losses in tons per ha per year accelerated from 319 to 393 because of land use patterns in the Manupali watershed. Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K) losses in kilogram per hectare per year also increased from 933 to 1,027 N; 124 to 145 P; and 1,419 to 1,617 K (Gadrinab 1999). Land degradation followed as shown by the decreasing NPK content of the soil (kg/ha-cm) from 317 to 285 N, 42 to 40 P, and 483 to 448 K. Replacement cost per hectare per year was computed to increase from PhP29,957.00 to PhP33,677.00 during the same period because of accelerated erosion. Gadrinab’s study therefore showed that land quality in the Manupali watershed declined as a result of increasing soil and nutrient losses, and decreasing inherent soil fertility. Like the numerous studies reviewed, Gadrinab’s study also suggests that technology transfer for proper soil management as conducted in the lowlands should also be done in the uplands.

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Water Resource Degradation In the study area, agriculture-related and observable water resource degradation is manifested by soil erosion, chemical pollution and livestock-related water pollution. Soil Erosion: Soil erosion is considered the single, most important environmental degradation problem of the developing world. In Lantapan, data on total suspended solids (TSS), as monitored by Deutsch et al. (2001a), have shown a rapid degradation in areas with intensive agriculture in spite of lower average slope. The seasonal TSS peaks appear to coincide with months of intensive land preparation activity. However, one must be careful in identifying agriculture solely as the source of the TSS; built-up areas and rough roads are possible contributors to the silt being measured (Paningbatan 2005) in more developed and urbanizing areas of the watershed. Then again, studies would strongly support the negative impact of annual crop cultivation in the confines of the watershed. Using the climatological breakpoint data for year 2000 observed at Alanib station, the soil erosion and sediment yield were simulated under various hypothetical land use scenarios with the use of the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model (Ella 2005). Simulation results indicated that generally, increasing the percentage of cropped area in the watershed leads to an increase in sediment yield and decrease in sediment delivery ratio. For instance, when the entire watershed is not cultivated and instead covered by small trees and grasses, the sediment yield amounts to only 1.9 tons per hectare per year. Based on model simulations, if 20 percent of the watershed area is cultivated and planted to corn, sugarcane, vegetables, and grasses in between, the sediment yield is increased to 11.1 tons per hectare per year. On the other hand, if half of the entire watershed is cultivated and planted to the same set of crops, the sediment yield would increase substantially to 19.9 tons per hectare per year. This model, applied to the Maagnao watershed, was tested for evaluating the quantitative effects of varying land cover conditions on soil erosion and sediment yield. These results show that although the WEPP model contained simplifying assumptions, changes in land cover conditions have a pronounced effect on soil erosion and sediment yield (Ella 2005). There is a need to know what farmers associate with soil erosion. In most instances, farmers may not realize that their land use practices rather than rainfall are the culprit in soil erosion leading to water turbidity and low water quality in the upland rivers (Gregersen et al. 2003). The lack of buffer zones along the river, combined with reduced fallow period, could be a major cause of water quality degradation.

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Dramatic differences in stream discharge patterns were also found. The Maagnao River in the upper watershed had a relatively stable flow even during severe droughts, ranging from about 1 to 3 cubic meters per second. Meanwhile, the Kulasihan River in the lower watershed, where annual crops were pervasive, was very unstable in its discharge, ranging from 0 to 10 cubic meters per second. Rainfall events largely influenced the discharge of the Kulasihan River. Chemical Pollution: Lantapan, with its abundant water resources, is vulnerable to chemical hazards brought about by agricultural intensification. Economically, the water resource contribution is great; the presence of six major rivers in the municipality has promoted almost year-round the irrigation of various crops under cultivation. Fish and other water creatures abound. In 1994, the river was pure and fit for drinking. In terms of the standard criteria for assessing water quality, the rivers of Lantapan in the 1990s were considered to be very healthy. However, it was observed that in the densely populated villages, certain levels of pollutants were present (Deutsch et al. 1998). Intensive cultivation of vegetable crops was also noted as a source of inorganic pollutants (i.e., fertilizers and pesticides). There is plenty of evidence that water pollution is a result of intensive cultivation, even in the lowlands. Once persistent pesticides infiltrate the soil, they will eventually reach the groundwater. The characteristics that may influence the leaching of pesticides include the amount of rainfall, soil drainage, depth of the groundwater and mobility of the pesticide, and degradation process. Water pollution from intensive agriculture in the uplands could even be more hazardous. In the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, with an elevation of 1070-1830 masl, intensive crop cultivation has resulted to a high degree of pesticide pollution. But at the sub-catchment level, a few persistent pesticides were detected (MARDI 2001). Although fertilizer nitrogen contributes significantly to an increase in crop yields, excess fertilizer nitrogen is also polluting groundwater with nitrate. In the case of Japan, groundwater pollution is serious in areas producing vegetables, fruits, tea, and livestock (Nishio nd). That being said, the recent shift in land use in the area is a serious threat to water resources. Banana plantations require large amounts of water for irrigation and chemical application. On the average, a plantation requires 45 cubic meters per hectare per day of water (Tabien 2000). Two river systems – Manupali River and Maagnao River – are major water sources for irrigation of banana plantations in the municipality. The intensive banana cultivation in Lantapan’s pristine environment is viewed by outside observers as a great threat to the health of its rivers. This

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apprehension is guided by the fact that in other locations in the Philippines, banana plantations were perceived to have severe effects on both water quality and quantity. Lantapan community members felt that agriculture has degraded water resources (Table 2.8). Almost 90 percent of household respondents who were interviewed for this purpose believed that when water becomes contaminated, it will no longer be a safe source of drinking water (Rola and Tabien 2001). Others stated that polluted water would be unsafe even for domestic and animal use and would result to a reduction and/ or death of fish and other aquatic life forms. Moreover, 32 percent of them claimed that contaminated water causes skin disease and irritations.

Table 2.8 Respondents’ perception on the consequences of pesticide runoff from banana farms to the rivers in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 2000

Consequences

Number of Responses (n=73)

%

Water becomes unsafe to drink

67

92

Water is no longer suited for other domestic uses

69

94

Reduction and/or death of fish and other aquatic life forms

59

81

Sickness/skin disease

24

33

Note: Multiple responses. Source: Rola, A.C. and C.O. Tabien 2001

Majority of the community members, especially in the upper watershed, use the river water for drinking and other domestic uses. River pollution would affect the poorer members of the community more than the wealthier ones. Hence, much of the cost of intensification is borne by this disadvantaged group. Livestock-based Water Pollution: Lantapan is also beginning to manifest water pollution from livestock, although not as distinct as in other urbanized areas in the country (Dyer 2004). This industry, if not urgently checked, will be one of the major sources of water pollution. Lessons can be learned from other areas in the Philippines where water pollution occurred as a result of intensive livestock operations without any environmental regulation (Rola et al. 2007).

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Off-Site Impacts of Intensive Upland Agriculture By all accounts, soil erosion is the most serious environmental consequence of upland agricultural production. The resulting sediment loads are observed to have severe negative effects on lowland areas. This is in the form of lower yields and high cost of desiltation of reservoirs and drainage ditches, and increased flooding. In Lantapan, the study by Lantican et al. (2003) on the impacts of soil erosion in the Upper Manupali watershed on irrigated lowland downstream showed a significant decline in productivity and income of lowland farmers. Rice yields in the farms that were heavily affected by siltation have decreased by 27 percent from 1990 to 1995. The sedimentation and siltation of dams affected the service and service areas of the irrigation systems. In addition to the regular operations and maintenance costs, the ManRIS management incurred desilting costs in its operation. To cope with the siltation problem, the ManRIS management and the farmers made adjustments in the water delivery schedule, cropping pattern, and land allocation to various crops (Lantican et al. 2003). An earlier study also showed that upland deforestation was the cause of decline in the performance of national irrigation systems in the Philippines. More than half of the 147 systems studied were found to have either stagnant or decreasing irrigated rice areas for both the dry and wet seasons (De Vera 1992). The other consequence of rapid and increasing soil erosion rates as a result of agricultural intensification in the uplands can be seen in the deterioration of the water impoundment structure8—the Pulangui IV hydropower installation in the Pulangui River—located a few kilometers below the junction of the Manupali. Although forest management policies and strategies to reduce deforestation were adopted, and despite a ban on commercial logging, policies to promote sustainable upland management have yet to translate into better environmental health in this study community. Being watersheds for much of the lowlands, a degradation of the upland areas will have serious implications on the intensively cultivated lowlands (Magnus 1996). A healthy upland ecosystem is key to sustainable lowland agriculture. The discussion above clearly points to the environmental and economic tensions now occurring in Lantapan. Economic development in this fragile upland has resulted in the deterioration of rivers—a significant source of water for drinking, bathing, laundering clothes, fishing, and other economic activities, especially of the poor households as shown above. The costs are tremendous and will remain so if conservation measures in agricultural activities will not be practiced. Nonetheless, there could be severe constraints in the adoption of these conservation measures. The solution may depend more on the social structures that need to be developed.

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GOVERNANCE A major institutional change in the decade of the 1990s that has influenced the development in the uplands was the enactment of the LGC. This provided vast powers to local governments in the fiscal and administrative spheres of governance. Some of the devolved functions were services rendered by health and agriculture. Environmental mandate was also devolved to some extent, but the significant trigger was that local governments were empowered to generate incomes via the use of their natural resources. Bukidnon responded to this law through the passage of a Provincial Government ordinance creating the Bukidnon Investments and Exports Board in March 1995. This ordinance granted incentives to investors and new investments in the province. It also defined an investment grid, of which Lantapan is a part. It provided tax exemptions for the newly installed businesses for up to six years of operation. This local policy was adopted to accelerate the economic development of Bukidnon by encouraging investments and creating employment. Investments were also required to be sustainable; thus, industries coming into the province were asked to submit an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) after the conduct of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The ordinance also stipulated that new industries be located in the designated agro-industrial zone. Monitoring of the environmental effects of the operations of the new industries was also a part of the law of the DENR for industries in the environmentally critical areas. The rise of corporate agriculture in Lantapan came about in 1999 in response to the provisions of this provincial ordinance. One by one, municipal resolutions were approved to allow the establishment of these new industries. The rationale for these new industries, according to the resolutions, is basically economic. The environmental safeguards were stated in terms of the industries’ compliance with the existing laws, rules, and regulations concerning industrial plantations. These resolutions have definitely changed the landscape in Lantapan. Corn farms were transformed into banana farms; plantation employment became vogue especially among the younger labor force; and regular salaries were now experienced by many and used to buy consumption goods and other better things in life. Expansion of banana plantations and the environmental risk it brings is therefore a test for decentralized governance in the municipality. This requires skills in environmental monitoring and data analysis for local policy actions.

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CONCLUSIONS Lantapan exhibits traits of a community treading a typical economic development path. During the study period, population rates declined and an unsubtle shift from purely agriculture to agro-based industries took place. A shift from traditional cereal and other food crops to more commercial crops was observed; increase in services and non-farm employment became evident; and increases in literacy rates and decrease in poverty incidence all occurred. Many factors influenced the drivers, including more access to educational facilities, markets, and technology; more secured property rights; and a shift to decentralized governance. But the agricultural intensification brought about by smallhold systems and plantations threatens the integrity of the environment. Studies showed the on-site and off-site effects of such intensification and development in Lantapan. Siltation in the irrigation canals increased. Community perceptions of the impacts of polluted surface water brought about by the aerial pesticide sprays include health effects, especially for the poor who are users of surface water. Lantapan, like other upland villages in the country and in Asia, is at a crossroads. The alternative routes are (1) a rapid rate of economic development without the necessary safeguards to the environment, or a “business as usual” scenario that leads to environmental disaster; or (2) a stricter regulation of upland agriculture and more environment-friendly practices through evolution of policies and institutions that provide incentives for achieving upland sustainable development. Lantapan has a tough decision to make in the near future.

Endnotes For almost a decade, this town has been the focus of intensive data gathering, analysis, and action at farm, community, project, and local government levels. Many of these have taken place under the auspices of a single project, the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program Southeast Asia (SANREM CRSP SEA). More detailed information about project activities are contained in Coxhead and Buenavista, 2001 and Coxhead and Shively (eds), 2005.

1

SANREM CRSP SEA brings together researchers from universities and specialist institutes in the Philippines, the U.S., and other countries, as well as

2

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the International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs), to work with farmers and other natural resource managers, communities, civil society institutions, and government agencies at local and national levels. The aim is to determine how to enable upland communities in making better natural resource management decisions. The project is funded primarily by the USAID. A third phase of the SANREM CRSP SEA project started field activities in 2006 and ended in 2009. A fourth phase to be implemented during 2010-2015 has a different study site. The range has an undulating landscape, with more than a dozen peaks. Some of these are among the highest in the Philippines. Mt. Dulang-dulang, which has an elevation of 2,938 masl, is the second highest peak in the country. Mt. Kitanglad peak follows closely with an elevation of 2,899 masl.

3

At the provincial level, Bukidnon contains the headwaters of six major rivers in the Mindanao island: Tagoloan, Cagayan, Agusan-Cugman, Davao-Salug, Pulangui (Upper and Lower) and Maridugao Rivers. Discharge from these river systems drain into three cities (Butuan City, Davao City, and Cagayan de Oro City) and five provinces (Agusan del Sur, Davao del Norte, North Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, and Misamis Oriental).

4

“Dumagat” is the term used to refer to people coming from the coastal towns of Misamis Oriental and the provinces of Cebu and Bohol.

5

To address the issue of the native’s claims on ancestral domain, several national laws and executive orders were formulated. For instance, a law called the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) recognizes ancestral claims of the natives.

6

There were some critics in the implementation of land reform programs in the uplands. According to Mangahas (1987), except for the resettlement site, land reform in the public domain is not a substitute for land distribution in the private domain. Upland land privatization also led to changes in the nature of upland farming. Among the more significant changes were the shortening of the fallow period, its confinement to the farm of the cultivator, and its practice of farming in the steep slopes (Cornista et al. 1986). In other words, land privatization led to intensive agriculture that was seen in the study site.

7

See also Pingali, 1997 for similar evidence elsewhere in Asia.

8

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Deutsch, W. D., A. L. Busby, W. Winter, M. Mullen, and P. Hurley. “Alabama Water Watch, The First Five Years.” Research and Development Series 42. Alabama, USA : International Center for Aquaculture and Aquatic Environments, Auburn University, 1998. Deutsch, W.D., J. L. Oprecio, and J. P. Bago-Labis. “Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: The Tigbantay Wahig Experience.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Agricultural Development and Environmental Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 184-196. Los Baños, Philippines: Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, 2001a. Dyer, R. “Environmental Studies: Economics and Environmental Effects of Intensive Livestock Operations in Lantapan.” Final Report. Accessed February 17, 2005. http://www.sanrem.uga.edu. Ella, V. “Simulating Soil Erosion and Sediment Yield in Small Upland Watershed Using WEPP Model.” Paper presented at the conference, Land Use Changes in Tropical Watersheds: Causes, Consequences and Policy Options, Quezon City, January 13-14, 2004. Gadrinab, A. “Quantification and Valuation of Soil Erosion in Various Land Uses in Manupali Watershed.” Unpublished PhD diss., University of the Philippines Los Banos, 1999. Gregersen, B., J. Aalbaek, P. Lauridsen, M. Kaas, U. Lopdrup, A. Veihe, and P. van der Keur. “Land Use and Soil Erosion in Tikolod, Sabah, Malaysia.” ASEAN Review of Biodiversity and Soil Conservation (January-March 2003). Accessed January, 20, 2007. http://www.arbec.com.my/pdf/art7janmar03.pdf. Lantapan Watershed Management Council. Lantapan Watershed Management Plan. Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines, 2002. Lantican, M., L. Guerra and S. Bhuiyan. “Impacts of Soil Erosion in the Upper Manupali Watershed on Irrigated Lowlands in the Philippines.” Paddy Water Environment (1) (2003): 19-26. Lynch, O. Jr. “Withered Roots and Landgrabbers: A Survey of Research on Upland Tenure and Displacement.” In Uplands and Uplanders, edited by Charles P. Castro, pp 167-230. Quezon City, Philippines: Bureau of Forest Development Upland Development Program, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 1984. Magnus, J. In the Wake of the Green Revolution: Environmental and Socio-economic Consequences of Intensive Rice Agriculture – the Problem of Weeds in Muda, Malaysia. Lund, Sweden: Lund University Press, 1996.

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Mangahas, M. “Land Reform on the Public Domain.” IAST Occasional Paper Series # 21. College, Laguna, Philippines: Institute of Agrarian Studies, University of the Philippines Los Baños, 1987. Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute. “The Impact of Highland Agriculture on Water Quality.” Taiwan, Republic of China: Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for Asian and the Pacific Region, 2001. Accessed April 22, 2004. http://www.agnet.org/library/abstract/rh2001006a.html. Municipality of Lantapan. Lantapan Annual Reports. Lantapan, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2007. National Statistics Office. Philippine Statistical Yearbook, Manila, Philippines, 1990. National Statistics Office. Census of Agriculture, Philippines. Manila, Philippines: NSO, 1991 and 2002. NEDA. Regional Economic Situationer Region 10 Office, Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines, 2003. Nishio, M. “Effects of Intensive Fertilizer Use on Groundwater Quality.” Taiwan, Republic of China: Food and Fertilizer Technology Center for Asian and the Pacific Region, no date. Accessed April 22, 2004. http://www.agnet.org/library/ abstract/eb518.html. National Statistical Coordination Board. Philippine Statistical Yearbook, Manila, Philippines, 2000. National Statistics Office and Civil Registry Office Annual Report (1995, various years), Bukidnon. Paningbatan, E. “Identifying Soil Erosion Statrategies in Manupali River Watershed.” In Land Use Change in Tropical Watersheds: Evidence, Costs and Remedies, edited by Coxhead and Shively, 126-132. Cambridge, MA, USA: CABI Publishing, 2005. Paunlagui, M. “Population Dynamics in Lantapan: Highlights of Findings.” In Sociodemographic, Technological, and Economic Factors Affecting Biodiversity in the Lantapan Sub-watershed, Bukidnon, Philippines. SANREM-CRSP Terminal Report, January 1996. Paunlagui, M., B. Rola, and M. Nguyen. “Ageing Population: A Challenge for the Philippines in the Next Millennium.” ISPPS Working Paper No. 99-04. College, Laguna, Philippines: Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies, University of the Philippines Los Baños, 1999.

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National Statistical Coordination Board. Philippine Statistical Yearbook 1997, 2003 and 2006. Manila, 1997, 2003, and 2006. Pingali, P. L. “Agriculture-environment interactions in the Southeast Asian humid tropics.” In Sustainability, Growth and Poverty Alleviation: A Policy and Agroecological Perspective, edited by S. Vosti and T. Reardon, 208-228. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press for the International Food Policy Research Institute, 1997. Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, Wage Statistics, Region X, Cagayan de Oro, 2002. Rola, A., Z. Provido, and M. Olanday, with F. Paraguas, A. Sirue, M. Espaldon, and S. Hupeda. Making Farmers Better Decision-makers through the Farmer Field School. College, Laguna, Philippines: Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture, 1998. Rola, Agnes, Walfredo Rola, Marites Tiongco, and Christopher Delgado. “An Example of Livestock Intensification and the Role of Smallholders: Philippine Hog and Poultry Sectors.” In Animal Production and Animal Science Worldwide: WAAP Book of the Year 2006, edited by A. Rosati, A. Tewolde, and C. Mosconi, pp.249-262. The Netherlands: Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2007. Rola, A.C. and Celia O. Tabien. “Saving a River: Why Do Local Governments Matter?” Journal of Environmental Science and Management(Volume 4 Nos. 1-2 (2001): pp.57-67. Suminguit, V., E. Burton, and M. E. Canoy. “A Study on Ancestral Domain Recognition and Management Within and Around the Mt. Kitanglad Range National Park.” Proceedings of the Conference on Protected Area Management in the Philippines, Davao City, November 12-16, 2002. Tabien, C. O. “Local Government Response to the Potential Environmental Impacts of Commercial Farms on the Water Resources of Lantapan, Bukidnon.” Master of Management (Development Management) field study report. University of the Philippines Los Baños, 2000.

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3

53

The Economy of an Upland Community

This chapter describes the trends in the village economy using the household data. In 1994, sample households were predominantly agricultural and farmers were planting cereal crops and coffee. By the end of the second phase of the project in 2002, it was observed that Lantapan transitioned to a more corporate type of agricultural activity. The data set captured these changes and their impact on farmers. This transition from an economy based almost entirely on smallholder agriculture to one more diversified in both farm production and the use of labor is described in this chapter. By analyzing the fate of a subset of poorest households—households initially below the poverty threshold, as defined at the provincial-level standard—this part of the book also investigates whether indeed there were both winners and losers from this progress. SURVEYS Since 1994, SANREM CRSP SEA researchers have gathered data on a sample of Lantapan farm households, recording land use, production technologies, practice of soil conservation measures, and price expectations, as well as demographic characteristics. These surveys ran every year, except in 1997, until 2002. In 2006, the same set of households was visited as part of the SANREM CRSP SEA Phase III activities. Results of the several surveys are reported in a number of publications (Coxhead 1995; Rola and Tagarino 1996; Coxhead, Rola, and Kim 2001; Rola and Coxhead 2001, 2002, among others).

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The Farm or Household Surveys The Benchmark Survey, 1994 The 1994 farm survey aimed to establish baseline information on Lantapan’s agricultural economy. This was necessary for assessing the economic and ecological sustainability of agriculture in the area, and as a point of reference for future changes. In particular, it enabled one to begin asking how changing prices and technological opportunities might influence Manupali area farmers’ decisions affecting natural resource management (NRM). The 1994 farm survey elicited information on the following main topics: (1) household composition, farm information, annual crop calendar, and land use history; (2) detailed seasonal production data by parcel and crop, including sales and input use; (3) non-farm income from family members; and (4) farmers’ perceptions on erosion and soil degradation, as well as their expectations on types of crop to be grown and crop prices in the next cropping season. Five enumerators from the area were trained to conduct the survey; the questionnaire was pretested on several households in Lantapan. Also during the pretesting stage, permission to interview farmers in the study area was obtained from the mayor of Lantapan. The project’s goals and objectives were also presented to several groups, including the Community Advisory Council (CAC), and during a meeting in the barangay (hamlet) of Songco. Sampling Methodology The sample was drawn from nine barangays in the middle and upper regions of the watershed. Eight of the barangays are situated on the national road through the municipality; one of which, Kaatuan, is a high-altitude village several kilometers off the national road. The target sample size was 200. The number of households to be interviewed in each barangay was established by the following equation: Si = 200*Ni/N

i = 1,….,9,

where Ni represents the estimated number of agricultural households in barangay i, and N is the estimated total number of agricultural households in the nine barangays. The

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THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY

Lantapan municipality provided a list of the number of households in each barangay (Table 3.1, Column 1). However, data on the proportion of households engaged in agriculture were unavailable. The estimates of this proportion and the resulting estimated number of agricultural households per barangay are shown in Table 3.1, Columns 2 and 3. The size of the sample proportional to this is shown in Column 4 while the sample actually drawn, in Column 5. A random sample could not be drawn by conventional means because lists of households by barangay were not obtained. Moreover, the irregular and sometimes very sparsely distributed pattern of households precluded a drawing based on street numbers or similarly anonymous characteristics. Instead, a systematic sampling method was used to draw the respondents. To ensure that every purok in a barangay was represented, respondents were sampled from each purok. For heavily populated puroks, every 13th household was interviewed; for small puroks or those with households situated far apart, every fifth household was interviewed.

Table 3.1 Number of households, estimated number of agricultural households, and sample size by barangay Total Number of Households

Estimated Fraction of Households in Agriculture

Estimated Number of Households in Agriculture

Proportional Sample Size

Actual Sample Size

(1)

(2)

(3) = (1)*(2)

(4) = (3)/2625

(5)

Alanib

626

75

470

36

36

Baclayon

206

60

124

9

11

Balila

351

60

211

16

18

Basac

278

90

250

19

15

Cawayan

213

90

192

15

15

Kaatuan

206

90

185

14

14

Kibangay

768

90

691

53

48

Songco

437

80

350

27

25

Victory

169

90

152

12

13

Total

3254

2625

201

195

Barangay

Source: Municipality of Lantapan

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A total of 191 households cultivating 306 plots were chosen for this survey. Through time this list dwindled to more than half because of migration, giving up of the farms, and difficulty in contacting other respondents.

The Panel: Evolution and Characteristics For the years 1995 and 1996, the same set of respondents less those who have migrated, died, or have given up farming were asked the same set of survey questions as in 1994. A set of enumerators gathered data from July to August to capture the first semester production activities. Research staff of the Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (ISPPS-UPLB), who were joined by a graduate student from the University of Wisconsin Madison, supervised the surveys. No farm survey was done in 1997—the transition year to Phase II of the SANREM CRSP SEA. Instead, two people were hired to visit all the plots of the sample households to measure slope and actual area. In the previous surveys, these data were generated from farmers’ perceptions. During the years 1998 to 2001, the surveys differed from the previous years in terms of methods of data collection, frequency, and variables that were included. In the earlier surveys, a set of enumerators visited the respondents once a year from July to August, as previously mentioned. In these subsequent years, the project hired a full-time field staff, who is a resident of the municipality, to monitor land use and production activities for the whole year. The project also needed the full-time staff, who became the project key informant for most other happenings in the study site, to capture the dynamics of the rural scenes in the longer term. The local research assistant interacted with the farmer respondents as unobtrusively as possible to prevent the community from experiencing survey fatigue. During these subsequent years, the project staff had years of short surveys (only land use data were collected) and long surveys (in addition to land use, complete production and market data were collected) to avoid such fatigue. To establish better rapport and mutual trust, the project gave the respondents small tokens of appreciation every December. Consequently, data on land use were captured for both the wet and dry seasons for the period 1998-2001, with years 1998 and 2000 having a complete production data set. In addition, land market and credit information, and non-farm sources of income were collected starting 1998.

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THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY

The 2002 Farm Survey With the impending end of Phase II of SANREM CRSP SEA, the 2002 survey became an evaluative instrument to the benchmark of 1994. It not only aimed to continue building up the land use, agricultural production, and income data, but also to generate information on the wealth and welfare indicators, community relations from the perspective of the household respondents, and their perceptions of the NRM and governance activities in their villages. A team of eight trained enumerators, all residents of the municipality, under the supervision of the ISPPS staff and the local research assistant collected the data. From the 69 farm households interviewed in 2001 (Table 3.2), this survey included all other 1994 respondents not farming but still living in the municipality. This totaled 109 households cultivating 164 parcels. Table 3.2 Number of respondents included in the survey, 1994-2006 Phase 1 1994 1996 1998 DS DS DS WS

1999 DS WS

2000 DS WS

2001 DS WS

Number of households

191

93

86

84

71

69

66

109

80

Number of plots

306 252 174 156 124 121

117

92

92

90

164

107

119

95

94

Phase 2 Phase 3 2002 2006 S S

DS - dry season WS - wet season

The 2006 Farm Survey The data and analysis in this chapter contains information from the 2006 farm survey of the same set of households less those who cannot be located by the local interviewers and who were not farming. This summed up to only 80 households cultivating 107 plots (Table 3.2). This last survey was part of the benchmark survey for Phase III of SANREM CRSP SEA and focused on the same variables as the 1994 survey. In 1994, all respondents were farmers, and in 2002, all previous respondents who were still in the town were included. But in 2006, the project proponents wanted to know the farming activities of the active farmers in the panel of respondents. For

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the 29 respondents who were still in the 2002 survey but were not farming in 2006, reasons for dropping out of farming included renting out their farms to the banana firms and co-farmers, returning farms to the land owner, laid the land fallow, migrated, died, and sold the land (Table 3.3). In all, the mean farm size of households that dropped out of the survey in 2006 from 2002 was 2.96 hectares. This means that farmers with large farms were the ones who generally dropped out of farming in the community. Table 3.3 Frequency distribution of reasons for dropping out of farming in 2006 from the 2002 survey Reason Land is fallowed Land is rented out to co-farmer Land is rented out to banana firm Land was returned to owner Sold farm land area Migrated Dead Total

Frequency 5 2 5 7 2 5 3 29

The limitations as a result of the changes in data collection methods and this decline in sample size through the duration of the surveys were recognized. The change in panel data collection methodology aimed to have a more reliable set of data than the one-shot annual surveys, which could have produced survey fatigue among the respondents. In a way, changes in the panel reflected community changes. In reality, it was difficult indeed for the project to hold on to the complete set of respondents. While the potential effect of attrition in the analysis was recognized, its presence has not been tested.1 Through all the weaknesses mentioned, this data set is unique in such a way that it is the only time series plot- and household-level data characterizing upland agriculture in the Philippines collected at the dawn of the new century, when several economic and political transformations were taking place. Similar Philippine data sets (Laguna, Bicol, and Central Luzon) characterized the irrigated lowland rice environments during the last quarter of the 20th century (Hayami and Kikuchi 2000).

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59

The Weekly Price Monitoring and Market Surveys The other unique feature of the data set is the availability of weekly price series data in the various trading posts for the years 1994 to 2002. Weekly price monitoring was from October 1994 to 2002 in Kibangay, Songco, Balila, Malaybalay, and Valencia; and in January 1995 in Agora, Carmen, and Cogon in Cagayan de Oro. Kibangay, Songco, and Balila are barangays in Lantapan. Malaybalay and Valencia are major markets in the Bukidnon province. Agora, based in Cagayan de Oro, is the main wholesale market for Region 10. The two retail markets of Carmen and Cogon are located in Cagayan de Oro City. Weekly Price Data Collection Methodology Crop price data were collected weekly from traders at several points in Lantapan, from provincial centers and from the main regional wholesale market (Agora) in Cagayan de Oro, the regional capital and port. Data collection in the villages located in Lantapan, as well as in the Poblacion, was done by a hired assistant. In the villages, respondents included three and two vegetable traders from Songco and Kibangay, respectively; one major trader in Balila; and another trader in the Lantapan Poblacion. Traders were chosen based on their willingness to offer the data to the local data collector. Kinship and friendship had much to do with soliciting this cooperation. For vegetable farm price, average price from these traders represent the weekly farm price of that particular commodity in these markets. In the early part of the project until about 1996, it was the project staff who collected price data at the provincial and regional markets, and the retail markets of Cagayan de Oro. From 1996 onwards, data collection in the provincial markets, as well as the regional markets of Agora, was done in partnership with the provincial and regional offices of the Philippines’ Bureau of Agricultural Statistics (BAS) of the DA. The BAS provincial office collects weekly wholesale and retail price data for farm outputs and inputs in the major provincial markets of Malaybalay and Valencia. The BAS regional office collects retail prices for farm outputs and inputs in the retail markets of Cagayan de Oro, and wholesale output prices in the major regional market of Agora. Much of the produce sold in the Agora market is shipped directly to Manila, the national capital and central market, for either processing or sale; accordingly, Agora prices track the benchmark Manila prices.

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Farm Gate Prices Weekly farm gate prices from 1994 to 2002 are available for coffee, abaca (except for the years 1995 and 2002), cabbage, potatoes, and tomatoes. Wholesale Prices Wholesale buying and selling prices were collected for grains (eg., rice and corn) and coffee mainly from traders in Balila and Lantapan Poblacion. Valencia and Malaybalay markets were also the sources of wholesale prices for coffee, abaca, sugarcane, cabbage, potato, tomato, palay, and corn. Agora also has wholesale prices for these commodities except sugarcane. The 1995 and 1996 wholesale and retail price of abaca were taken from the Fiber Industry Development Authority (FIDA) in Cagayan de Oro. Retail Prices Retail price for coffee from the Malaybalay market was for 1995 and 1998 only; from the Cogon market, it was for 1995 only. Abaca retail prices are available from the Malaybalay market for the years 1995 and 1998, as well. Retail price of sugar was gathered from Lantapan, Malaybalay, and Valencia for various years. Retail prices of cabbage, potatoes, and tomatoes are available for all years in Malaybalay and Valencia, and in Cogon except for 1994 and 2002. For palay and corn, these retail prices are available for all years in Lantapan Poblacion, Malaybalay, and Valencia. Palay and corn (both yellow and white) prices in all the retail markets included in the study were also gathered. Prices of inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds were also obtained from different retail market sources for all the years. Input prices were collected from the Cogon market except for 1994 and 2002. In general, the reasons for the lapses in the weekly data series in some markets were non-availability of price as collected by the BAS during the project staff’s visit, or no supply of the commodity at the time of the market visit.

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SOCIAL AND DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF HOUSEHOLDS Age The members of the sample respondent households from both the lower and upper watersheds were young. The dependency ratio was higher in the upper watershed, indicating a much younger population than in the lower watershed (Table 3.4). Dependency ratio is the proportion of persons with ages below 15 years and above 65 years to population in the active labor force. The dependency ratio in the lower watershed was 51 percent in 1996 but declined to 45 percent in 2002. This again increased to 51 percent in 2006, exhibiting a fairly constant measure through time. On the other hand, the dependency ratio in the upper watershed did not change at 86 percent from 1996 to 2002 but decreased to 57 percent in 2006. Given this, more productive labor is found in the lower watershed. Young people ( 2.0 ha)

n= 35 1.94 2.71

n=39 2.11c 2.90c

n=32 2.59 3.50

n=59 1.94 1.91

n=64 1.90 1.84

n=48 2.18 2.25

Total Adult Population

3.01

3.55

3.30

2.05

2.01

2.44

Total Household Head

2.37

2.51

2.82

1.93

1.88

2.19

This includes adults aged 12 to 64 years old. This includes household head only. b Significantly different at 5%. c Significantly different at 10%. Education code: 1 – Incomplete Elementary; 2 – Completed Elementary; 3 – Incomplete HS; 4 – Complete HS; 5 – Incomplete College; 6 – College Graduate. Source: SANREM survey 1 2

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educational attainment. These results show that IP have acquired higher education through time. In the lower watershed, mean educational attainment of adults in families with small farm sizes (less than or equal to 2 ha) was lower than that of adults in families with higher farm sizes, revealing class differences. On the other hand, there was no distinct difference in the mean educational attainment of the two classes in the upper watershed. In 2006, it was found that those with larger farm sizes had higher education in both the lower and upper watersheds, implying that assets can influence one’s educational attainment. In general, adult residents in the lower watershed had higher educational attainment (high school undergraduate, on the average) than those in the upper watershed (typically elementary graduate). The education of household heads in the lower watershed was also higher (incomplete high school) than that of the household heads in the upper watershed (incomplete elementary). Access to high school facilities was easier in the lower watershed. The household data further revealed that household members become more educated through time (Table 3.6). In 1996, some adult household members were

Table 3.6 Mean educational attainment1 by age group in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1996-2006

1996

1998

Year 2000

1.29 3.43 2.64

1.31 3.62 2.83

1.76 3.87 2.89

1.37 3.75 3.46

1.49 3.74 3.19

Total Upper 6 to 14 15 to 25 >25

2.54

2.68

2.91

3.00

3.01

0.86 2.19 2.00

1.23 2.25 2.13

1.15 2.53 2.19

1.17 2.47 1.92

1.24 2.86 2.26

Total

1.66

1.83

1.85

1.78

2.20

Age (in years) Lower 6 to14 15 to 25 >25

2002

2006

Education code: 1– Incomplete Elementary; 2 – Completed Elementary; 3 – Incomplete HS; 4 – Complete HS; 5 – Incomplete College; 6 – College Graduate. Source: SANREM data 1

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found to have no education. In 2006, every school-age child was in school. The educational attainment in each of the age brackets also increased through time. What all these suggest is that within the upland population, IP and migrants had similar chances of getting out of poverty as educational facilities became more accessible in areas nearer the center. Elementary and high schools were nearer households in the lower watershed. The long distances between households and schools in the upper watershed could have prevented children in that area from seeking higher education. Females, being highly educated, tended to seek non-farm employment more than males. Indeed, education is a vehicle for getting out of agriculture. Non-farm income sources were more dominant than farm income sources in households where educational attainment of the household head was higher. As will be seen in the next chapter, non-farm wages are currently higher than farm wages, thus the wedge in incomes between farm and non-farm. In the long term, when upland residents become highly educated, the agricultural labor force may be limiting; such scarcity could push for higher farm wages. Tenurial Status Tenure of farmland is recorded at the level of the plot, and is classified into three broad groups by perceived degree of security. The most secure is ownership with formal private title. Moderately secure tenure forms include shared ownership, taxdeclared, mortgaged (or rented out to neighboring farmers or banana plantation), and land covered by a Certificate of Land Transfer (CLT) from the DAR. The least secure are tenancy contracts and other temporary or informal arrangements. The survey data revealed changes in tenure security through time (Table 3.7). Forty-seven percent of the sample had less secure tenure in 1994, but this declined to 24 percent by 2002 and to 16 percent by 2006. From 1994, the moderately secure group had increased from 20 to 47 percent in 2002 and declined to 23 percent in 2006. The increase in security of tenure from 2002 to 2006 had several reasons: (1) the titles from the DAR would have been already given to those with lands under the CLT; (2) the shared owners would have obtained their own titles; and (3) most of those who remained in the sample had secured tenure. The holders of the ISF contract, which is for 25 years and renewable provided beneficiaries follow the rules of the DENR in the planting of trees at the buffer zone, still remained in the moderately secure classification.

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THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY Table 3.7 Distribution of tenure of the largest parcel of farmer (%), 1994, 2002, and 2006 1994

2002

2006

Most secure

32.98

29.36

61.30

Moderately secure

19.90

46.79

22.70

Least secure

47.12

23.85

16.00

100.00

100.00

100.00

Total Chi-square value

54.22***

Note: Most secured: Private title; Moderately secured: Shared ownership, Tax Declared, Mortgaged, CLT; Least secured: Tenant, Cash Rental, Others. *** Significant at 1%. Source: SANREM survey

Plots with most secure tenure diminished slightly because farmers mortgaged or rented out their parcels to the banana plantations or sugarcane growers in the area. In 2002, 20 percent of total parcels were rented out to the plantation crop growers. In the lower watershed, about 23 percent of the plots were rented out; this figure was about 17 percent in the upper watershed. In 2006, the rate of increase in the number of rented plots in the sample declined compared to 2000 and 2002, indicating a slowdown in the land rental arrangement. AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY AND TRENDS Biophysical Characteristics Households and parcels were classified into lower watershed (elevation up to 1,000 masl) and upper watershed (elevation higher than 1,000 masl). Most of the parcels in the study area were rolling or steep because of the terrain in the municipality. In the sample, about half of the plots in the lower watershed were found to be rolling, with slope between 1 to 19 percent. Thirty-one percent of the parcels have multiple types of slopes. On the other hand, about 42 percent of the study parcels were rolling while 21 percent were flat lands in the upper watershed. The study plots were also farther from the roads in the upper watershed area. The mean distance of the plots from the national road was 1,807 meters in the lower watershed and 2,546 meters in the upper watershed.

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The Farm Economy Location of Plots In the Philippine rural setting, it was typical in the past that a household would have farmed plots in both the lowlands and upper slopes. The lowlands were farms with more secure tenure, as these are classified as alienable and disposable lands. Rice and other lowland crops are usually planted in the lowlands. But lowland farmers would also go to the uplands, usually to an open-access area, to maintain a kaingin to be planted to root crops, bananas, coffee, sometimes upland rice and corn (as in the Visayas), or high valued vegetables (as in the Southern Luzon region). Whether such arrangements were also present in the study site or not, was investigated. The data showed that a small proportion of farmer respondents have plots in both the lower and upper watersheds (Table 3.8). The lower watershed farmers would usually rent lands in the upper watershed to be planted to temperate crops, or these were IP who have intermarried and settled in the lower watershed. In contrast to the typical national story in which farmers would go to the high slopes to cultivate subsistence crops such as rootcrops and bananas, Lantapan farmers go to the upper watershed for highly commercialized vegetable farming. Farm Size Interesting agricultural trends have unfolded in the area, as captured by trends in farm size. Household data implied that mean size of actual farm holding in both the lower and upper watersheds decreased from 3.84 hectares and 2.64 hectares in

Table 3.8 Number of households with plots in the lower watershed, upper watershed, and both watersheds in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994, 2002, and 2006 1994 Number of households With plots in the lower watershed With plots in the upper watershed With plots in both lower and upper watersheds Total

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2002

2006

54

28

26

127 9

68 13

47 7

190

109

80

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THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY

1994 to 3.5 hectares and 2.40 hectares, respectively, in 2002 (Figure 3.1). This has decreased further to 1.5 hectares and 1 hectare, respectively, in 2006. However, it is suspected that the decline in 2006 could be due to the attrition of large landholders, as mentioned earlier. The IP in 1994 had bigger landholding than the migrants in the lower watershed, but this pattern reversed in 2002. One explanation could be the division of land among the children of the IP, information from the farmer case studies in Chapter 5. The household head, who was the respondent, gave part of his/her land to the children who have settled and have families of their own.

Lower Watershed

Farm Size (ha)

5 4 3 2 1 0 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

2002

2006

Year IPs

Migrant

Average

Farm Size (ha)

Upper Watershed 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 1994

1996

1998

2000

Year IPs

Migrant

Average

Figure 3.1 Average farm size by ethnicity of all farms in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

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In the upper watershed, migrants had a slightly higher farm size of 2.73 hectares in 1994 compared with the 2.51 hectares of the IP. For both groups, mean total farm size declined from 3 hectares in 1994 to 2.81 hectares in 2002. The drastic drop in 2006 could have been due to attrition of large farmers during this survey period. There was no active buying and selling of land in the study site (though two farmers were recorded to have sold land), but renting of land by capitalists from nearby towns or from Cagayan de Oro and, later in the study period, renting of lands from the IP by the banana companies was flourishing in 2000. This analysis confirmed the growth of corporate farms in the town, but that the study has focused so far on smallholds only. Trends in Cropping Patterns In 1994, the dominant cropping pattern in the lower watershed was corn-corn, corn-coffee, and corn-sugarcane. In the upper watershed, vegetable production was dominant. The data show that this trend has been changing through time. Corn area declined along with coffee area, and vegetable production in the upper watershed expanded. In 2006, the new cropping pattern found in the lower watershed was coffee-banana—a cropping pattern not observed in the earlier years (Table 3.9). Small farmers produced banana in commercial quantity in 2006, even as the plantation bananas were also expanding in area. Such a shift is seen in the number of households engaging in this cropping pattern. For instance, out of 80 households interviewed in 2006, 9 percent planted coffee and bananas. In the upper watershed, the shift to corn and coffee in 2006 was due to the attractive prices for white corn and coffee. Some farm households reported no crops in 1998. It was learned that some have just planted root crops for home consumption—their survival strategy. This was the effect of the drought and where some farmers had laid the land fallow. It was observed that farmers in the upper watershed used their indigenous knowledge about weather patterns in deciding what crops to produce. This is knowledge that has been transmitted from generation to generation of farmers. Trends in the Sample Area Planted to Crops In general, area planted to corn and coffee decreased and increased for vegetables and other commercial crops such as sugarcane (Figure 3.2). This decline was partly due to the sample respondents’ participation in the land rental market. In 1994, every respondent in the sample was cultivating his/her own land. The primary requirement to be part of the sample is for the household to have agricultural production activities. In

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THE ECONOMY OF AN UPLAND COMMUNITY Table 3.9 Relative distribution of trends in cropping pattern (%) in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006 Cropping Pattern

1994

1998

2002

2006

Lower Corn-corn Corn-coffee Coffee Vegetable-corn Corn and sugarcane Sugarcane Coffee and banana No crop

n=62 34 28 23 3 13 — — —

n=41 23 29 23 7 5 2 — 11

n=41 19 16 10 16 10 8 — 21

n=33 21 19 15 — 9 9 21 6

100

100

100

100

n=128 27 6 33 27 — 7 —

n=52 43 — 23 20 2 9 3

n=68 25 — 24 30 5 — 16

n=47 22 — 8 32 — 36 2

100

100

100

100

Total Upper Corn-corn Coffee Vegetable-corn Vegetable-vegetable Rice, timber Corn and coffee No crop Total — no entry

2002, about 60 hectares of the sample area (19%) was rented out, and it was observed that some of the household respondents did not have any crops planted anymore. In 2006, it was observed that small farmers in the lower watershed planted bananas on a commercial scale along with sugarcane. In the upper watershed, there was more intensive vegetable production in this later year. Yield Trends Yields of white corn in the study site remained fairly constant through time, except during the El Niño in the period 1997-1998. However, the yield of yellow corn had a slightly increasing trend after the El Niño period. This could have been due to the more modern technology used in yellow corn farming gleaned from the increasing trend in cash inputs used (see Chapter 5).

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a

100% 90%

% area planted

80% 70% 60%

Banana

50%

Sugar

40%

Vegetables

30%

Corn

20% 10% 0% 1994

b

1996

1998

1999

2000

2002

2006

100%

% area planted

80% Others (i.e. abaca, banana, pepper) Vegetables

60% 40%

Corn

20% 0% 1994

1996

1998

1999

2000

2002

2006

Figure 3.2 Farm area (%) planted to annual crops in the (a) lower and (b) upper watershed. (Note: This data does not include banana plantations.)

In normal times, corn yield figures in the study area were higher than the national average. Corn yield trends varied according to watershed location, variety, and amount of fertilizer applied. White corn yields were generally higher in the lower watershed than in the upper watershed (Figures 3.3.1 to 3.3.2). Yellow corn had a consistently higher average yield than white corn; farmers invested in fertilizers for this commercial crop. Yellow corn is used for livestock feed while white corn is used for food. Also, new varieties of yellow corn were greater in number than of white corn. This is so because of research investments in the former and the support of the livestock industry.2 Investments in improving the variety of white corn were few, mainly because this particular crop had no commercial value.

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White corn

Yield (kg/ha)

2000.00 1500.00 Lower

1000.00

Upper

500.00 0.00 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year

Yellow corn 5000.00

Yield (kg/ha)

4000.00 3000.00

Lower

2000.00

Upper

1000.00 0.00 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year

Figure 3.3.1 Trends in yield (kg/ha) of (a) white corn and (b) yellow corn, by watershed, in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

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Coffee 600.00

Yield (kg/ha)

500.00 400.00

Lower

300.00

Upper

200.00 100.00 0.00 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year

Cabbage 12000.0

Yield (kg/ha)

10000.0 8000.0

Upper

6000.0 4000.0 2000.0 0.0 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year

Figure 3.3.2 Trends in yield (kg/ha) of (c) coffee and (d) cabbage, by watershed, in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

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73

Coffee, the other important traditional crop in the watershed, was found to have very fluctuating yield trends (Figure 3.3). Coffee is not a focus of research and development funds from the public sector, but it has a strong private sector market support. Farmers were not investing in inputs during times of low output price. However, some still maintained their coffee trees3 and rehabilitated them when prices were expected to be high. In some instances in the upper watershed, coffee trees were cut down to give way to high valued crops such as potato, cabbage, and tomatoes. The trend in yield of cabbage cannot be firmly gauged because of sparse data. While it is possible to harvest more than 5 metric tons per 0.25 hectares, the average yield in 2002 was 2.2 metric tons. Cabbage is sensitive to water supply, which explains the fall in the yield in 1998, a drought year. Farm Profitability Trends The analysis of farm profitability involved comparison of the trend of the unit cost of production. This is the total cost of production4 per kilogram and the farm price of the output per kilogram. The gap between these two trends is an indicator of farm profitability measured in pesos per kilogram. At the lower watershed, both white and yellow corn production had respectable profit margins, with bigger margins in 1996 and the least margin in 1998, the drought year (Figure 3.4). The data for subsequent period showed higher margins, about PhP4.00 margin for yellow corn5 and PhP5.00 margin for white corn in 2006 grown in the lower watershed. The observation of yellow corn production at the upper watershed was not sufficient to warrant a rigorous analysis. However, profit margin for white corn in the upper watershed had steady trends of about PhP5.00, on the average, in most years. On the other hand, cabbage profitability was highest during the El Niño year but declined somewhat thereafter. Cabbage farmers in this area had captured the high prices due to the low supply in the big markets of Manila and other urban centers during the drought year. Indeed, prices outside the watershed influenced the price level of cabbage in this study site (Coxhead et al. 2001). Coffee profitability trend was also very erratic, which reflected the investment behavior of farmers growing this crop.

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Lower watershed, white corn 10.00 PhP/kg

8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year Production Cost/kg

Farm Price/kg

PhP/kg

Lower watershed, yellow corn 7.00 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.00 0

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year Production Cost/kg

Farm Price/kg

Figure 3.4.1 Trends in production cost (per kg) and farm price (per kg) of various crops in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

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Upper watershed, white corn 10.00 PhP/kg

8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0 1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year Production Cost/kg

Farm Price/kg

PhP/kg

Upper watershed, cabbage 14.00 12.00 10.00 8.00 6.00 4.00 2.00 0

1994

1996

1998

2000

2002

2006

Year Production Cost/kg

Farm Price/kg

Figure 3.4.2 Trends in production cost (per kg) and farm price (per kg) of various crops in the lower and upper watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2006

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The Household Economy Proportion of Farm Income to Total Household Income Through time, a shift in the household income sources from purely farm to nonfarm and off-farm was observed. Off-farm income sources were from wages from working in other farms while non-farm income sources were from micro-enterprises (sari-sari stores); employment in offices, including employment in banana plantations such as driver; and plantation-hired worker. In the lower watershed, predominantly corn household members had increasingly sought non-farm incomes that were becoming available in the town. As a result, 75 percent of household incomes in 2002 and about 90 percent in 2006 were from non-farm sources (Figure 3.5), revealing that farm incomes as a proportion of total household incomes declined. This trend was observed for corn-coffee- and coffee-producing households, but not for those producing commercial crops such as sugarcane. In the upper watershed, the income sources of household respondents were also varied. Most of the households in the corn systems had non-farm income sources. In the vegetable system, it was observed that households had only farm sources in 1998. More than 50 percent of the total income in 2002 and 2006 was from the farm (Figure 3.5). In 2002, a couple of households were observed to be producing rice and timber. In farms without any crop, the predominant source of income was non-farm.6 Income data suggested that non-farm incomes were becoming significant sources of incomes in the uplands. These observations negate the common policy perception that upland households are poor, subsistence farmers, and so interventions should be more technology- or supply-driven. On the contrary, these households were increasingly producing commercial crops, had other sources of income, and handled cash for consumption. Towards the end of Phase II of the project, rice stalls and small restaurants were already established in the upper watershed communities, signaling the start of consumerism in the area. Villagers had cellular phones as means of communication, and the internet was sparsely available in some parts of the upper watershed. This economy-wide development in information technology and markets will have profound impact on the way upland villagers live in the future.

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120 100 80

Lower Watershed

Non farm

60

Off farm Farm

10 20

Corn-corn

Corn-coffee

2006

2002

2000

1998

2006

2002

2000

1998

2006

2002

2000

1998

0

Coffee-coffee

120 100 80

Upper Watershed

Non farm

60

Off farm Farm

10 20

Corn-corn

Veg-corn

2006

2002

2000

1998

2006

2002

2000

1998

2006

2002

2000

1998

0

Veg-veg

Figure 3.5 Distribution of monthly income of household* (%; in real terms, 1994=100), based on their dominant cropping pattern, in the lower watershed in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1998-2006. (Off-farm income includes wages from working in other farms; non-farm income includes salaries and wages in non-farm activities and proceeds from sari-saristores.)

THE POOR IN A MARKET-BASED UPLAND ECONOMY Poverty incidence in this upland community was higher than the provincial average, which was likewise higher than the national average (see Chapter 2). To characterize the poor subsistence farmers in this booming agricultural economy, 2006 survey data were used to obtain the identities of the poorest families (i.e., with incomes below the poverty thresholds of Bukidnon). In theory, subsistence households are those who produce for their own consumption. There was no such classification among the households included in the study.

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The results suggested that poverty incidence was declining in Lantapan (Table 3.10). From 76 percent in 1998, this declined to 53 percent in 2002, and further declined to 46 percent in 2006. In absolute numbers, there were 37 sample households that were below the 2004 poverty threshold of Bukidnon province in the 2006 survey. Table 3.10 Poverty incidence among sample households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1998-2006

Year

a

Annual Poverty Threshold per Capita (current)

Annual Poverty Threshold per Capita (2000=100)

Number of HH Earning Below Poverty Threshold

n

Poverty Incidence (%)

1998

8868a

8052

72

95

75.79

2000

8692b

8692

53

84

63.10

2002

9951

c

10946

58

109

53.21

2006

11538

d

13915

37

80

46.25

Bukidnon, 1997 data; b Bukidnon, 2000 data; c Bukidnon, 2002 data; d Bukidnon, 2004 data.

In Table 3.11, these 37 households are characterized based on the 2006 data and compared with their conditions in 1994. Of the 37 households, 15 were IP. Their crop choices were not significantly different during the two periods. Migrants in this group became more commercially oriented and had more secure tenure in 2006 than in 1994. Titles could have been available in this later time, as previously discussed. Both groups had minimal access to credit. In terms of market integration for corn, the IP in 2006 were not as connected as the migrants were. However, in 1994, both groups were well-connected to the market for corn. Total farm incomes during 1994 were almost the same for the two groups; but the later year showed a distinct gap, with the IP having higher farm incomes—that could have been due to higher returns in vegetable production—than the migrants. About 77 percent of the poor migrants had no farm incomes anymore, and about 23 percent had a negative computed income in 2006. The descriptions above become more vivid in Chapter 5.

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Table 3.11 Comparison of characteristics of families below poverty income threshold in Lantapan in 2006 from 1994 (n=37) 1994 Crops planted* C Co V C, Co C, T C, V C, Co Co, T V, Co V, T C, V, Co C, Co, T C, Co, V, T Tenure of plots** Access to credit (%)

a

Market integration (%)***

2006

Talaandig

Migrant

Talaandig

Migrant

n=15 4 1 4 — — 4 1 — — — 1 — —-

n=22 5 5 2 — — 1 5 — 2 — 2 — —

n=15 1 — 4 — 3 3 — — — 1 — 2 1

n=22 4 2 4 5 — 3 — 2 1 — — 1 —

2

2

2

3

30.00

6.00

20.00

13.64

46.73

40.51

11.11

55.95

12,193.72

13,485.84

19,072.00

9,163.64

Annual household income (PhP)

—-

—

35,485.33

30,968.55

Income per capita per year (Current) Income per capita per year (2000 prices) % Without farm income

—

—

5,914.22

5,161.42

—

—

7451.92

6503.39

6.67

4.55

26.67

77.27

—

—

0.00

22.73

Annual farm income (PhP)

% With household income|z|)

-2.5298 1.6175 0.1180

-0.2381 0.7450 0.7490

0.1561 0.4241 0.7130

Ethnicity (1 – Talaandig; 0 –Migrant) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-2.1918 3.2626 0.5020

-0.5048 0.8525 0.5540

0.5096 0.7121 0.4740

Mean age of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-1.0608 1.0977 0.3340

0.0619 0.3247 0.8490

-0.2079 0.1802 0.2490

Mean squared age of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.0163 0.0160 0.3100

-0.0017 0.0064 0.7950

0.0033 0.0029 0.2540

Household size Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.1556 0.4503 0.7300

0.1619 0.1657 0.3290

0.0906 0.1324 0.4930

Farm Size (whole farm holding in ha) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.2944 1.4438 0.8380

-0.2096 0.5563 0.7060

0.0247 0.4857 0.9590

Farm Size squared (whole farm holding) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.0638 0.1085 0.5560

0.0258 0.0639 0.6860

0.0314 0.0534 0.5560

Variables

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Appendix Table A5.1 Multinomial logit regression results of determinants... (continued) Variables

b

Commercial Crops Expansion

Non-Farm Employment

Land tenure status (1 – least secured to 3 – most secured) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

2.2071 1.4586 0.1300

-0.1766 0.4739 0.7090

0.5466 0.3919 0.1630

Distance of farmb from road (m) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.0005 0.0006 0.4030

0.0000 0.0002 0.7660

-0.0004 0.0002 0.0860

Distance of barangay from Poblacion Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-1.4891 1.0757 0.1660

0.0298 0.0613 0.6270

-0.0565 0.0534 0.2900

Elevation of barangay (m) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.0054 0.0068 0.4210

0.0013 0.0012 0.0810

0.0017 0.0011 0.1210

Access to credit Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-5.8491 4.5369 0.1970

-0.2530 1.0022 0.8010

-2.1398 1.2071 0.0760

0.1071

0.1429

0.2619

Mean predicted probability of the pathway a

Coffee Area Reduction

Reference pathway is corn area reduction. The largest parcel of farmers.

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Appendix Table A5.2 Multinomial logit regression results of determinants of the pathways of lower watershed households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 (N=40) Coffee Area Reduction

Non-Farm Employment

Mean education of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-1.5703 1.1978 0.1900

10.6301 6.4859 0.1010

Ethnicity (1 – Talaandig; 0 –Migrant) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

4.6468 2.8283 0.1000

8.9744 4.6632 0.0540

Mean age of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.3795 0.5614 0.4990

-2.7873 2.0439 0.1730

Mean squared age of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.0022 0.0082 0.7830

0.0409 0.0293 0.1640

Household size Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.2359 0.3053 0.4400

1.0359 0.6002 0.0840

Farm Size (whole farm holding in ha) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.5036 1.0315 0.6250

7.6968 3.4395 0.0250

Farm Size squared (whole farm holding) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.0125 0.0858 0.8840

-0.9496 0.4619 0.0400

Land tenure status (1 – least secured to 3 – most secured) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

1.3868 1.2047 0.2500

2.4675 1.7711 0.1640

Distance of farmb from road (m) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.0003 0.0005 0.5260

-0.0010 0.0005 0.0560

Mean predicted probability of the pathway

0.2500

0.3056

Variables

a

Reference pathway is corn area reduction.

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Appendix Table A5.3 Multinomial logit regression results of determinants of the pathways of upper watershed households in Lantapan, Bukidnon, 1994-2002 (N=69) Commercial Crop Expansion

Non-Farm Employment

Mean education of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

2.7329 2.8076 0.3300

1.3590 3.0829 0.6590

Mean education squared of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.3643 0.5664 0.5200

-0.6608 1.0803 0.5410

Ethnicity (1 – Talaandig; 0 – Migrant) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-4.2320 1.7590 0.0160

1.0941 1.0645 0.3040

Mean age of household (1996) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.4230 0.1910 0.0270

0.0051 0.0533 0.9230

Household size Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.6733 0.3746 0.0720

-0.1127 0.1978 0.5690

Farm Size (whole farm holding in ha) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.0800 0.3266 0.8060

0.0686 0.2219 0.7570

Variables

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Appendix Table A5.3 Multinomial logit regression results of determinants... (continued) Commercial Crop Expansion

Non-Farm Employment

Land tenure status (1 – least secured to 3 – most secured) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.2869 0.6560 0.6620

0.4511 0.5144 0.3810

Distance of farmb from road (m) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

0.0005 0.0003 0.0650

-0.0003 0.0003 0.3200

Distance of barangay from Poblacion Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.5225 0.1983 0.0080

-0.0098 0.1012 0.9230

Elevation of barangay (m) Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

-0.0040 0.0021 0.0610

0.0024 0.0016 0.1480

Access to credit Coefficient Standard Error Significance (P>|z|)

1.1903 1.5838 0.4520

-1.1668 1.3133 0.3740

0.2400

0.2600

Variables

Mean predicted probability of the pathway a b

Reference pathway is corn area reduction. The largest parcel of farmers.

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147

REFERENCES

Canoy, M. E. and V. Suminguit. “The Indigenous Peoples of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park.” Social Watch Philippines Report. Manila, Philippines, 2001. Department of Agriculture. “Ginintuang Masaganang Ani.” Corn Program Document. Quezon City, Philippines, 2003. Deutsch, W.D., J. L. Oprecio, and J. P. Bago-Labis. “Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: The Tigbantay Wahig Experience.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Agricultural Development and Environmental Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 184-196. Los Baños, Philippines: Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, 2001a. Gadrinab, A. “Quantification and Valuation of Soil Erosion in Various Land Uses in Manupali Watershed.” Unpublished PhD diss., University of the Philippines Los Baños, 1999. GlobalAgRisk, Inc. “Index Insurance for Weather Risk in Lower-Income Countries.” Lexington, Kentucky, 2003. Greene, W. Econometric Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1993. 3rd edition. Lantican, M., L. Guerra and S. Bhuiyan. “Impacts of Soil Erosion in the Upper Manupali Watershed on Irrigated Lowlands in the Philippines.” Paddy Water Environment (1) (2003): 19-26. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Ecosystems and Human Wellbeing: A Framework for Assessment. Washington, DC, USA: Island Press, 2003. Pender, J., S. Scherr, and G. Duron. “Pathways of Development in the Hillsides of Honduras: Causes and Implications for Agricultural Production, Poverty, and Sustainable Resource Use.” Environment and Production Technology Division EPTD Discussion Paper No. 45. Washington, DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute, 1999. Rola, A. C., C. Tabien, and I. Bagares. “Coping with El Niño, 1998: An Investigation in the Upland Community of Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines.” Working Paper 99-03. College, Laguna, Philippines: Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies, University of the Philippines Los Baños.

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Rola, Agnes C., Celia O. Tabien, Adrian L. Albano, Esteban C. Godilano, and Tito Moya. “Agricultural Research Prioritization at the Local Level: Tools, Methods and Application in Cagayan Valley, Philippines.” Research report submitted to the Bureau of Agricultural Research, Department of Agriculture, Quezon City, Philippines, 2003a. Rola, Agnes C., Ian Coxhead, Isidra B. Bagares, and Erica T. Villavelez. “Economic Development in the Uplands: Who Wins, Who Loses?” ISPPS Working Paper No. 03-05. College, Laguna, Philippines: University of the Philippines Los Baños, 2003b. Rola, Agnes C. “Determinants of Agricultural Development Pathways by Upland Households.” Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development, Volume XXVI Nos.1-2 (2007): pp1-25.

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6

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In the three previous chapters, household-level resource allocation and use as a result of agricultural commercialization and other policy shocks, including the impact of the weather aberration, were analyzed. Meanwhile, this chapter deals with the broader consequences of community resource use and discusses the role of property rights in the access and utilization of upland resources. Property rights define who owns what, and what the owner can do with what he owns. The integrity of property rights depends on enforcement cost. The lower the enforcement cost, the more meaningful the rights are. The failure to define the property rights to some resources (e.g., water resources and forest resources) gives rise to positive and negative externality. A transaction can confer benefit or impose cost to third parties without compensation, only if the rights to some resources have not been defined (http://opus1journal.org/ articles/articles.asp?docID=234, accessed June 4, 2009). The literature affirms that resources will be allocated efficiently regardless of the initial assignment of property rights if the cost of negotiating a settlement of spill-over effects is zero (Coase 1960). This Coase theorem has been an important basis for modern economic analysis of government regulation, in the case of externalities. Property rights as a policy instrument could help shape the fate of environmental resources in the uplands. Per the analytical framework in Chapter 1, the pre-

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development period saw local communities devising strategies based on customary rules, known to be effective in their particular context of a subsistence economy. During the period after the WWII, the central state emerged with the power to plan for economic growth. Uplands, especially the forest lands, were thereupon exploited with the uplands becoming the source of lowland wealth (Van den Top 1999). However, since the central powers were very far away, local communities were still seen as the de facto managers of resources, with property rights in a state of confusion. As a result, open access became the dominant procedure, leading to environmental degradation. Because of this, the worldview was to return management to local communities starting in the late 1980s. Granting rights to local communities is part of the social and political agenda in many countries in a process of decentralization (Persoon and van Est 1999). This chapter discusses the evolution of property rights in Lantapan, and analyzes the opportunities and constraints for the Philippine government to devise more effective rules on bundles of rights in the upland resources, to minimize externalities and thus attain upland sustainability. EVOLUTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE UPLANDS The evolution of the property rights regimes of upland resources in the Philippines during the development periods in the study reveals that during the pre-development period, all resources were held in common. In the early development period, the State owned the forests and set some of these as private forest plantations. Therefore, some forests in the Philippines became quasi property of private individuals. While cleared lands were still common property under customary rules, they have become more open access in the absence of institutions to award property rights in some areas during the early development period. Private ownership in the form of land titles was granted to individuals who have access to institutions awarding said titles during both the early and late development periods. Water-related property rights have always been complicated due to conflicting laws that govern the use of this particular resource. In the pre-modern times, native upland tribes held water as common property. In the early development period, Philippine water laws were formulated stating that water is indeed a common property but its use will be regulated by the central State. This was not a problem in the uplands then as water was abundant and there was no felt need to regulate water access and use. But with increasing competing use in these modern times, weak water rights lead

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to conflicts among upland users. This also affects lowland use. Therefore, during the late development period, the Philippines passed the IPRA, recognizing the customary rules in tribe members’ control of and access to upland resources, including water. Managing these water conflicts, as well as other forest and upland land issues, to achieve sustainable upland resource use would need a more coherent set of rules for property rights.

EVOLUTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS IN BUKIDNON Pre-development Period: Community Ownership in a Subsistence Economy1 Community Ownership of Land and Land Use Practices The pre-development period was characterized by an abundance of natural resources. Tribal leaders defined customary rules, and community members (members of the same clan or tribe) who used these resources voluntarily obeyed the norms. Territory was commonly held by the members of the community where commonality of ownership was limited to these members related by blood or through ceremony. All members made use of the land held in common. The members observed certain norms in the use of the land, the basis of this category being how these territories are used—kaingin farming, hunting area and sacred places for rituals, and burials and worships—thereby practicing land zoning. Sacred sites can be compared to the protected areas during the modern times except that in the olden times, these were defined as places of worship. These areas cannot be farmed or hunted. There is a tribe “ritualist” who gives permission for entry and acts as the facilitator between the spirits and the community members.

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Assigning Property Rights of Farm Lands The upland tribes saw land as a usufruct rather than a property. Natives considered land not as a piece of commodity but as a gift from God. The practice of land disposition then was to assign land to a family member for cultivation. Land right was given only to family members, including those related by affinity. This right brought with it the authority to exercise power over the land. One tended a farm for a year and would move on to another plot to allow the previous site to lay fallow between 7 to 15 years. The new plot should have already been regenerated, if previously farmed, or it may be newly opened. The tribe decided on which open-access lands to cultivate and which to be held in common. It was believed that in the forests, valleys, and the lower areas, there had been farms where entry was prohibited to non-farmers and outsiders. Otherwise, the efficacy of prayers will be lost and this made the area vulnerable to pests, which may lead to zero crop productivity. Markers had indication of such prohibition and it was believed that misfortune befalls the area violated by entry of non-believers. “Sala,” a cultural penalty, was imposed to the prohibitor. Farming was undertaken for consumption only. Pre-modern time people subsisted on rootcrops and seasonal crops like rice, corn, and bananas. They also planted abaca for their fiber needs and for bags and hammocks. Food was supplemented by wild game and fish from streams and rivers. During these early times, Mindanao tribes defined boundaries of property ownership of tribes and families using rivers as markers. Customary laws observed conflict management by consensus, with the head of the tribe as the facilitator. The village chief controlled the land and assigned usufruct rights to his tribal members; customary laws also have a system of penalties and rewards. The customs governing the use of the land were closely related to their beliefs in the spirits. Property Rights Regime in the Early Development Period Forest Use in Bukidnon Under the Central Government Property Regime Rapid deforestation took place in Bukidnon from the 1950s to the 1990s. In the study site, forest land was opened by commercial loggers who were granted a Timber License Agreement (TLA). In this early development period, the inhabitants of Bukidnon’s forests were of the belief that whatever the government had decided,

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such as the awarding of logging concessions within their territory, they had no right to protest (Rodil et al. nd). If they did, they will lose all their property (translated in their language as usufruct) rights, freedom and even their lives. They were afraid of the coastal migrants known as the Dumagat; hence, they went into the hinterlands. The loggers in the area tried to befriend the natives, giving them employment in the company and allowing them to ride their big trucks. The natives returned the favor by allowing the logger to fell trees as much as they wanted. However, as logging became so destructive, the natives realized that environmental denudation was taking place. Their indicators were the absence of game to be caught and of bountiful harvests, especially in the rivers. It was believed that the spirits moved deeper into the remaining forests, resulting in the loss of the efficacy of the rituals. Especially in the fragile environment of Bukidnon, environmental degradation had a significant toll. So rampant was the logging that in 1967, a certain Ricardo de la Camara started to organize the tribes and put them together to protect them from the loggers (Sumbalan2001). In 1975, the people of Lantapan (both migrants and natives) and another nearby town, Talakag, embraced the native tribe in the study site area as their tribal identity. Raping the forests then was seen as removing the rights of this tribe to their habitat. As early as 1989, the provincial government’s policy was to have “an optimally developed agricultural economy and ecologically balanced environment.” This vision guided the provincial government in its strategic development plans. However, this intention to promote an ecologically balanced environment was put to test during such time (Sumbalan 2001), leading to very high costs (see Box 6.1). Also, in 1989, as a sign of protest to the continuing logging in the province, a group of concerned citizens from one municipality2 barricaded the logging roads. Some of the members traveled to Manila and fasted in front of the Office of the Secretary of the DENR to press their demand to stop logging activities in Bukidnon. In a surprising move, the provincial governor that time sided with the group by going to jail with the members to show his sympathy.3 This event4 led to a logging ban in the province as declared in 1991. That being said, during this period, forest policies, while national in scope, were de facto being blocked by the local stakeholders. In areas where both private and public sector citizen groups have civic values, degradation was decelerated. Looking back, Bukidnon’s experience could be emulated by other Philippine provinces now suffering from environmental wastage. The political will was instrumental in saving the forests, and eventually saving lives.

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Box 6.1 The high cost of Bukidnon’s crusade for a total log ban. Bukidnon was a pioneer in the logging ban at the provincial level. It was through the combined efforts of the local government and the civil society, primarily the religious sector, that prevented rapid deforestation in the area. The Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales was assigned in Bukidnon during the time that the log ban in the province was imposed. Rosales fought illegal loggers for 11 years during his tenure in Bukidnon. Through Archbishop Rosales’ initiative and the support of the local officials, the logging ban in Bukidnon was implemented starting in 1991. During this time, and to help in the implementation of the log ban, 45 parish priests and deacons from the Diocese of Malaybalay were deputized as “Forest Officers,” with authority to arrest offenders and seize forest products illegally cut or gathered. Among the deputized priest was Fr. Nery Satur. Father Satur took his designation as “Forest Officer” very seriously. In four separate occasions in 1991, he was instrumental in apprehending violators and confiscating over 6,600 board feet of illegally cut logs and lumber. He also reported certain members of the criminal band to the Human Rights Commission. In October 1991, at the age of 30, he was murdered on his way to a gathering of his fellow priests. The murderers were never brought to justice. Father Satur “championed the strong militant stand of the Local Church of Bukidnon, the Diocese of Malaybalay, in protecting the little remaining forestland in the province. It was the care of God’s creation that he preached that had angered some people engaged in the business of making commercial wood from cut trees…” (Source: Ricardo V. Puno, Jr. Martyr to Illegal Logging, MY VIEWPOINT, The Philippine Star, December 30, 2004, p 7.)

Assigning Private Property Rights to Agriculture Lands in the Early Development Period in Lantapan There were at least three avenues to attain private property rights to agricultural lands in the uplands of Lantapan in the early development period, as gleaned from the history of the several cases among the set of farmer respondents: (1) through the land

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market; (2) through government programs; and (3) through inheritance. A migrant may buy land and will be issued a “deed of sale” after paying the rightful owner, and the tax declaration right will be transferred to him. This new owner will bring the “deed of sale” to the municipal assessor’s office to record the change in ownership and in the Tax Declaration. Recognition of a change in ownership is final once the new owner officially pays the tax. If the new owner wants to have Private Title or a more secure tenure to the land, he/she will have to apply for this title at the national DENR’s Bureau of Lands. The second way for migrants to acquire land is through government programs. One of the respondents was a daughter of a soldier during WWII who was originally from Iloilo City, a city in the Visayan group of islands. As a soldier assigned in Alanib, one of the barangays of Lantapan, the respondent’s father was entitled to a piece of land totaling 20 hectares given free during the liberation period (after the WWII). This was then titled to his name and inherited by his children. In other upland areas of the country, the “encomienda” system of land distribution as part of the government programs also entitled each household head to 24 hectares of land. A third way is through inheritance by the native IP living in the area. As narrated by one of the IP respondents, they still observe communal property after some of their tribe members sold the land which was held in private property. As Lita Guntes shared: “We are living in an IP community, our land title is being held by the tribe. According to the tribal leaders, they will be the ones to be consulted if we want to sell the land to the migrants. As observed by the tribal community, most of the IPs sold their land to the migrants at a very low price. They want easy money. That is why many migrants now owned their (IP’s) land. So the tribe decided further sale of the IP lands will be controlled by the tribal leaders5. Sale of land is not encouraged at this time because it was observed that IPs who sold their land experienced hunger. Most of them are workers of their own land. We the IPs are happy to have other tribes (i.e., the Igorots) within the town. It is not their fault that they are here as they legally acquired their land from our co-IPs.” In the case of inheritance, land is equally divided among the children of the IP. A woman can also own land as long as she is an IP, and must follow simple requirements, plant rootcrops, and be present if there is a meeting, called Pahina, and other important

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gatherings of the tribe. If there is intermarriage with a woman who is not a member of the IP community, that woman cannot own the land. The land right of the Mestizo IP is described in Box 6.2. Property Rights Regime in the Late Development Period National Versus Local Ownership of Forests As previously discussed, the political will to protect the forests during the early development period resulted in less logging in the province this past decade. While the national policy on total log ban is still difficult to implement in most areas of the country, this is in effect in Bukidnon. Protected areas are still within the mandate of the DENR.6 With the exception of few areas earmarked for geothermal explorations, the administration, control, and management of Bukidnon’s forests are entrusted to the

Box 6.2 Land rights of a Mestizo IP. Rene Saraw, 57, is a Mestizo IP resident of Brgy. Songco, Lantapan, Bukidnon. He is the son of a Chinese man and an IP woman. During his father’s time, the family name of his mother was used in land transactions because of a policy that foreigners cannot own land. His father was a businessman, and he was able to acquire many hectares of land. His mother gave Rene the land that he has right now. This was given to him already with tax declaration. He had it titled when the Bureau of Lands of the DENR conducted surveys of all the lands in Songco in the 1950s. All of his brothers and sisters had land given by their parents. His father bought this at a very low price because at that time, IPs will ask them to buy their land as they were the only family with cash. In the early days, they were the only family in Songco with a sari-sari store. According to the older brother of Rene, in 1954, people of Songco filed a petition to the DENR to declare 864 hectares of land as Alienable and Disposable (A and D). This petition was approved in 1959. The Cadastral survey to validate the area on the ground as well as to identify those who are currently cultivating the land and will be given Tax Declaration was done in 1980. For those who want to have a formal title to the land, they had to contact the person responsible for their “Handog Titolo” (gift of Title) program who was from the national Bureau of Lands, before the devolution. After the devolution in 1992, the Community Environmental and Natural Resources Officer (CENRO) was the person responsible for titling of said land.

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DENR. State control still prevails despite the decentralization since natural boundaries cut across several local government units. Local State Governance versus Customary Rules A source of conflict in this late development period is the IPRA. In Bukidnon, the IP were insisting that they also have rights through ancestral domain. The Lantapan LGU is caught between the IP and the DENR. Reports reveal that the Bukidnon IP have penalized the DENR because of the following violations (Mordeno 2001): inaction over their ancestral domain claim since it was filed in 1997 with the Provincial Task Force on Ancestral Domain; implementation of the CBFM; and ecotourism projects in IP territories without the tribe’s FPIC as mandated by the IPRA; and destruction of tribal unity through millions of pesos in livelihood funds. However, the Datu has emphasized that the IP do not oppose any development provided the FPIC process7 is observed to safeguard their rights. Private Property, Land Rental Market, and Upland Environmental Quality Data from the DAR showed that more people of Lantapan were given land titles under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) in this late development period. More people are now private landholders where most land is being used for intensified agriculture. With a title, upland farmers can now participate in the land market. But by Philippine law, CARP-awarded lands cannot be sold nor used as collateral.8 Deininger and Binswanger (1999) have noted the following: “ ..it is recognized that communal tenure systems can be more costeffective than the formal title, that titling programs should be judged on their equity as well as their efficiency, that the potential of land markets has often been severely underestimated, that land sale markets enhance efficiency only if they are integrated into a broader effort at developing rural factor markets, and that land reform is more likely to result in a reduction of poverty if it harnesses (rather than undermines) the operation of the land markets and is implemented in a decentralized fashion. Achieving land policies that incorporate these elements requires a coherent legal and institutional framework together with greater reliance on pilot programs to examine the applicability of interventions under local conditions.”

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In practice, small landowners in the area used the land as collateral to formal loans. For instance, with the El Niño in 1997, most farmers were not able to pay their loans, thus, risking their lands subject to confiscation by the local bank. It was about this time that banana plantations were being set up in the area. Two multinational groups initiated a formal land rental market, with the amount of rent equivalent to the estimated net income per year of the corn crop. Farmers needed cash, so this offer was providential. The rental agreement was for 25 years and the rental amount is renewable every year. Farmers were given up-front money for a year’s rent, which was used to pay the bank. With the presence of the land rental market, the configuration of agriculture in this upland community has changed considerably—from smallhold staple crop production to plantation agriculture. During this late development period, environmental problems were seen to have emerged on account of the absence of private property rights to environmental assets. The policy response was to create private property assets (Common 1995), with the premise that if one holds a title to the land, then one has an incentive to use this sustainably. The big commercial growers with weak property rights but with a lot of capital and technical knowledge now dominate land use decisions. These commercial operations could potentially exploit upland resources. Due to privately held property rights to land holdings, the intensification of commercial livestock operations was also observed (Delgado et al. 2000). These were established in areas owned by big business men from the nearby cities of Malaybalay and Davao. Property rights to these vast land areas were claimed a long time ago, in the various ways discussed above. Now as retirees, they came back to use the land for commercial purposes. Intensive agriculture in this environmentally critical area will have huge environmental costs, if not regulated. Environmental regulations are needed because of the observed pollution taking place, especially in the water resources of the study site (Deutsch and Oprecio 2005). WHO OWNS THE WATER IN THE UPLANDS? Water as an Open Access Resource, the Philippine Water Code and Customary Rules Water in the uplands was, and in some instances still is, an open-access property. In the early days, its abundance did not create any conflict. Water was a free resource and

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people simply obtained it from the numerous rivers, streams, and waterfalls found in the area. The customary rule was that water found within a community was its property. There were no norms or payments for water extraction. There were no conflicts seen as people can have all the clean, pure water that they needed. Management of water resources was largely in the hands of the IP who had made use of water for both their basic needs and many customs and rituals, vestiges of which may still be seen from the traditions being kept by them. When the State enforced its being steward of natural resources of the country during the early development period, the Water Code of the Philippines (PD 1607) was enacted in 1976 to govern water utilization, exploitation, development, conservation, and protection of all water resources of the country. The regulatory body for water is the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), a national agency that does not have any presence in the uplands. Among the underlying principles of the Code is the fact that all waters belong to the State and cannot be the subject of acquisitive prescription. Following the State law, anybody can apply for a water permit for the use of the resource beyond household needs. Proponents of development projects can divert rivers as long as they secure a water permit with a minimal water fee.9 The law did not have any provision that required an entity securing a water permit to ask the permission of local communities who use said resource. The absence of such provision runs counter to the customary laws. As supported by the IPRA and implemented by the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), any use of resources within the ancestral domain of the IP should get prior permission (FPIC) from the tribes’ leaders. This act recognizes the property rights of the IP to these resources. Thus, today, there are basically two types of laws that govern water use and access in the uplands: the state law and the customary rule. Without any form of convergence of these laws, economic development of upland communities in this late development period will be jeopardized. The Reality of Water Conflicts in Bukidnon The current conflict for the rights to the use of water between the IP (ancestral domain claims as discussed in Catacutan et al. 2001) and the LGUs in Lantapan representing the state laws is a concrete example of the weaknesses of the property rights structure. In this conflict, the IP residing near the mouth of the rivers and waterfalls are not willing to share the water for an LGU project on rural water supply (Box 6.3) that is meant for lowland household consumption. Irrigation water has

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Box 6.3 Water Conflict in Lantapan, 2004. The IP tribe in the study site has an ancestral domain claim in the Upper Lantapan, including part of the Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park (MKRNP). Together with the two other tribes in the vicinity, they have claimed the whole MKRNP and its buffer zone, which has an estimated land area of 42,000 hectares. Before the Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) is awarded, the tribe still has the right to invoke free and prior informed consent (FPIC) process in any resource extraction in their “cultural community” because of the “native title” principle, which is the state’s recognition of the indigenous people’s rights over the territory. FPIC means securing the consensus of all members of the indigenous cultural communities (ICC) and indigenous peoples (IP) to a project within the ancestral domain claim. It is to be determined in accordance with the tribe’s customary laws and practices, free and obtained after the project proponent’s full disclosure of the interest and scope of the activity, in language and process understandable to the concerned communities. According to the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), the ICCs and the IPs have the right to stop or suspend any project that has not satisfied the consultation process attendant to securing free prior and informed consent. The serious conflict now raging between the IP and the local government of Lantapan is about water. The Lantapan Municipal Government through a World Bank project has installed a water supply system in the area, with water coming from the sources contained in the IP community. But no FPIC was obtained. This remains to be a conflict to this day, and to be settled by the judiciary, according to the Mayor. In another case, the banana firms in the municipality also installed pipes for irrigation of their plantation. The banana firms installed the water pipes inside the IP “cultural community” without the tribe’s FPIC. According to the IP custom, and upheld by the IPRA, the firms should have an FPIC. However, the banana plantations in the area have a permit to tap the source of water for their irrigation from the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), a national agency. There lies the conflict between the government laws and the customary laws. Source: Balane 2004

also become a problem. It was known that farmers downstream have suffered from irrigation water scarcity due to the diversion of water upstream. The National Irrigation Administration (NIA) was tasked to facilitate irrigation water supply to smallhold farmers to acquire water rights. The small farmers downstream therefore do not have any security of water supply; investing in the construction of an irrigation facility is

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no assurance that they would have water supply security. With these current conflicts, economic development in the area is indeed in jeopardy. Managing Water Conflicts: Assigning Water Rights As observed in the study site in the late development period, the tragedy of the commons has clearly taken place in the Philippines’ upland water resources.10 The need for water intensifies each day, as observed very recently in our study site: households, small farmers, and large commercial plantations now compete for water. Big banana plantations were observed to extract huge amount of water daily and have also diverted water flow for their own use, taking away the very source of water of poor households in the area (Rola and Tabien 2001). Furthermore, in an effort to abate potential pollution risks to water systems associated with banana production, the municipal government of Lantapan passed an ordinance prohibiting aerial spraying in banana plantations. The ordinance has a legal basis under national law. The Philippine Water Code (PD 1067) provides that the use of fertilizers and pesticides in agricultural production may be prohibited or regulated when application may cause pollution of a source of water supply (Art. 78). It is clear that in the water sector, water rights are the most important point in the institutional reforms to achieve more efficient water use. As Kemper (no date) argues: “Well-defined water use rights entitle individual users or user groups to a certain amount of water at a certain point in time or during a specific time period. Without a clear definition of who the users are and how much water they are entitled to, the users themselves have no incentive to use the water efficiently because they do not have a guarantee that if they saved water today, they will receive more tomorrow. In addition, if water allocations are to have different uses, without defined water use rights, there is no information about how this can be reallocated, who would win and who would lose. The allocating agency has no incentive to deliver water in time or to the right person. No one can make them accountable for non-delivery of services”. The existence of the water use rights therefore has an essential effect on enforcement, on sanction systems, application of pricing mechanisms, water

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reallocation mechanisms and the need for generation of information. Unless property rights are assigned perhaps to the community using these, regulations that may curb excessive use be installed, and correct water pricing defined (in terms of permits of the NWRB), the state of water resources in the uplands would be a problem in the near future. When this happens, it is not just the uplands that will be affected by this conflict. The lowland communities will be severely affected, as is now felt in the downstream Luzon provinces affected by the Aurora province tragedy in December 2004. CONCLUSIONS Analysis in this chapter suggests that property rights assignment is a powerful instrument for sustainable upland management. In the early times, native tribes lived in harmony with nature. As the society developed economically, state control of upland resources turned out to generate the environment costs. The current shift to community-based system in the 1990s, as in the pre-modern times, was an attempt to engage local communities in the management of these resources and give it a semblance of local ownership. But rights have not truly been defined; water permits, logging licenses, and so on are still within the purview of the national government. Hence, a sense of confusion is taking place. A clear definition of property rights—national versus local versus community versus private property—will clarify some of the confusion and will create incentives for upland people to use these resources wisely. To this day, central control still found its vestiges in almost all forms of upland resource management. This resulted in an apparent clash with local, customary rules that still exist. The Philippines has yet to adopt appropriate water rights and evolve institutions to support these. Until now, minimal fees are charged to obtain a “water right.” In addition, these fees are not paid in the municipality where water is extracted but in the main office in Manila. The physical absence of the national regulatory office in or near the site does not give incentives for water permit holders to follow the provisions made in the application such as the amount of water to be extracted per day, among others. To make this successful, property rights should be assigned to communities so members will have an incentive to manage and/or police the resource more efficiently. More importantly, there must be some form of convergence between state law and customary law in the use of water. The challenge of most developing countries is to “get the water law right” and “get the water prices right” (IWMI 2002). These are not enough. Without the capacities and

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the institutional arrangements and the political will to enforce the laws and seriously monitor impacts, “right” water laws and prices are irrelevant. In the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries where the laws on water are numerous, the problem lies in implementing them in a “society with many stakeholders operating in an informal sector and with little or no link to resource governance structures.” The high transaction costs of monitoring water use and collecting water charges from vast numbers of small-scale users contributes to the inefficiencies. Thus, smaller systems as the watershed (compared to river basins), with local community participation and more effective regulatory mechanisms can promote more manageable water management strategy (Rola et al. 2004). In this mode, the role of local governments in regulating community activities will be very critical for sustainability. This is the topic of the next chapter. Endnotes

This section has benefited from the study of Rodil, R., Luz C. Sevilla-Castro and Maria Cecilia Tangian. The Ancestral Domain Claim of the ImpahanongAmusig Tribal Council Organization. Kalinao Mindanao. http://www.mindanao. com/kalinaw/people/impahanong.htm



In a separate event, citizens of this same municipality in Bukidnon staged a protest against the national government’s project of the National Power Corporation that would have put under water a good portion of their town. That project has not been implemented to this day (Sumbalan 2001).



This political activism is paying off. In other areas of the country, environmental disasters occurred because the locals were powerless and eventually succumbed to the logging concessionaires who carelessly cut trees even in declared protected areas. In late 2004, almost a thousand residents in three provinces in Luzon suffered the same fate of death via landslides, as residents in Ormoc, Leyte in 1992.



This civic environmentalism was similar to the incident in the Cordillera where the village elders launched a collective action to successfully block the government plans to construct a huge hydroelectric dam along the Chico River (Magno 2003).



Natives in Lantapan claim that the whole of the Mt. Kitanglad is their ancestral

1

2

3

4

5

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domain. This is now being processed with the help of the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). This assignment of property is a bone of contention among the Natives, the LGU of Lantapan, and the DENR.

The next chapter discusses the protected area management under a decentralized regime.



For this, the Council of Elders (COE) prescribed for a “sala” or a cultural penalty worth 20 carabaos, 6 pigs, and 14 chickens. These were asked of the regional and provincial DENR as penalty for violating the cultural rights of the IP. This sala method is the customary process of conflict resolution. This is a way to appease the IP’s feeling of being oppressed and is done through ritual and dialogue which all parties to a conflict are expected to settle their differences.



In practice, however, financing institutions accept the land as collateral as was seen in our study site.



This low rate of fees may need to be adjusted to an economic level and be compatible with the value that projects get out of the water.

6

7

8

9



10

See for instance Deutsch and Oprecio (2005) for data on water resource degradation in Bukidnon.

REFERENCES

Balane, Walter I. “Talaandigs Push for Free, Prior Informed Consent.” Mindanao News, February 9, 2004. Catacutan, D. C., C. E. Duque, D. P. Garrity, and F. S. Mirasol. The Preventive Systems Approach to Protected Area Management: The Case of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park, Bukidnon, Philippines. Laurel, Batangas, Philippines International Center for Research in Agroforestry and the Integrated Protected Areas System for Mt. Kitanglad, 2001. Coase, Ronald H. “The Problem of Social Cost.” The Journal of Law and Economics, Vol. 3 No. 1 (1960): 1-44.

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Common, Michael. Sustainability and Policy: Limits to Economics. UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Deininger, Klaus and Hans Binswanger. “The Evolution of the World Bank’s Land Policy: Principles, Experience, and Future Challenges.” World Bank Research Observer, Vol. 14 (2) (1999): 247-276. Delgado, C. M. Rosegrant, H. Steinfeld, S. Ehui, and C. Courbois. “Livestock to 2020: The Next Food Revolution.” Food, Agriculture, and Environment Discussion Paper 28. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2000. Deutsch, W. G. and J. L. Oprecio. “Water Quality Changes in the Manupali River Watershed: Evidence from a Community-based Water Monitoring Project.” In Land Use Change in Tropical Watersheds: Evidence, Causes and Remedies, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Shively, 37-57. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, 2005. IWMI-TATA Water Policy Program. “The Socio-Ecology of Groundwater in India.” Water Policy Briefing Issue 4. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Water Management Institute, 2002. Kemper, K. E. “The Role of Institutional Arrangements for a More Effective Water Resources Use and Allocation.” Water Science and Technology, Vol. 43 No. 4 (2001): 111-117. Magno, F. A. “Forest devolution and social capital state-civil society relations in the Philippines.” In Creating Space for Local Forest Management in the Philippines, edited by A. P. Contreras, 17-35. Manila: CIFOR and the La Salle Institute of Governance, 2003. Mordeno, H. Marcos. “Bukidnon Lumads Penalize DENR.” Mindanao Times, News Online, June 27, 2001. Accessed October 24, 2004. http://www.litera 1. No.4, tripod.com/Talaandig_frame.html. Persoon, G. A. and D. M. E. van Est. “Co-Management of Natural Resources The Concept and Aspects of Implementation. Co-Managing the Environment: The Natural Resources of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, edited by E. C. Bernardo and D. Snelder, 5-18. Cabagan, Philippines: Cagayan Valley Program on Environment and Development (CVPED) and Plan International, Philippines, 1999. Puno, Ricardo V. Jr. “Martyr to Illegal Logging, MY VIEWPOINT.” The Philippine Star, December 30, 2004.

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Rodil, R., Luz C. Sevilla-Castro, and Maria Cecilia Tangian. “The Ancestral Domain Claim of the Impahanong-Amusig Tribal Council Organization.” Kalinao Mindanao, no date. Accessed December 30, 2004. http://www.mindanao.com/ kalinaw/people/impahanong.htm. Rola, A. C. and C. O. Tabien. “Saving a River: Why Do Local Governments Matter?” Journal of Environmental Science and Management, Vol. 4 Nos. 1-2 (2001): 5767. Rola, A. C., W. G. Deutsch, J. L. Orprecio, and A.T. Sumbalan. “Water Resources Management in a Bukidnon Subwatershed: What Can Community Generated Data Offer?” In Winning the Water Wars: Watersheds, Water Policies and Water Institutions, edited by A. C. Rola, H. A. Francisco, and J. P. T. Liguton, 179-212. Makati City: Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 2004. Sumbalan, A. T. “The Bukidnon Experience on Natural Resource Management Decentralization.” Paper presented at the SANREM conference, ACCEED, Makati, May 2001. Top, G. van Den. “Of Corn, Community and Contraband Co-management and the Causes of Deforestation in the Sierra Madre, Philippines.” In Co-Managing the Environment: The Natural Resources of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range, edited by E. C. Bernardo and D. Snelder, 29-44. Cabagan,Philippines: Cagayan Valley Program on Environment and Development (CVPED) and Plan International, Philippines, 1999.

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In the last chapter, the role of property rights in shaping the fate of environmental resources in the uplands was discussed. Conflicts of the state and the communities in forest and water use have arisen because of the ambiguity of the property rights provisions and the pluralism (customary, state, and community) of the legal frameworks supporting these. As one moves to a broader level of environmental management analysis—from communities to watersheds—multiple stakeholders in multiple locations would be involved. Lantapan is a unique town because of its terrain. A portion of the town is considered temperate (upper watershed) and the other, tropical (lower watershed). Even within the town, the upper watershed activities could affect the surface water resources of the lower watershed. Lantapan is also one of the host municipalities of a natural park, the MKRNP. Thus, household decisions on what crops to plant and whether to expand areas being planted or not; and corporate farm decisions on how much area expansion to have will affect the buffer zone of the natural park and the quality of the water services downstream. These decisions, which were shown to be market-driven, may be tempered by the local government through ordinances and other incentives. Good environmental governance by upland communities will not only affect their in-situ environmental quality but also the stakeholders downstream, including the irrigated areas, the power firm, and the other industries using water from the rivers.

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In this chapter, the constraints of the study town in practicing good environmental governance as stipulated in the LGC, and recognizing the role of the province in helping the town achieve this goal are analyzed. The Local Government Code of the Philippines In the Philippines, the LGC passed in 1991 was a landmark law that gave local governments more power to manage their own natural resources, thereby facilitating sustainable development1 (Brillantes 1996). The codal provisions of the LGC strengthened the legal framework for attaining sustainability at the local level. For instance, Lantapan is mandated to implement community-based forestry projects; the province of Bukidnon will enforce forestry laws, pollution control law, small-scale mining law, and others applicable to the environment. In the LGC, the local executives (mayors and governors) are given the mandate to “adopt measures to safeguard and conserve land, mineral, forest, marine, and other resources of the municipality, city, or province.” The local legislative bodies are also mandated to protect the environment and impose appropriate sanctions or penalties for acts that endanger the environment. Even the village chiefs (barangay captain) are given the responsibility to “enforce the laws related to population control and protection of the environment.” Most importantly, the LGC further invoked the participation of the civil society and the involvement of the private sector in providing opportunities for financing and developing local enterprises. The decentralization of decisions was a strategy facilitated by external or even domestic pressures to transfer the power closer to those who are most affected by the exercise of that power. As Agrawal and Ostrom (1999) point out, “In all its variants, decentralization is about a renegotiation of the institutions and the social arrangements through which this power is exercised in different forms. It is concerned with the distribution of power, resources, and the administrative capacities through different territorial units of a government or local groups. Therefore, the most important element in understanding devolution and whether it is likely to occur is attention to the politics that surrounds it.” Despite the LGC, which started full implementation in Lantapan in 1996, environmental degradation in the study town has been ongoing and was recorded to be at a more rapid rate (Deutsch et al. 2001b). After almost a decade, it would be worth noting the implementation challenges of this Code as seen from an upland community’s point of view. Some of these are jurisdictional, technical and administrative capacities; and financial challenges. But whether the impact of decentralization on upland

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communities’ environment is positive or not is still an empirical issue. Understanding its implementation difficulties can guide planners in reshaping strategies to generate desired outcomes. In this chapter, the study site’s experience is reviewed to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the current legal framework and the issues and concerns that accompany the implementation of the LGC. Here, the following question is asked: Is decentralization a better alternative to central state control in the management of upland resources? DECENTRALIZED ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE IN PRACTICE IN BUKIDNON PROVINCE Since the early development period, or even during the beginnings of the Spanish occupation, the Philippines has been governed by a formal system that puts extensive power on the central chief executive while local governments and communities are weak. However, at the level of the real power, it is the locally based elites that predominate (de Dios 2007). In the LGC during this late development period, local government is vested with real power for small-scale environmental projects. This power shift has met difficulties due to the central office’s unwillingness at times to yield such power; the local institutions’ multiplicity to assume such power; the national and local offices’ non-coordination in environmental concerns; and the partners’ the general lack of capacities to promote environmental management. This section describes the implementation of decentralized governance in Bukidnon province. To explain further the nature of partnerships of national and local institutions in environmental management in Bukidnon, key informant interviews were conducted with mostly the lead persons, including representatives from the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (PENRO), Bukidnon Environment and Natural Resources Office (BENRO), Provincial Board, Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO), and regional office of the DENR, as well as the representatives of the Government Owned and Controlled Corporations (GOCC) and NGOs operating in the study area. Incomplete Decentralization In Bukidnon, the national DENR is represented by two line agencies: (1) the PENRO, mainly for forest protection and titling; and (2) the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) for watershed management. The PENRO has

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been doing the characterization of major sub-watersheds in Bukidnon since 1995. It has no particular project in the Manupali area, but the CENRO in Malaybalay has reforestation projects in Lantapan.2 Activities included plantation establishment and protection. To ensure the protection of the established plantation, a forest protection officer from the PENRO was assigned in Lantapan to monitor and report illegal activities. On the other hand, the Bukidnon provincial government created its own office— the BENRO, accountable to the provincial government—to take care of devolved functions such as small-scale mining (Sumbalan 2001). The PENRO assists the LGU in technical matters, inasmuch as most of the former’s staff are foresters. Coordination between the PENRO and the BENRO was observed, especially in the areas of ISF, CBFM, and rehabilitation of river systems.3 While a devolved function, CBFM implementation still needed national DENR guidance since the local officials did not have the technical expertise in community organizing and site development. The implementation of the CBFM involved LGUs, People’s organizations (POs), and the DENR through a CBFM Agreement. The Municipal Mayor4 signed as witness while the barangay and municipal legislative council signed on behalf of the LGU. While decentralization is considered a major breakthrough in Philippine legislature, the lack of clear guidelines has caused some local-national as well as interagency tension because of unclear, limited, and oftentimes overlapping mandates (Elazegui et al. 2001). For example, while the national government has decentralized water resource management to various local governments, national government agencies continue to interfere in local decisions such as in the establishment and role of water districts and in the implementation of projects to improve water supply systems (Sumbalan and Buenavista 2001). Key informants said that there were pluses and minuses in this decentralization paradigm. Some respondents’ viewed that full devolution of the functions regarding environmental management was not attained because of the PENRO’s presence in the province. True devolution is also supposed to be accompanied by a full budget, but this has not been happening. Relationship between the PENRO and the LGU is pleasant; but according to some respondents, conflicts5 also arise. In general, tribal leaders were wary of the programs of national government like the integrated forest management. In this instance, the LGU6 can potentially manage conflicts between the IP and the DENR because it can talk to both camps.

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Multiplicity of Local Institutions A host of local state agencies do environmental management in Bukidnon. There are altogether five CENROs in Bukidnon covering clusters of municipalities. CENRO’s role is in protected areas, watershed management, and reforestation projects. In the protected areas, the CENRO works with the Protected Area Management Board (PAMB). It also works with POs that were contracted by the DENR7 and closely with the BENRO to manage the watersheds of Bukidnon. During the project proponents’ stay in the area, the thrust of the CENRO activities was capacity building for persons involved in watershed management activities of the different watershed clusters; this activity was also a responsibility of the BENRO. The NGO in the area implemented the capacity building program. Furthermore, the CENRO handles projects of each municipality separately even if there is a MENRO in some municipalities. However, in case there is an information drive or meetings on the CBFM, LGU-based officials would be the ones to give orientation programs. This is one strategy for local people to participate because in most instances, they would personally know the local officials and not the officials from the provincial state agencies. Lastly, the potentially powerful entity for environmental governance in the province is the Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council (BWPDC). The BWPDC was established in 1995 “to fully protect and preserve the remaining forests in Bukidnon Watersheds and rehabilitate open areas with their headwaters”8 (Sumbalan 2001). This is a multi-sectoral, provincial-level body (Figure 7.1), whose main task is to create a watershed management plan for the province by identifying seven catchments or watersheds. Currently, there is a provincial-level watershed framework and six integrated plans9 based on the plans of municipalities belonging to the seven catchments. But this body does not have a legal personality, which prevents it from passing legal measures and imposing sanctions. Non-coordination of National and Local State Agencies Key informants mentioned that there was lack of coordination in the management strategies between the GOCCs and the DENR or its local counterpart. An example is in the use of water. Water allocation mechanism in the uplands is non-existent. In the province, there were two GOCCs that use water. One agency is NPC,10 which is charged with the management of the portion of the uplands that are needed for their

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Sangguniang Panlalawigan

Provincial Planning and Development Office

Provincial Governor

Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council (BWPDC)

Technical Advisory Committee (TAC)

WC1

B1

B2

Execom

WC1

WC2

C1

M1

M2

WC2

WC3

WC3

WC4

WC5

B3 Legend: WC – Watershed Cluster C – City M – Municipality B – Barangay

Figure 7.1 Operational structure of the Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council

hydropower operations. It has committed to protecting the watershed areas under its jurisdiction. NPC has a representative in the advisory committee of the provincial wide multi-sector watershed council. The NIA, which is the other agency, did not have any influence on the quantity and quality of water flowing in their irrigation canals. Bukidnon has four national River Irrigation Systems (RIS),11 including the ManRIS. The NIA provincial office had no projects related to watershed management, as it viewed this to be the job of the DENR.

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This lack of coordination led to the lack of information about policies that should have governed activities like watershed protection by the NPC. For instance, there is a current policy of no harvesting in timberlands. According to the NPC, once matured, the trees planted will be cut because they become defective and they also have to replant. The PENRO key informant mentioned that there was no instance when the NPC secured a permit for cutting trees. Also, the PENRO cannot issue a permit because NPC’s jurisdiction is within a CENRO. This results in a “merry-go-round” of dealing with the issue. Moreover, the implementation of the law on easement also suffered from this lack of information. The law states that permanent trees (e.g., bamboo) should be planted within forest land 40 m both sides of rivers or creeks (the protection forests). But according to NPC officials, no one advised them on what kind of trees to plant. The GOCCs, according to the PENRO foresters in Bukidnon, have no technical knowledge and would need some orientation. However, there is no mechanism for the DENR to facilitate this. With the watershed council in the province where most stakeholders of the resources are members, this misinformation may be minimized. Capacity Constraints and Legal Impediments of Non-state Organizations Several non-state organizations also exist in the province and take part in environmental management. The provincial governor strongly advocated partnerships in environmental projects, an opportunity for the NGO to assert partnership with the LGU. These partnerships were seen to still be evolving and capacities need to be built with legal support put in place. The Bukidnon Multi Sectoral Forum, an NGO,12 has policy advocacy for the environment as its mandate. As partner, one of its achievements was to persuade the LGUs to take active roles in the ISF and CBFM activities.13 This influence of the NGO in LGU functions in Bukidnon reflects the success of the initiatives of the Philippine Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD) at the local level. But it was also noted that some LGUs still do not trust the NGOs. The other entity that is in place in Bukidnon is the Multi-agency Monitoring Team (MMT), which is tasked to monitor the impacts of projects classified environmentally risky and would need an ECC14 before it begins operation. The LGU chairs the MMT whose membership consists of the DENR, the LGU, and an NGO. The MMT monitors the water of the industries that need to apply or renew their environmental impact clearance certificate (Box 7.1). It is claimed that there is not enough capacities and support to really have a good monitoring of the resources.

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Box 7.1 Water Monitoring Activities in Bukidnon Water monitoring authority is devolved to the provincial government. To do this, provincial government organized a multi-sectoral committee. The DENR is part of the team as experts. DENR experts also act on the report of the municipal government tasked with monitoring. Conflict resolution is done at the local government level. It is also a policy that as much as possible, the one monitoring should be a neutral party. In this site, water sampling is done by an NGO, Guardian of the Earth, which has a staff assigned at the Regional Office of the EMB. The NGO was chosen by the EMB. The NGO person prepares the gadget and does the actual sampling of water from sources. The Regional Office laboratory is used for analysis. If the regional laboratory cannot do the job due to job overload, an accredited laboratory can do the analyses. The DENR accredits the laboratory. An example of water monitoring activity is the one done for banana pesticide residues in water in the province. Data do not reveal any pollution. Based on the MMT results, the level of pollutants is still within the standard. With this result, the banana company being monitored is allowed under the law to renew the ECC. But even if the results are within standards, there could still be an effect, according to our key informant. For example, if the standard is 5 and the data reveal a 4.5, then this borderline figure may still cause some effect. The effect may be cumulative. There is no study on this. When findings show violations to the conditions, then EMB comes in and imposes penalty.

From the interviews with the local officials, mandates and jurisdictions, including programs among the different environmental offices, are slowly beginning to be clear to the officers concerned. The critical factor, as mentioned by most key informants, was the political will of the provincial administration. The success of devolution also depends on personalities involved, according to DENR officials. There is no conflict between the PENRO and the BENRO as long as they have defined their functions. Furthermore, the DENR foresters said that devolution was needed in order for good environmental governance to be practiced. To these local state officials, Bukidnon’s case already shows beginnings of coordination, accountability, and transparency15 in environmental managemet.

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MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE UNDER DECENTRALIZATION: THE WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN LANTAPAN Formally defined, a watershed,16 also termed as catchment, refers to areas that supply water by surface or subsurface flow to a given drainage system, be it a stream, river, or lake. It is a hydrologic unit that has been described and used both as a physical-biological unit and as a socioeconomic and sociopolitical unit for planning and implementing resource management activities (Dixon and Easter 1986). The watershed approach to resource management has a strong biophysical and economic logic. The appropriateness of the watershed as a unit of planning (Francisco 2004a) is that water flows downhill and this phenomenon creates a unidirectional dimension to the cause and effect relationships. Soil, nutrients, and agricultural chemicals are all transported in the water medium. Embedded in this approach is the linkage between uplands and lowlands not only in biophysical but also in socioeconomic contexts. Watershed management used to be a traditional concern only of the DENR. It was construed as the area protecting the headwaters of a river. However, with the more recent definition (Dixon and Easter 1986), multi-sectors have been naturally involved in the management, a concept that is quite new in the Philippines. Bukidnon started to divide the province into watershed units since 1999. But the system is not yet operational in other areas of the province. The problem was the conflict in land use and water that will sustain irrigation downstream (Egnar 2003).17 Despite being a part of a watershed cluster, each municipality18 still has to come up with its own management plan, together with the budget. The story of Lantapan, as one of the municipalities, is chronicled in the succeeding sections. The Lantapan Watershed Management Plan Lantapan belongs to two bigger watersheds, the Upper Pulangui and the Manupali watershed (Figure 7.2). It is wholly contained in the Manupali watershed, which in turn is wholly contained in the Upper Pulangui watershed. Some parts of Manupali and Lantapan are within the jurisdiction of the MKRNP (known as the Park), a protected area. As such, the management19 of Lantapan resources is influenced by (1) the management of the Mt. Kitanglad Range, the headwaters of the Manupali; (2) the management of the agricultural areas that are within the jurisdiction of the Manupali watershed, basically the hundreds of households farming the slopes and supposedly governed by the Lantapan LGU; and (3) the management of the watershed cluster

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Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park Management

M A N U P A L I

W A T E R S H E D

Lantapan Watershed Management

Upper Pulangi Watershed Cluster Management

Figure 7.2 Linkages of management entities of Lantapan

(Upper Pulangui) to where the Manupali belongs. Each of these actors has its own management plan and implementing units. Evolution of the Lantapan watershed management plan The period 1996-1998 was exciting for Lantapan in terms of environmental management. The Lantapan local government invoked its mandate from the LGC that enjoined local governments to prepare their own local environmental programs by developing a Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP). The key pillars of the vision of the Lantapan NRMP include: (a) improving water quality, quantity, and distribution; (b) conserving soil for sustained productivity; and c) protecting the remaining forests. To realize these, the NRMP called for support to programs for natural resource management and for the improvement of the capability of the LGU and community groups in implementation (Queblatin, Catacutan and Garrity 2001). This plan was an initial vehicle for incorporating the scientific and research outputs that have been assembled by the SANREM CRSP SEA researchers in Lantapan. To move a step ahead in the plan’s implementation, the then mayor executed an administrative order creating the Natural Resource Management Council (NRMC) to provide local leadership in the development and implementation of the natural resource

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management plan, and more importantly, to serve as the local government’s policy arm in various aspects of environmental decision-making. Thus, in 1998, a municipal ordinance was passed which set up the structures to provide the implementation of the plan (Sumbalan and Buenavista 2001). This ordinance was conceived as a way to institutionalize the NRMP across political administrations. Unfortunately, efforts along these failed to get votes for the mayor in the elections held in May of 1998, which supported the finding that “local officials have hardly any incentive to act in the interest of watershed preservation” (CCLE 2000). Subsequently, in the new mayor’s administration, Lantapan entered into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Local Government Support Program20 (LGSP) to develop the plan on natural resource management focusing on watershed management. After training the LGU staff on natural resource management, there was an agreement that they would come out with their own watershed management plan based on the framework plan of the whole Bukidnon.21 The Municipal Technical Working Group (MTWG) for Watershed Management and Development, composed of 10 member representatives from the LGUs (municipal and provincial), NGOs, and other organizations, crafted the comprehensive watershed management plan of Lantapan. The municipal watershed management plan covered mostly the lower watershed portion, the alienable and disposable lands and those of private agricultural lands in the confines of Lantapan. This plan to be coordinated by the local government unit was approved by the Sanggunian Bayan (SB) in September 2003. As a whole, the municipal plan will guide the management of the production forest, the agricultural lands, and the water resources in the municipality’s domain. The upper watershed agricultural areas and other A and D lands in Lantapan are theoretically under the jurisdiction of the Park management. The Park’s management plan,22 completed in 2000, is the responsibility of the Protected Area Superintendent23 (PASu), who is directly accountable to the PAMB. The Provincial DENR supervises the day-to-day activities. The management of the Park institutionalizes the sustainable management regime exercised by the empowered communities of both the IP and the tenured migrants who enjoy a firm tenure over the resources, are actively involved in biodiversity conservation and protection activities, and supported by the government and a public that has internalized conservation values and respects cultural integrity (Sumbalan 2004). The Upper Pulangui (cluster) watershed management plan, to be owned by the cluster of municipalities contained in the Upper Pulangui, has not been formally formed as of 2004. This is to be the responsibility of the province-level BWPDC. 24

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Municipal-Level Programs Even without the approved watershed management plan, Lantapan has been implementing projects for the rehabilitation of its critically denuded watershed through the support of both national and local government agencies (DA, DENR, Barangays, and Municipal Government), NGOs, POs, and two banana plantation companies. Activities include (Table 7.1): (1) information drives for local people to be aware of the natural resources in Lantapan and the need to conserve and protect its resources; (2) bamboo planting along riverbanks, and (3) agroforestry program for the smallscale farmers. This was still an outcome of the earlier Lantapan NRMP. The activities did not only involve the water issue but also issues on soil, forest, biodiversity and community awareness and cooperation. To be noted are the different implementers with corresponding sources of funds. In the past, there was no office in the municipal government to coordinate all of these. At present, environment-related programs are being coordinated through the Municipal Management Office (MMO) and support staff such as the NRM Program, Landcare, Clean and Green, Solid Waste Management Program, CBFM, and other existing structures. The proposed development projects under the Lantapan Watershed Management Plan (2002) are defined by ecozone in the four main tributaries (Tugasan River, Maagnao River, Alanib River, and Kulasihan River) of the Manupali watershed, considered as sub-watersheds of Lantapan. This will facilitate the consolidation with the plans of other municipalities where the Manupali River crosses. In each of the ecozones, almost the same sets of activities are listed (Table 7.2), revealing a lack of capacity at the very local level that should be the one to determine their real needs in the first place. Some of the activities could have just been copied from other planners or suggested by the trainor. Plan Implementation Issues Administrative Set-up and Jurisdictional Issues The Lantapan Watershed Management Council, a multi-sectoral body which took over the NRMC, oversees the implementation of environment-related programs and projects of the municipality. Since there is no designated MENRO, it is the PENRO that is tasked to coordinate the implementation of the management plan. There is no expertise at the municipal level to carry out this plan as the Municipal Agricultural Officer (MAO) is not trained to implement the various elements of the plan.

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Table 7.1 Environmental programs and projects in Lantapan, 2002 Project Title Community-based Forest Non-destructive Livelihood Project

Implementors PLGU BENRO/DENR PAMB-KIN-MKNRP MLGU

Implementation of NMRDP

LGU

Municipal Watershed Development Project

LGU

Cinchona Reforestation Project Muleta-Manupali Watershed Development Project

DENR

IPM-KasaKalikasan Vegetable Corn Rice

DENR

DA DA with MAO

NGOs

Source of Funds DENR

LGU and partner NGAs, NGOs, Pos, and the private sector LGU DENR

DA

Conservation farming research

ICRAF

Tree domestication research

ICRAF (with CMU, ERDS, DENR)

SANREM

Soil modelling (parameritization)

ICRAF (with UPLB), MSEC

ICRAF, ACIAR

Landcare (Lantapan Landcare Association – LLCA) activities include adoption of SWC technologies, i.e., contour farming, nursery establishment and management Association of Tree Seeds for A/F in Lantapan (ATSAL) River monitoring

USDA

POs Landcare

LGUs, NGOs, NGAs, and fellow POs

MKAVI and DOLE

MKAVI and DOLE

Tigbantay Wahig Alsa Kalikupan

Auburn University – SANREM/LGU HPI-SANREM

Source: Lantapan Watershed Management Plan, 2002

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Table 7.2 Proposed development projects by ecozone in the four main tributaries of the Manupali watershed in Lantapan Tugasan River

Maagnao River

Alanib River

Kulasihan River

Water bodies

Micro-watershed management project Riverbank forest protection

Micro-watershed management project Riverbank forest protection

Micro-watershed management project Riverbank forest protection

Micro-watershed management project Riverbank forest protection

Built-up

Animal dispersal Adopt a malnourished child BIDANI project Water-sealed toilet

Animal dispersal Adopt a malnourished child BIDANI project Water-sealed toilet

Animal dispersal Adopt a malnourished child BIDANI project Water-sealed toilet

Animal dispersal Adopt a malnourished child BIDANI project Water-sealed toilet

Agriculture

High-value vegetable production

High-value vegetable production

High-value vegetable production

Farm clustering Freshwater aqua culture

CBFM Reforestation Salt program

(CDF program) NDL activities Agroforestry Nursery establishment Riverbank rehabilitation ISF project Reforestation project

Forestland/ Timberland

CBFM Reforestation Salt program

Source: Lantapan Watershed Management Plan, 2002

Lantapan also derives benefits from the implementation of the Park’s plan. Some 370 Kitanglad Guard Volunteers (KGV), administratively under the national DENR, guard the forest and watch out for forest fires. These members of the local indigenous communities (IP) promote biodiversity conservation in the protected area and do patrol activities within the park. They report on illegal activities to the DENR and PASu aside from posing as escorts to DENR personnel during visits and are responsible in hauling apprehended logs within the park. They are annually deputized by the DENR to do the community-based park protection. The link, though, between the buffer zone

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guards who are the staff of the national DENR and the PENRO tasked to oversee municipal level activities is not clear at this time. Moreover, the PENRO has a wider jurisdiction than just Lantapan. Funding the Plan The Lantapan Watershed Management Plan is for five years and is seen to guide the implementers in providing appropriate interventions to primarily solve the acute water supply problem (LWMC 2002). The budgetary requirement for the plan is PhP4.7 million, but there is no guarantee that funds will be available for implementing the management plan. According to local officials of Lantapan, the town may be compensated for its stewardship of the water used by resource users like the NPC and the NIA, and even the Valencia Water District. The rates of payments are still a subject of study. There were no plans for coming up with strategies—although there was a municipal ordinance that encourages soil conservation practice—to protect soil resources while intensive agriculture is taking place. Although deforestation has been curbed to a certain extent with the operation of the PAMB, the other “threat” which was agricultural intensification, continued and was not regarded as something that necessitated the implementation of the plan. The Park meanwhile has come up with the financial requirements to implement its plan at least for the next five years. This was facilitated by several factors: (1) engagement of local communities in the activities and hence, some savings in the protection and guarding of the park; (2) commitment of funds by local governments as a result of mutual trust among the membership of the management body, the PAMB; and (3) the trust and confidence given by the private sector to the PAMB in the management of the Protected Area. Other entities such as the DENR and the NGOs, and the local indigenous and migrant communities who are directly dependent on the Park maintain their stake in the Park management (Canoy and Suminguit 2001). Financial support for the Park management had humble beginnings. In 1993, the municipal mayors had to fund meetings from their own pockets. The Park was also one of the country’s 10 sites covered under the CPPAP,25 a seven-year project that took off in 1994. During the life of CPPAP, funds amounting to PhP6.9 million were provided to the indigenous peoples for non-destructive livelihood activities (NDLA), mostly in terms of agro-forestry related projects; and PhP12 million for production related livelihood activities.26 With the termination of the CPPAP in June 2002, the LGUs and their barangay counterparts took over the funding of the implementation of the plan. In the later

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years, the local governments also increased their funding for watershed management activities. In 2004, PAMB solicited funds from the private companies that are downstream resource users of the watershed services through a water policy forum. An amount of PhP48 million was pledged for the next twenty years (Sumbalan 2004). Management Instruments The provisions of the plan should have supporting municipal ordinances for these to be legal and implementable. Said ordinances define the rewards and penalties for non- compliance.27 There is an ordinance encouraging farmers to practice soil conservation measures in Lantapan, with the incentive of being given priority participation in the DA’s production program should they practice. Other ordinances being implemented by the local government to protect its environmental resources were on waste disposal, management of stray animals, sustainable agriculture ( i.e., requiring all farm tillers to adopt contour farming on all sloping areas , and watershed protection (Tabien 2000). It is suspected that since violations were not monitored, these ordinances were not really put into effect. Monitoring and Evaluation While the Municipal Management Office coordinates the activities, it lacks the capacity to monitor implementation. No institution for monitoring and evaluation has been established for the activities being done. This is a serious gap in the implementation of the plan. Aside from the structure, there also seems to be a need for capacity building for monitoring and evaluation. Partnerships with Local Organizations Grassroots’ management of upland resources will be effective if it is done in partnership with institutions that use these resources. In Lantapan, this meant collaboration among the indigenous communities, the local governments, and the PAMB. Other institutions involved in the management are the special interest groups such as the tenured migrants, industry sector (agribusiness like banana and poultry, and relay communication operators) as well as voluntary organizations such as the mountaineering societies, research and academic organizations (Sumbalan 2004). Other resource institutions involved in the conservation activities within the Park

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included international research centers.28 Since resources are limited, especially human resources, LGU’s partnering with communities is needed in the protection, conservation, and rehabilitation of upland resources. This is devolution in the strict sense (Meinzen-Dick and Knox 1999). The SANREM CRSP SEA introduced innovations through grassroots’management of upland resources. Three organizations, as discussed below, were established in Lantapan through the facilitation of the research project. These organizations aimed at supporting the sustainable goals of the municipality. Lessons were learned on how one can mainstream with local government activities for resource management and maintain presence via the commercialization of technologies. The Water Watch Group The Water Watch Group (Tigbantay Wahig in the Binukid dialect) started as a volunteer group in the early 1990s to support the community-based water quality monitoring project under the SANREM CRSP SEA. The objectives of the project were to facilitate the development of water quality and watershed assessments by local communities, and provide physicochemical data that would be used to improve water quality and policy (Deutsch et al. 2001a; Deutsch et al. 2001b). Local citizens, including the IP and the migrant farmers, volunteered to receive training in water quality monitoring and principles of watershed management. In 1995, the core group of water monitors proceeded to form a people’s organization (The Tigbantay Wahig, Inc.) and incorporated themselves as an officially recognized NGO. In 2002, the monitoring results of Tigbantay Wahig were disseminated to community members, educators and local policy makers, resulting in more serious actions taken by the local government with respect to the implementation of the watershed management plan. The mandate of this group is ideal in the monitoring and evaluation scheme of the municipal management plan as long as it can be recognized as such in the formal governance structure. It was learned that the group was able to generate support from the local government to continue with their water quality monitoring work up to this date (Espaldon, pers com 2006). Agroforestry Tree Seed Association of Lantapan (ATSAL) This association of smallholder seed collectors was organized in Lantapan in 1997 to solve the constraint of good tree seed quality supply (Koffa and Garrity 2001). The

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farmers, in consultation with a SANREM scientist, expressed their concern that even if they were willing to plant trees within their farms, the service for good quality seed is limited. Almost all farmers who have already planted trees got their seedlings from the DENR, which resulted in a monocropping of gmelina tree. To reduce dependence on one source of seedlings, it was decided that an association of seed collectors and producers should be formally organized to address the needs of good quality, genetically diverse species of seedlings. Some of the activities that the group conducted during the project life were training of members in collection, handling, development, and management of quality seeds; establishment and management of private nurseries; tree planting in homelots; marketing of seeds and seedlings; and sharing of expertise to other farmers, NGOs, and LGUs. Membership recruitment was through farmer-to-farmer information and efforts of the ICRAF personnel. At first, the incentive as a member is the knowledge he/she can get in attending the training, as well as free seeds. The most important impact of the organization so far has been the sustained supply of quality seeds and seedlings for tree planting. The association has broadened its markets and has sold seeds and seedlings to managers of various reforestation and community forestry projects in some provinces in Mindanao and the Visayas. In 1998, ATSAL supplied seeds to the European Union-Agrarian Reform Support Programme’s farm forestry projects in the Philippines, the CBFM Program of the Philippine DENR and exported seeds to Kenya. ATSAL may also serve as a channel through which germplasm from sources in other countries may be introduced to a host of farmers and tested on-farm in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. Currently, ATSAL is still in business. However, because most members are busy with their jobs in the banana plantations, there have been no group activities lately. Their main contribution though remains clear: they provided the market for agroforestry species that are needed by farmers in order to adopt a technology. This is a very different approach to earlier research-extension programs where technologies were introduced but no technology commercialization took place. The Lantapan Landcare Association Another organization in Lantapan that facilitated the adoption of soil conservation technologies was the Lantapan Landcare Association. Landcare is a strategy to bring to farmers soil conservation and soil amelioration technologies. While this concept

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was first known in Australia, the Landcare Program in the Philippines evolved quite separately. “It started from a combination of farmers’ demand and a new research and extension direction from technical agencies” (Metcalf 2004). The Landcare Program (Garrity and Mercado 1998) was introduced in Lantapan by the ICRAF under the auspices of the SANREM CRSP SEA. SANREM CRSP SEA emphasized participatory, local-level, community-based approaches and this helped prepare the way for Landcare’s introduction in the municipality. Landcare was initially introduced in the Municipal Natural Resource Management and Development Plan as SANREM’s and ICRAF’s contribution. ICRAF started implementing the concept in 1998. Shortly after, the first Landcare group was formed. The Lantapan Landcare Association was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2000, with 840 members, making it the largest farmer group ever organized in Lantapan. By 2001, 58 Landcare groups had been formed and four existing farmer groups were affiliated with the Landcare Association, making 62 groups in all. A landcare approach involves community groups taking action at the local level. These groups were linked through farmer-driven NGOs and supported through government’s and scientific input. The groups identified their key environmental concerns relating to agricultural production, assume responsibility for these, and take local action to ensure the issues are addressed. Simple conservation principles are proposed and communities are encouraged to adapt them to their needs. Examples of simple practices include NVS, reduced tillage, and planting perennial crops. Landcare’s impact was prominent in Lantapan with the increased adoption of the NVS. Once farmers had gained confidence in the NVS, they were encouraged to plant useful annuals or perennials along the contour strips. Interested groups were trained to compute optimal fertilizer application rates using a simple soil-analysis kit. Training sessions on asexual propagation and seed collection were also conducted with interested groups. As interest in fruit tree propagation emerged, a survey on preferred fruit trees was conducted. The Landcare program facilitated the planting of trees on farms (agroforestry) both as a long-term conservation measure and an alternative source of livelihood. The number of farmers adopting tree planting increased sharply from 170 in 1998 to 585 by 2002. Many farmers adopted both vegetative contour barriers and tree planting on different parts of their farm. In 2000, some established groups shifted from individual farm activities to groupbased activities including riparian stabilization, river clean-up, collection of forest

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wildlings, and farmer field schools. Training sessions on leadership and organizational management were also conducted for Landcare leaders, with support partly from the municipal government. The Landcare program also moved off-farm. A “Landcare in Schools” Program was initiated with two private secondary schools experimenting with a customized agroforestry curriculum. School-based Landcare groups were formed. As a group, they were also networking with other institutions charged with environmental management in the area. There was close relationship with the ICRAF-facilitated ATSAL because key leaders were involved in both Landcare and ATSAL. They also started linking with high officials in the municipal and provincial governments during the SANREM CRSP SEA’s project life and gained support from organizations and local governments within the municipality. For example, the DA supported them through their animal dispersal program and local government units sponsored some of their training programs. The new mayor assigned members of the group as direct supervisors of the barangays that are under the local government rule for land care activities. One joint activity with the LGU was fruit and timber trees distribution. Lessons from the partnerships Were the organizations sustained? The 62 Landcare groups in 2001 decreased to only 23 active groups (37%) by mid-2002. By mid-2003, this number had dropped to 12 (20%) and 45 groups (73%) were reported to have disbanded. There were two main reasons for the decline in group activity: (1) for most farmers, once they had learned about conservation practices and implemented them on their farms, the need to meet and function as a group seemed less important; and (2) the growth of agribusiness resulted in a significant decrease in smallholder farming in some barangays with 70 percent of farmers in Cawayan and 80 percent in Alanib employed by the banana plantation companies. The three organizations discussed above had different characters in terms of resource management: water quality monitoring, seed supply systems, and community action for soil conservation. In all cases, the local government has been appreciative of the work they do and have in one way or the other involved them in caring for the upland resources. But why are some organizations doing well and others not? ATSAL, the seed system organization, became viable because it scaled up to other markets. The water quality monitors or the Tigbantay Wahig became trainors of communities in other parts of the country. The group was recognized by the mayor as one that could

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really help the LGU assess water quality, an important concern in the town. On the whole, local organizations such as these groups could be cost-effective partners in sustainable upland management. CHALLENGES FOR SUSTAINABLE OUTCOMES29 Several challenges will have to be recognized and addressed early on so that potentially positive impacts of decentralization can be realized. Some of these challenges are described below (see Box 7.2). Box 7.2 Conflict management among the private sector, the local community and the local government in Bukidnon, 2004. One high moment where devolution played a significant role in Bukidnon’s environmental management was in the settlement of a water resource conflict between the private sector, the local community and the local government. The local government, given its environmental mandate, had the confidence to settle such conflicts with the powerful private sector. But, as was revealed and shown below personalities and social capital were part of the requirements of a successful conflict resolution. This is true in places like the Philippines where “business is personal and everything is negotiable”. It took about a year to settle the conflict in the ownership and use of a crystal spring in Maramag, Bukidnon. The local community wanted to avail of the recreational facility. The local government was interested to manage the natural springs but there was a private swimming pool. The Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) stipulated that the proponent (the private individual who developed the pool) should provide easement right for the public to make use of. During the meeting with the Governor, it was deliberated whether this land is private property or public land. It was however, titled. The agreed-upon solution was for the proponent to open up the use of the resource to the public. A water district was put up in the area. BENRO’s stand was to comply with the standard set by DENR, to provide easement of 20-20 meters from each side of the falls. Because this was not feasible, the ultimate easement size became 10-10. It was also agreed that the fence will be taken out to make the semblance of open property. The local officials, including the governor, the mayor, and the barangay captain were in the meeting. The intervention of local government was found to be very critical. Political will was also upheld.

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Sustaining Financial Support Local officials in Bukidnon30 have high awareness of environmental issues, thus, political, social and financial support to environmental programs are generated. However, municipalities do not usually allocate budgets for environmental programs, and in most instances, beautification of premises already epitomizes environmental programs. Normally, elective officials do not have enough incentives to have workable environmental management programs such as water and soil management; they do not see the full and concrete benefits from this that can be translated into votes. Hence, they have to be often reminded of the benefits of such programs to their entire area jurisdictions. In the meantime, the participation of the private sector in environment programs must be tapped and they should be made to realize that the environment is an integral input to their business operations downstream. Limited Instruments At the municipality and cluster levels, there has not been enough effort to generate revenues for the resources use, basically because there are no or very limited economic instruments31 that can guide the local government to enact these. In Lantapan, water supplied to households is subsidized by the local government. Water user charges for plantation agriculture have not been properly defined. To really implement the watershed approach, resource user such as the NIA should be willing to pay the upland dwellers for the service of the sustained water supply downstream (Francisco 2004b). A proposed ordinance32 that required the payment of water charges by the agribusiness firms was not popular among the local policymakers. By law, raw water is free for all. But for use of water when diverted/extracted from the natural source, water charges have been set by and are paid to the NWRB, the regulatory arm for water resources in the Philippines (NWRB 1976). With the LGC mandate, local governments would also have the power to collect water charges in their locality. This can be so if the national law of free raw water is amended. Current thinking supports the efficient allocation principle; thus, natural resources should be treated as an economic good. For instance, user fees may be legitimate and necessary to fund activities that sustain management of watershed resources. But the structure of any particular system of resource allocation is influenced by the existing institutional and legal frameworks (Dinar et al. nd).

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Institutional, Administrative and Legal Constraints It is common to see towns without institutional capacity to enforce the environmental mandate of the LGC. The environment is the last priority activity of an LGU. The current de facto MENRO is a staff of the PENRO. However, Lantapan may deputize its MAO to take charge of the conservation activities. The Municipal Agrarian Reform Office (MARO) now charged with land distribution could also be involved in the implementation of the Plan. They can for instance avoid giving titles to non- A and D lands. Ideally, the MARO, MAO, and the MENRO could work together in one office in the municipality and coordinate efforts in order to operationalize the management plan. In reality, though, responsibility for environmental protection and natural resource management now rests with a collection of local (POs), national, and multipartite agencies. Will this set of agencies be able to overcome the constraints to effective collective action, protect upland resources, and facilitate sustainable economic growth? Mutual trust and social capital will be needed because there is no legal framework to support the institutional arrangements. In the case of the Park, the MKRNP was enacted through a national law and because PAMB has a legal personality, enforcement and subsequent prosecution of violators of the park ordinances is possible. Meanwhile, because of the lack of legal support, the structure of the Upper Pulangui cluster organization is fluid and depends on the goodwill of the current crop of politicians in the various municipalities included in the cluster; and several barangays in the sub-watersheds. Human Capital Constraints Lantapan needs to build capacity in sustainable agriculture (SA) as part of watershed management. Presently, there is one forestry graduate employed in the MAO but is not well versed in SA technologies, including soil conservation. The agricultural technicians of the MAO can be trained to do some monitoring of soil resource degradation. Lantapan has a trained water watch volunteer group that can be engaged by the LGU to monitor water quality (Deutsch, et al. 2001a). SANREM CRSP SEA has contributed in the training of both the provincial and municipal officials in the environmental planning and policy analysis. These officials, especially the provincial board members who were trained, were appreciative of the science-based policy analysis training. However, those trained by the project were either not reelected or not qualified for reelection for subsequent terms. There must

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therefore be a mechanism that can provide continuous training for local executives in environmental management and policy. CONCLUSIONS Decentralization, like globalization, undermines the potency of the traditional environmental management model based on regulatory constraints designed and implemented by central government agencies. After years of failed attempts at centralized control over natural resources management, opinion has now turned decisively in favor of local approaches. In Southeast Asia, as in many parts of the developing world, this shift coincides with the decentralization of numerous other government functions. Upland resource management can be implemented by changing the locus of decision-making from national to local agencies, but it will be a slow process and should be properly guided. Decentralizing management does not merely mean devolving responsibilities previously concentrated with the national bureaucracy but also means accompanying devolution with decision-making authority, budget and capacities, to various stakeholders. Decentralization provided a venue for the participants such as the NGOs, local communities, indigenous peoples, and the private sector to come together for a common purpose. Decentralization paved the way to settle conflicts in resource access and use (Box 7.2). This was also seen in the experience of PAMB’s sensitivity and recognition of cultural and local knowledge as well as flexibility to negotiate with various stakeholders (Sumbalan 2004). While decentralization promises more accountability, transparency and participatory approach to environmental governance, the accompanying challenges to relax the constraints of budget needs, capacity needs, and institutional, administrative and legal support, and to have more locally attuned policy instruments, will require the assistance of national agencies and the various sectors of society.

Endnotes Sustainable development as a policy started when the Philippines signed the accord developed in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. During this meeting, governments have accepted the challenge that “the more rationale choice for human society is the road to development that blends sound environmental policies with economic stability” (Habito 1995).

1

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In 2003, a 7-hectare plantation establishment for watershed rehabilitation was contracted to Basak Upland Farmers Association, Inc. at Basak, Lantapan, Bukidnon (DENR-CENRO 2003).

2

Most forested areas in Lantapan already have occupants. There are existing programs like Integrated Social Forestry (ISF), CBFM, Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADC).

3

According to the interview with the Forester in the PENRO, the identification of areas for CBFM is a joint effort of the LGU and DENR.

4

For instance, in the classification of A&D lands, it was known that one protected area in Bukidnon is occupied by several plantations, and lot owners say that titles were released by DENR. This should not be an A&D land, according to the LGU.

5

The LGU can advise the DENR about the tribal rules. In Lantapan, the chair of the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) is a “datu,” or the chief of the predominant IP tribe.

6

This is done only in a watershed area and where there is a capable PO.

7

Via Presidential Memorandum Order 270 of then President Fidel V. Ramos.

8

LGUs committed about PhP15 million for the entire province in 2004 to push activities of the BWPDC.

9

Over the last 10 years, it has been initiating watershed management programs in these areas. In the Pulangui-Agusan-Talomo Watershed Area, NPC has been implementing projects related to watershed management through its watershed management division. Budget allocation for watershed management activities by the NPC has been sustained from 1994 to the present. Currently, NPC has a total of 26 personnel in the Pulangui-Agusan-Talomo watershed area team.

10

The others are Pulangui River Irrigation System (RIS), Muleta RIS and RoxasKuya RIS. The total service area of these systems is 20,696 hectares in 2002 (NIA, Valencia 2004).

11

The NGO sector as provided by the Philippines Agenda 21 is also an active stakeholder in Bukidnon environmental programs.

12

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The NGO was able to persuade the LGUs to include funds for the environment to be used for administrative support, forest protection activities, inventory of different river systems in the province and even barangay-based training activities.

13

This certifies that the project will not have a significant environmental effect in the fragile uplands. The results of the monitoring will influence the renewal of operations of said projects and will be part of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) report. In Bukidnon, agricultural activities such as plantation agriculture and intensive livestock operations apply for the EICC.

14

In one instance, when one CENRO who used to be Protected Area Superintendent (PASU) reported at his new office, he wanted to encourage other sectors to hold small group discussions, and involve them in the formulation of a Memorandum of Agreement defining missions and objectives of an organization to fit with the national DENR mission and training on environmental protection.

15

A river basin is similarly defined (Dixon and Easter 1986) but is of a larger scale.

16

This is also the function of the CENRO.

17

Within a watershed (or a catchment), a convenor is identified, usually the mayor of the municipality whose whole area is within this watershed.

18

Over and above these plans is the ancestral domain management plan as provided in the Indigenous People’s Rights Act (IPRA).

19

CIDA provided funds for the training of LGU officials.

20

At the province level, all municipalities and cities have just formulated and submitted their final watershed management plans. The LGUs in Bukidnon have appropriated a total of P14.97 M for watershed management for CY 2004 (BWPDC minutes of the meeting, Feb. 20, 2004).

21

Among its management strategies are the following: 1. Adoption and implementation of an effective park protection, zoning, and resource management program; 2. Formulation of an integrated policy and livelihood support and assistance framework for the conservation, sustainable use and

22

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economic development of protected areas beneficiaries in partnership with the local communities; 3.Formulation of biodiversity conservation awareness and information programs; and 4.Institutionalization and strengthening of capacities for effective protected area management and supervision. The office of the Protected Area Superintendent (PASu) became functional in 1994.

23

It is composed of the following: a) Provincial Government, b) Representative from concerned National Line Agency, c) Local Government Units (LGUs), d) sectoral institutions, including NPC, and e) NGOs covered by specific watershed clusters in the province.

24

The grant is managed by the World Bank in partnership with the Government of the Philippines (represented by the DENR) and the NGOs for Integrated Protected Areas (NIPA). All of these three are bound in a tripartite agreement. The NIPA is a national consortium of NGOs that manage the local host-NGOs selected at the site coordinating the project together with its counterpart entity, the DENR-Park Superintendent’s Office (PaSU), and its corresponding PAMB.

25

The NDLAs rest on the principles of balancing sustainable development and biodiversity conservation to uplift the socio-economic conditions of the IPs and tenured migrants in order to mitigate human pressure on the protected watershed. A total of 79 POs are implementing NDLA Projects in the park and some of them became beneficiaries of CBFM Projects and are currently managing integrated livelihoods undertakings.

26

However, according to local partners, this will be difficult, given that community members consider themselves as members of the same clan, and the norm is that one cannot punish a “brother”. But the IP tribe can impose a “sala”, a customary rule of punishment (Mordeno, 2001).

27

Some activities of international centers are those of the Center for International Forestry Research in the testing of an Adaptive Co-Management (ACM) approach to forest conservation and livelihood assistance to a community of farmers who are holders of community-based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMA); the Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), on capacity building for CBFMA holders at the buffer zone; AusAID on the promotion of farming systems improvement

28

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in the protected area and the promotion of contour/conservation farming; Heifer Philippines International on animal nutrition and environmental management and as providers of support to a local citizen water watch involved in the monitoring of water quality and quantity, among others. Materials for this section were taken mostly from Rola, Sumbalan and Suminguit 2004.

29

Bukidnon has been awarded by a national body as the “Cleanest and Greenest” province in the country for the years 2003 and 2004.

30

One source of revenue of the Park comes from user fee charges for the environmental services that it offers. For 2003, some PhP520,135.00 have been collected from visitors entry fees and land use fee/rental of the different establishments located at the range summit (Sumbalan 2004).

31

Two ordinances in support of natural resource management were proposed in 1998 and approved in 2000. These were to encourage adoption of soil conservation measures and to ban aerial spray in the banana plantations.

32

REFERENCES

Agrawal, Arun and Elinor Ostrom. “Collective Action, Property Rights, and Devolution of Forest and Protected Area Management.” In Collective Action, Property Rights and Devolution of Natural Resource Management: Exchange of Knowledge and Implications for Policy, edited by R. Meinzen-Dick, A. Knox, and M. de Gregorio,pp.75-110. Feldafing, Germany: Deutsche Stiftung fur Internationale Entwickling and Zentraistelle fur Ernahrung und Landwirtschaft, 1999. Brillantes, A. B. “The Local Government Code of 1991: Priming Local Governments to Take the Lead in Sustainable Development, in Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC) 1996,” and “Empowerment and Accountability for Sustainable Development: Towards Theory Building in the Social Sciences.” Papers and proceedings of the 3rd National Social Science Congress, PSSC, Quezon City, Philippines, 1996. Bukidnon Watershed Protection and Development Council. Minutes of the meeting, February 20, 2004.

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Canoy, M. E. and V. Suminguit. “The Indigenous Peoples of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park.” Social Watch Philippines Report. Manila, Philippines, 2001. Center for Continuing Legal Education. “Decentralization of Authority Over Management of Water Resources.” Law and Policy Paper No. 1. Quezon City, Philippines: College of Law, Ateneo de Manila University, 2000. De Dios, E. S. “Local Politics and Local Economy.” In The Dynamics of Regional Development: The Philippines in East Asia, edited by Arsenio M. Balisacan and Hal Hill, 157-203. Quezon City, Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 2007. Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Community Environment and Natural Resources Office. Annual Accomplishment Report. Malaybalay, Bukidnon, 2003. Deutsch, W. D., J. L. Oprecio, and J. P. Bago-Labis. “Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: The Tigbantay Wahig Experience.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Agricultural Development and Environmental Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 184-196. Los Baños, Philippines: Philippine Council on Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, 2001a. Deutsch, W. G., A. L. Busby, J. L. Oprecio, J.P. Bago-Labis, and E. Y. Cequiña. “Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: From Data Collection to Sustainable Management of Water Resources.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Natural Resource Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 138-160. Los Baños: Philippine Council on Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, 2001b. Dinar, A., M.W. Rosegrant, and R. Meinzen-Dick. “Water Allocation Mechanisms Principles and Examples.” Policy Research Working Paper 1779. Washington, DC: The World Bank/IFPRI, no date. Dixon, J. A. and K. William Easter. “Integrated Watershed Management: An Approach to Resource Management.” In Watershed Resources Management, edited by K. W. Easter, J. A. Dixon, and M. M. Hufschmidt, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press 1986. Egnar, C. M. “The Response of the Local Government Units of Bukidnon on the Challenge of Sustainable Watershed Resources Management in Support to the Land and Water Conservation Programs of the National Government Particularly the Department of Environment and Natural Resources: A Case Study in Alternative Approaches in Sustainable Watershed Management.” Paper presented at the Land Care Conference in Australia, April 2003.

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Elazegui, D. D., A. C. Rola, and I. Coxhead. “Policy Imperatives for Natural Resource Management Under a Decentralized Regime: the Philippines Case.” Paper presented at the SANREM CRSP Research and Synthesis Conference, Athens, Georgia, USA, November 28-30, 2001. Espaldon, V. O. pers com, 2006. Francisco, H. A. “Watershed-Based Water Management Strategy: Why Push For It?” In Winning the Water Wars: Watersheds, Water Policies and Water Institutions, edited by A. Rola, H. Francisco, and J. Liguton, 27-58. Makati City, Philippines Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 2004a. Francisco, H. A. “Water Allocation Mechanisms and Environmental Service Payments.” In Winning the Water Wars: Watersheds, Water Policies and Water Institutions, edited by A. Rola, H. Francisco, and J. Liguton, 133-152. Makati City, Philippines: Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 2004b. Garrity, D. P. and A.R. Mercado. “The Landcare Approach: A Two Pronged Method to Rapidly Disseminate Agroforestry Practices in Upland Watershed.”Research Report. International Center for Research in Agroforestry, Southeast Asian Regional Research Programme, Bogor, Indonesia, 1998. Habito, C. F. “Green Development is Good Development: The Role of Environmental Education in Biodiversity Conservation.” Paper presented at the second ASEAN Regional Conference on Environmental Education, SEARCA, College, Laguna, Philippines, March 1995. Koffa, S. N. and D. P. Garrity. 2001. “Grassroots Empowerment and Sustainability in the Management of Critical Natural Resources: The Agroforestry Tree Seed Association of Lantapan.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Natural Resource Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 197-217. Los Baños: Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development, 2001. Lantapan Watershed Management Council. “Lantapan Watershed Management Plan.” Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines, 2002. Meinzen-Dick, R. and A. Knox. “Collective Action, Property Rights and Devolution of Natural Resources Management: A Conceptual Framework.” In Collective Action, Property Rights and Devolution of Natural Resource Management: Exchange of Knowledge and Implications for Policy, edited by R. MeinzenDick, A. Knox, and M. de Gregorio, pp.75-110. Feldafing, Germany: Deutsche Stiftung fur Internationale Entwickling and Zentraistelle fur Ernahrung und Landwirtschaft. 1999.

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Metcalf, J., ed. Landcare in the Philippines: Stories of People and Places. Canberra, Australia: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, 2004. Mordeno, H. Marcos. “Bukidnon Lumads Penalize DENR.” Mindanao Times, News Online, June 27, 2001. Accessed October 24, 2004. http://www.litera 1. No.4, tripod.com/Talaandig_frame.html. National Irrigation Administration. Irrigation statistics. Valencia, Bukidnon, 2004. National Water Resources Board. “The Philippine Water Code.” Brochure. Quezon City, Philippines, 1976. Queblatin, E., D. Catacutan, and D. Garrity. “Managing Natural Resources Locally: An Overview of Innovations and Ten Initial Steps for Local Governments.” Research Report. Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines: International Center for Research in Agroforestry and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, 2001. Rola, A. C., A. Sumbalan, and V. Suminguit. “Realities of the Watershed Management Approach: The Manupali Watershed Experience.” ISPPS Working Paper No. 04-04. College, Laguna, Philippines: Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies, University of the Philippines Los Baños, 2004. Sumbalan, A. T. “The Bukidnon Experience on Natural Resource Management Decentralization.” Paper presented at the SANREM conference, ACCEED Makati, May 2001. Sumbalan, A. “Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park Management Plan.” Malaybalay, Bukidnon: SANREM CRSP SEA, 2004. Sumbalan, A. T. and G. Buenavista. “Closing the Gap Between Natural Resource Management Research and Policymaking: Reflections from the Manupali Watershed and Beyond.” Paper presented at the SANREM CRSP Research and Synthesis Conference, Athens, Georgia, USA, November 28-30, 2001. Tabien, C. O. “Local Government Response to the Potential Environmental Impacts of Commercial Farms on the Water Resources of Lantapan, Bukidnon.” Master of Management (Development Management) field study report. University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, 2000.

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The series of shocks, including changes in the global economic order and national political order, and the more frequent climate pattern aberration during this late development period, affected the way upland households manage their resources, as captured by the turn-of-the-century data. Globalization brought forth freer flow of people, financial resources, and goods. The devolution of the Philippine governance structure has eased globalization goals of market integration by giving local-level power in opening investments even in the fragile uplands. Government investments in rural infrastructure, education facilities to improve citizen skills, and more improved communication facilities, among others, accelerated the upland farming households’ integration to national and international markets. Market connections, governance and local institutions also influenced both economic and environmental outcomes. This chapter links the previous chapters to describe the upland community in transition in its entirety, or of how a new “local order” is evolving towards a sustainable community in response to the policy changes (globalization and decentralization) that took place in the dawn of the 21st century. The concept of sustainable community is first explained. Institutional evolution is analyzed in terms of the changing roles to bring the community to a sustainable path. The resource use responses, environmental effects, and some effects on the cultural strands of the community’s indigenous group are briefly presented.

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A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY Sustainable communities are planned, built, or modified to promote sustainable living. They tend to focus on environmental and economic sustainability (http://www. sustainable.org). Indicators of sustainability are different from traditional indicators of economic, social, and environmental progress in that they represent an index of social welfare. For instance, traditional indicators such as the GNP or GDP only measure the economic change, and do so independent of other sectors. On the other hand, sustainability indicators reflect interconnectedness of three sectors: economic, environmental, and social. For instance, in the agricultural economy, the environment provides soil and water quality or a natural resource base for the economy that provides jobs and incomes. Incomes determine the poverty status of community members leading to social development outcomes. Sustainability requires an integrated view of the world—it requires multidimensional indicators that show the links among a community’s economy, environment, and society. Sustainable communities therefore are “places where people want to live and will continue to want to live” (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, UK 2003).

Elements of a Sustainable Community Some key requirements of a sustainable community are as follows (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, UK 2003): • • •

• •

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a flourishing local economy to provide jobs and wealth; strong leadership to respond positively to changes; effective engagement and participation by local people, groups, and businesses, especially in the planning, design, and long-term stewardship of their community, and an active “civil society” sector; a diverse, vibrant, and creative local culture encouraging pride in the community and cohesion within it; and the right links with the wider regional, national, and international community.

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In the previous chapters, traditional indicators of development were presented. The link among the economy, environment, and society will be further explored here. LANTAPAN’S TRANSITION TO A SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY: THE INSTITUTIONAL CONTEXT Lantapan has a pluralism of institutions (Williamson 2000) that can be used to manage upland tensions. As in most Asian societies, formal and informal rules exist side by side (Neef et al. 2006) in this community. Decisions and actions for sustainable resource management are a product of complex competition and collaboration among these institutions. Power of institutions is a creation of many factors (Malayang 2004): its statutory mandate; its customary recognition; its human, technical, and financial competence; its political clout; its social standing and those of its leaders and staff; and the size and vastness of its constituency. In this section, the evolution of local institutions discussed in the previous chapters during this late development period, as represented by events in the study area, are summarized. Growth of Modern Rural Markets The upsurge of the market and the market activities in the study town during the nearly decade-long stay was considered phenomenal. During the first visits, there were no places to eat and no variety stores in the upper reaches of the watershed. As the second phase ended in 2004, there were several small restaurants and variety stores selling rice and clothing. This signaled the era of active markets in the area. This rapid growth of the market economy as earlier mentioned was an effect of both the policy on globalization and the change of governance structure that devolved power to the local officials especially in the use of natural resources. Market-oriented production was first introduced by Igorots from the North who migrated to this place, specifically to produce temperate vegetables. During the later part of the past century, intensive cultivation was observed to be in response to the market demand. Agricultural input markets developed and output marketing arrangements have also evolved. The entry of the agribusiness firms catering to the international market in the recent times not only brought wealth to the town but also jobs in the service sector.

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Land Lease Market While land market may not be active in the study area because of some customary rules and due to the stipulation of the agrarian reform program, the land lease market facilitated the influx of temporary migrants out to mine the land. Investors from the city of Cagayan de Oro would plant a large area of vegetables, such as tomatoes, hiring some local landless to supervise the operations. The rental rate was equal to the profit margin gained by the farmers in producing traditional crops, such as corn. Sometimes, farmers with titles to their land rent out their land to the bigger farmers in the area for plantation crops, such as sugarcane and bananas. The older farmers found it wise to rent their lands to the banana plantations, and send their educated children to jobs in that firm. It was also learned from key informants that in the earlier times, during preproject implementation, some natives bartered small parts of their land for goods, such as a television set. Labor Market With the flourishing agriculture, non-farm incomes from the service sector and the agribusiness firms also picked up. Formal education was also accessible and has helped take pressure away from the land. The exchange labor arrangement that was a tradition in the past has also slowly disappeared with the commercialism of agricultural production. Hired labor was popular especially in highly intensive vegetable production, where women were the main source of this labor. A variety of strategies were introduced in Lantapan to encourage upper-watershed residents to veer away from smallhold intensive cultivation, by building their human capital. One was the training program on livestock dispersal, which was an effective source of income and food especially during the drought period. Other Input Market Modern production techniques in a sustainable community needed non-traditional inputs. Aside from the land and labor, there were markets for new seeds, inorganic and organic fertilizers and pesticides, and even seedlings for agro-forestry. What was absent was a formal market for hedgerows and others used in soil conservation, and

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market for information technologies. In Lantapan, there was a group (ATSAL, see Chapter 7), that sold tree seedlings to farmers for agroforestry purposes. Also, there was a flourishing market for chicken manure due to the presence of several poultry farms in the study town. Input stores were located near the farming barangays, in contrast to the earlier days when farmers would routinely go to the big city of Cagayan de Oro for their input needs. The proliferation of input stores within Lantapan has resulted in easier access, especially by vegetable farmers needing chemicals for their operation. In the absence of farmer cooperatives in the study area, public sector credit was not available. Corn farmers in the Philippines were supported through a corn credit program. Key informants in Bukidnon said that because farmers were not into cooperative arrangements, they were not eligible for this type of government support, which assured for the sharing of the risk of production failures.1 This credit program2 was implemented in Bukidnon, but there were no beneficiaries in the uplands, such as Lantapan, possibly because of the perceived high risk to invest in areas where corn farmers were poor, both in the environmental and managerial sense. A Farmers’ Information and Technology Services (FITS) Center was also established in the area to cater to the technology information needs of the farmers. This will complement the role of the extension workers, as in the future, farmers may be willing to buy information from this center to become more market competitive. Output Market Output market arrangements were also changing. In the earlier days, traders would bring in large trucks to pick up the vegetable farmers’ produce for sale to the big city of Cagayan de Oro or to be sent to Cebu and Manila in instances that the supply in these cities dwindled due to an inclement weather in the vegetable-producing areas of Northern Philippines. The cereal staples and traditional crops, such as abaca and coffee, were dropped in wholesale market within the study town or in the urbanizing towns of Malaybalay and Valencia. For a while, a change in the output market arrangement was through the government initiative that modernized output market operations in the upland areas. This was the Agrikulturang Makamasa for High Value Commercial Crops.3 Lantapan participated in one of the marketing modes of this program. The program covered all required post-harvest handling facilities and appropriate practices required by a

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specific commodity to be fresh when it reaches the consumers (Felix 2003). The Northern Mindanao Vegetable Association (Norminveggies) outfit bought vegetables in big bulk for the Manila market. Limitations in modernizing the rural markets Some social preparation was needed as smallhold farmers accessed bigger markets. Smallhold farmers planting bananas were saying that they sold their bananas to the supermarket in cities as far as Manila. But as farmers engaged in transactions with these bigger establishments, they needed to fulfill quality and quantity contracts. Some farmers were not able to fulfill such because they did not have the quantity needed at the frequency demanded; and some said they did not have the quality that the market preferred. On the other hand, the entry of the Norminveggies had, for a while, excited the farmers because it had a cold storage so vegetable produce will not be spoiled. Unfortunately, this was not sustained, and the reasons could be a good subject for further study. In the meantime, farmers went back to their previous marketing arrangement, where they personally brought their produce to the local market or these were picked up. Therefore, accessing modern markets entails good coordination among the smallhold farmers, establishing contracts for high-quality and high-volume products. Contracts took the place of the trust that the farmers conveyed on the “suki.” Renegotiating Property Rights Markets triggered environmental effects that can cause unsustainable development, but this can be tempered by more secure property rights. Property right conveys authority and control over resources, shapes incentives for management, reinforces collective action, and when assigned to users, demonstrates government commitment to devolution4 (Meinzen-Dick and Knox 1999). A property right is the “capacity to call upon the collective to stand behind one’s claim to a benefit stream” (Bromley 1991). This means that property rights define a relationship between the right holder, others, and an institution to back up the claim. In Lantapan, there were several institutions governing property rights and, sometimes, these have led to conflict and confusion.

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Land Rights Conflicts occur because tribal laws sometimes clash with State laws. The tribal laws remain to be in practice in the assignation of property rights by the IP. The tribal leaders define customary rules, and the community members (members of same clan or tribe) who used these community resources voluntarily obeyed the norms. Territory was commonly held by the members of the community where ownership was limited to these members, related by blood or through ceremony. All members made use of the land held in common. The village chief controlled the land and assigned usufruct rights to his tribal members; customary laws also have a system of penalties and rewards. The customs governing the use of the land were closely related to their beliefs in the spirits. On the other hand, the regalian doctrine is still the legal framework of land tenure systems in the uplands, following the policy during the Spanish regime (1521-1898). Under this doctrine, all lands were declared as owned by the crown or state, unless declared alienable and disposable (A and D). Forest land became a public domain. As discussed in Chapter 6, there is a fundamental conflict with the policy and practice in the assignation of property rights in the uplands—the customary rule says that native tribe members have only usufruct right to the land, while the state law says that land is a private property once titled. But these land conflicts have been minimized. In Lantapan, formal rules strengthened property rights of migrants. Stewardship contracts strengthened the stake of forest communities in the land they are occupying. Communal property rights are reined in by tribal leaders and respected by the other community members. In 2003, there were 343 CLOA and EP under 2,348 hectares in the study town (DAR Bukidnon 2003). Several groups of farmers also were able to partake of the stewardship contracts from the DENR. However, exact data were not available. Aside from the CARP, other recent programs by the DAR and the DENR provided for the strengthening of the security of tenure of occupants cultivating the uplands. However, some uncertainties still remain, especially in untitled areas that have been occupied for a long time and not provided for under the Free Patent Law (FPL). Farmers who were previously the loggers in the area have claimed the land as their own and cultivated these for food needs, but had never applied for patents. But because of the extended FPL, they now fear ejection from these lands5. In this case, even CLOA from the DAR will not be an assurance because the DENR can declare environmentally fragile areas needing reforestation as public lands.

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The other land property right issue in upland communities as Lantapan, according to key informants, was the “land-grabbing” of communal areas by migrants posing as investors. These people knew the legal procedures for the titling of lands. In the past and before the project, a piece of paper was shown the IP, to assert the land ownership of such migrants. The IP were observed to flee to the forest buffer zone, as they sought alternative areas to cultivate. However, during this late development period, to assure that the buffer zone is protected, the FMS of the DENR established parcels of land in the municipalities of Lantapan, Valencia, Pangantucan, and Maramag as watershed forestry reservation for the purpose of protecting, maintaining, or improving their water yield and providing a restraining mechanism for inappropriate forest exploitation and land use. This will protect the community-level resources, such as the water supply. Water Rights As a matter of state policy, water access, use, and allocation is guided by the Philippine Water Code. The Philippine constitution states that all waters are a property of the state. The Philippine Water Code enumerates the priorities of water uses in case of scarcity. But this law is not known in places like Lantapan,6 although data showed that early investors, as well as the current investors such as the banana plantations and livestock firms, were able to get water permits from the national water regulatory office in Manila, the NWRB (Bagares 2009). However, because this state law was not locally known, some tribal chiefs granted water rights to those who ask for these. In this late development period, the right to access to the resources, including water, customarily owned by the native tribe has been formalized in a process called the FPIC, stipulated in the IPRA law. This did not exclude other users of the resource, but that the tribe should be asked for their consent in the use of these resources. The process also involved enactment of native customary traditions like offering to their gods. The confusion accompanying assignment of water rights to community members by the customary and state laws was seen in the study town. There were at least five sectors competing for water: households, smallhold vegetable growers upstream, irrigated rice farmers downstream, banana plantations, and livestock farms. Given the competing forces, there are currently no definite rules of access and use. So far, key informants said that there are at least three institutions that play a role in the water right assignation: the national formal body in Manila, which is the NWRB; the native

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tribe in the upper watershed; and the previous holders of water permits downstream (Catacutan pers com 2007). In the past, there were conflicts between the IP (in terms of ancestral domain claims, as discussed in Catacutan et al. 2001) and the LGU in Lantapan for the right to the use of water. This was an example of the weaknesses of the property rights assignment mechanism to natural resources (see Chapter 6). Water is a crucial input to production. The economy of this upland community will be jeopardized in the future if water becomes a real constraint, thus the need to renegotiate and clarify water rights issues. Promoting Environmental Governance The essence of the LGC is to empower people through direct participation in the affairs of local government. It allows people the widest possible spaces to decide, initiate, and innovate. In terms of environmental governance, the decentralization law allowed local governments to govern natural resources within their political boundaries and in the study site, there has been perceptible progress in this sphere. Several ordinances were formulated to govern natural resource use during the project duration. The incentive was that those practicing would have the priority participation in the DA’s production program. Lately, this incentive was not only for DA programs but for provision of Philhealth cards.7 In terms of watershed protection, an ordinance imposes fines or penalties for acts which endanger the environment, such as the conduct of illegal logging or cutting within the municipality of Lantapan, in support of the illegal logging law of the Philippines. Prohibiting the disposal of garbage, farm waste materials, and dead animals in all rivers and to its bank is also a local law. While these are first steps, it is also recognized that imposing penalties have been a challenge. When asked if indeed penalty will be imposed if guilty, one local official shared that it would not be the case, “because we are one of a kind.” “One cannot punish a brother,” but can only ask for moral suasion. Implementing the Lantapan Watershed Management Plan To further reach its sustainability goal, Lantapan government has initiated an NRMP, later called the Lantapan Watershed management Plan, which other buffer zone communities in the province have adopted.8 Within this framework, Lantapan has initiated projects for rehabilitation of its critically denuded watershed through the

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support of government agencies (DA, DENR, Barangays, Municipal Government), NGOs, POs, and two banana plantation companies. The activities did not only involve the water issue but also issues on soil, forest, biodiversity, and community awareness and cooperation. Aside from political boundary planning, Lantapan has taken part together with other LGUs in planning for environment as a group of communities or a “watershed cluster.” The management of the national Park by the PAMB9 institutionalizes the sustainable management regime exercised by the empowered communities (of both the IP and the tenured migrants) who enjoy a firm tenure over the resources, and are actively involved in biodiversity conservation and protection activities, and supported by the government and a public which has internalized conservation values and has respect for cultural integrity. Constraints to Effective Environmental Governance Lantapan has progressed in environmental governance, especially with the formulation of the watershed management plan. But several constraints may hound its future. First, while the local governments have the legitimate mandate for local environmental governance, it could be the lack of capacities and the credibility with the public they serve, as well as the lack of capacities of their partners, that at the moment can be a source of weakness. For instance, Lantapan’s local government provided financial support for the water watchers to help the LGU monitor the water quality in the micro watersheds. However, this support was not accessed by the group because some paper work had to be done, and the community water watchers were not capable of doing such. Second, the central-local government relation for environmental management is still not well-defined. Resource management decisions were the responsibility of national agencies, although in practice, land use rights and practices were allocated largely through local and informal mechanisms. For instance, watershed management is the mandate of the CENRO, with accountability to the national DENR. The CENRO, therefore, coordinates activities of the cluster of municipalities sharing the same watershed. The CENRO will ideally have some working relationship with the mayor and municipal-level ENRO. Third, is the question of partnerships with other stakeholders. Has governance of environmental resources in Lantapan been accountable, transparent and participatory? Are civil society groups and the private sector in the area linked with the local

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governments, as stipulated by the LGC? There were indeed instances when the local government engages the community in the decisions, i.e., on whether to give consent to the outside investors. Fourth, the LGU needs to build capacities to regulate resource use due to the commercialization of agriculture. Scientific data and research results, such as those from SANREM CRSP, would be needed. Ideally, local government could work with the local universities or other academe representatives in the site, for this purpose. Were institutions fast enough in putting a brake into the seemingly environmental degradation that was taking place in the study community? The discussion above cited the several constraints to the slow pace of institutional innovations for sustainable community development. INSTITUTIONS, RESOURCE USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL OUTCOMES This section summarizes the resource use and environmental outcomes as result of household decisions in response to policies, and as allowed for by the evolving institutional context. Agricultural Land Use Due to favorable relative prices, farm households were observed to shift from traditional crops of cereals, coffee, and abaca to more high valued crops, such as vegetables and yellow corn used for feeds. Commercial crops, such as sugarcane and bananas, were also dominant features of the landscape. Soil erosion, as measured by the TSS in the surface waters of Lantapan, had an increasing trend (Deutsch et al. 2001b) during the early part of the SANREM project. However, there were interventions in terms of soil conservation information from the LandCare and SANREM CRSP SEA, as well as from the programs of local government. Because of this, and coupled with more secure tenure, there remained a high number of farmers practicing hedgerows for soil conservation (see Chapter 5). Timber plantation and farmers practicing agroforestry may also have contributed to the environmental stability. Given this observation, one can theoretically expect that soil erosion in Lantapan could have been reduced, even if agriculture area has expanded.

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Labor Use The shift to more non-farm work in the study site was observed especially during the El Niño year (1998), where that period saw a big increase in non-farm employment shares as upland crops failed. This shift was more prominent in corn areas. Movement to off-farm work in 1999 and 2000 was a consequence of the establishment of two large banana plantations in the study area. But later trends suggest that these jobs were not stable sources of income as these required skilled work. Our analysis likewise suggested that non-farm employment were more accessible to women as they have higher educational attainment compared to their male counterparts. Educated women had found non-farm jobs, but those with younger children still stayed behind to cultivate vegetables (see Chapter 4). The presence of non-farm work implied less labor in the farm. Earlier analysis suggested that high non-farm wage rates could reduce the probability of practicing soil conservation. As the economy improved, and as more women stayed behind to do vegetable farming, this relationship became insignificant. Labor market signals influenced farmers’ options for soil conservation technologies (see Chapter 4), thus linking the labor market to the environment. Water Use Water in the study site was abundant during the project proponents’ first visit in 1994. River water was then potable and the research team was able to drink from these rivers. It was because of this that agribusiness firms, such as banana plantations and livestock firms, became attracted to the environs. While these agribusiness firms bring wealth to the community, they also compete with the community members in the use of water. The big demand in water in the later period came from two sources: the banana plantations and the municipal water project to provide households with piped in water. A third industry that was also coming in was the corporate livestock industry. The intensive smallhold agriculture was mostly rain-fed, and did not depend as much on the surface water, except for the high valued vegetable crops that needed irrigation from the canals, or the streams which abound across the town. The intensive use of water upstream caused the scarcity of irrigation water downstream. This has resulted to social conflicts that needed to be minimized through inter-local negotiations. On the other hand, the expansion of chemical agriculture pollutes water ways.

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Upland Land Use and Forest Use At the community level, during the period of our stay, proportion of agriculture lands to total land area grew but only minimally; the effect of upland agricultural area expansion on the buffer zone was not discernible. There was no further reported encroachment to the forest zone to do agriculture. This could be due to three things: (1) the impact of livelihood programs among the buffer zone residents, so they were able to take on non-farm jobs or produced livestock which is not land based (see Chapter 5); (2) the influence of the governance by PAMB of the buffer zone where the local tribes were formally part of this governance team (see Chapter 7); and (3) the out-migration of the younger residents to seek for employment elsewhere (see Chapter 4) because of their much-improved skills. The past expansion into the forest margin in the uplands, as seen in Lantapan during the early development period, exacerbated other environmental issues, especially land degradation and soil erosion. Without the necessary soil conservation measures that have been supported by this community, opening of forest lands at this time could have led to higher rates of soil erosion, loss of nutrients, and reduction of water retention capacity in watersheds, causing environmental tensions. However, such is not happening at this time. CULTURAL DIVERSITY IN A MODERN RURAL ECONOMY What has been seen so far in this community is a fascinating tapestry of institutions that influenced the way people live, extract resources, and provide a brake to environmental degradation. The governance re-structuring and the assignment of property rights to upland lands aimed for a more responsive resource management. This could provide the brakes to the potential wanton resource exploitation while responding to favorable market conditions. Cultural tensions were also expected to be resolved as one retrofits the institutional order. The coming together of customary and state laws in some spheres, such as in those provided in the IPRA, defined the mutual relations of the ethnic tribes and the community at large as the economy develops. Cultural Policy Support At least two policy frameworks have protected the rights of the IP in the era of modern rural economy. The Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim (DAO 02)

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recognizes and protects the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure their economic, social, and cultural well-being. This recognizes the importance of promoting indigenous ways for sustainable management of natural resources, such as ecologically sound traditional practices of indigenous cultural communities. Another governance modality for upland resources is stipulated in the NIPAS Act of 1992 (Republic Act No. 7586), which recognizes the critical importance of protecting and maintaining the natural biological and physical diversity of the environment, and declares it the policy of the state to secure for the Filipino people of present and future generations the perpetual existence of all native plants and animals through the establishments of a comprehensive system of integrated protected areas within the classification of national park and provided for in the Constitution. The NIPAS Act sets aside specific areas with unique features for this purpose. It also recognizes that administration of these protected areas is possible only through cooperation among national government, local government and concerned private organizations. Similarly, the NIPAS law provides for the due recognition of ancestral domains and other customary rights in protected areas. Community Practices To further inculcate the tribal customs and traditions within the town’s modern society, the Songco IP set up an IP school for their younger members. At the same time, it was also in this barangay where the FITS center—where modern information on farming can be accessed—was established. In the future, IP will still be connected to market and the modern ways of farming and resource management. But at the same time, Lantapan IP have ensured that they preserve their own values, beliefs and traditions, which could later be even a source of eco-tourism incomes. The case studies have shown that some of the IP tribe members may have suffered the consequences of modern living. In this age of contract, they still trust people. They were not so keen on the provisions of the contract that they signed into. Maybe because of this incomplete understanding of the provisions in the contract, some IP believed they were short-changed in the process. For instance, they were promised jobs in the agribusiness firms. However, they failed to realize that there were specific skills needed to get employed and that employment was seasonal. Some of these contracts were seen to be not mutually beneficial. However, there were no judiciary courts to settle the disputes.

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A generation ago, some IP sold their land to the Igorots. The Igorots made the land a lot more productive and became wealthy with the IP’s land. The current generation of IP would have wanted to farm just as the Igorots were farming. Without land, these IP became worse off. While they were not seen to beg around in the town proper, as the other members of the community of IP have taken care of their deficiencies at this time, the tribal leaders made sure that the situation will not worsen. It was learned that tribal leaders took away the titles of the land of those who were able to get individual titles (see Chapter 5). The tribal leaders wanted the land to be owned communally so no member will get hungry. By doing such, the IP community also decided on what crop to plant. It was a must for them to devote some of their land for rootcrops. Thus, in the upper watershed barangay of Songco where IP governance is strong, no banana plantation was able to set up business during the study period. In other villages where migrants prevailed, banana plantations and other agribusiness firms put up shop. Despite the differences, peace, economic well-being, and cultural harmony were present in the town. Forging A “Mixed Culture” Towards A Sustainable Community More and more, IP culture was observed to be mainstreamed into the local modern culture. The researchers of this study had also undergone the tribal ceremony to ask for permission to study the area. Recently, the IP village captain even became the Chair of the Association of Barangay Captains of the town, giving him active role in the town’s governance. There is also a venue for merging local and modern technologies. It was always said that some soil conservation measures were indigenous practices. Maybe the migrants can learn of some of these local IP practices, as well. Targeting the needs of the IP in the delivery of the programs could also promote equity. As was seen previously, the DENR and the DA provided for farming technology to persons who were closer to the LGU officials. Some provincial level programs also connected the residents to the LGU, such as the credit facilities. Farmers, especially those who were unable to understand the credit application process, were assisted by their barangay officials. But these could also be selective and only applicable if one is socially near to the barangay official. In other words, if there were indeed programs that would increase the knowledge of the upland residents in good resource management, only those socially closer to the officials can benefit. We have seen the case of the poor IP

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woman with big farmland but without any political capital, and who has remained poor as her land has remained unproductive. Many things have to be done to forge a mixed culture, or this may not even be possible. However, it was heartening to observe that ethnic groups in the area respect one another’s culture with a sincere sense of community. CONCLUSIONS Sustainable communities are economically and environmentally stable. Lantapan’s economy is growing, but a constant monitoring of the environmental outcomes is needed to determine fully the tradeoffs of such economic development. Institutions are evolving to minimize the economy-environment tensions, but these may not be fast enough to safeguard environmental integrity. Modern markets can especially propel economic progress. But market rules can be regulated by formal institutions that are currently in place. To access bigger markets, farmers must learn to band together to form production and market cooperatives. They can learn to collectively decide on the best technologies and the best market strategies. They can learn that upland agriculture is not just a business but a resource management activity, as well. They can empower themselves by just working together. They can engage local government offices for their information needs, just as provided by the FITS center. In this new local order, smallhold farmers and corporate firms should learn how to live together. Smallhold farmers get their organic fertilizer produce from the bigger livestock corporation. Corporate social responsibility is practiced by the banana firms through sponsorship of environmental programs. The new local order also spells out how the natural park is supposed to be governed, and how local governmental structures evolved for watershed management. Capacity building has been done for some officials during the project duration, but these officials may have retired or gone out of government service. Therefore continuous training on NRM is needed, or this can be integrated in the formal school curriculum. It was also noted that the different ethnic tribes adapt into a new local order. Ancestral laws were more strictly enforced as lessons were learned by those who ventured into disobeying these laws in the past. Tribal customs and traditions were institutionalized and a healthy combination of IP’s and migrants’ traditions can characterize this community in the future. Such social diversity is important for sustainability.

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Endnotes

Because of the drought in the 1997/98 crop year, many of the corn farmers lost their investments. This has actually triggered many of our farmer respondents to rent out their plots to the banana plantations and the large sugar farmers, because they needed to pay their production loans. The rental rate per hectare was equivalent to the net income per hectare in corn farming in a normal year.



For the GMA Corn Program, Quedancor will finance production of a group of 5-15 “self-reliant” farmers by tapping its rediscounting facility with other banks. The GMA Corn Program will then supplement the financial resources of Quedancor in terms of material and personnel logistical needs for its field operation. This will be done via the “GMA-Countrywide Assistance for Rural Employment and Services for Hybrid Corn Production Program” or the GMA-CARES-HCPP).



This originated from the Gintong Ani-High Value Commercial Crops Program of then President Ramos (1992-1998) and adopted a major shift towards market oriented production systems by introducing the Commodity- PLUS. PLUS stands for Producers Linkage with Users. One of the program strategies is a market led one where different modalities of marketing agreements geared towards vertical integration and horizontal expansion was adopted according to the type of buyer/market in identified Strategic zones called in the Philippines as Strategic Agricultural and Fisheries Development Zones (SAFDZs). Backward linkages by processors and small producers were promoted for raw materials requirements. The program also explored other marketing modalities such as the Smallholder Entrepreneurship and Smallholder Estates (i.e. farmer-private sector arrangements for contract growing, joint venture agreements, etc.).



Devolution involves the transfer of rights and responsibilities to user groups at the local level, decentralization, in contrast, transfers both decision-making authority and payment responsibility to lower levels of government (Meinzen-Dick and Knox 1999).



In Quezon province for instance, a landslide prone area, former loggers now cultivating cleared lands do not have security of tenure; they are called illegal loggers because they clean the steep slopes to produce food crops. The lands that they till were deemed to be legitimate reforestation areas. After the floods of 2004 where Quezon province was badly hit, there was a call for a logging ban and a

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strict implementation of reforesting steep slopes in the area that were currently devoted to upland agriculture.

It was SANREM CRSP SEA researchers who first introduced the water code to the officials of Bukidnon and of Lantapan.



These cards can be used by community members to avail of free health services, including hospitalization benefits.



The LGC also required municipalities to establish the Natural Resource Management Council (NRMC) that is tasked to oversee the implementation of the NRMP. This is a multi-sectoral group comprised of representatives from the agribusiness sector, NGOs, people’s organizations, members of the municipal legislative council, and the provincial level agencies.



Currently, for each protected area in the country, there is an assigned Protected Area Management Board (PAMB) that acts as the manager. This board is composed of members of different sectors and coordinated locally. The Chair of the Board is the regional director of the DENR. Ideally, the PAMB should meet regularly to provide oversight and guidance to the field implementers. Funds for this management come from the national government. The PAMB illustrates that because environment is porous, it is not practical to assign environmental management functions by political administrative units. The Philippines therefore has established structures that can take care of resources spanning several local government units (PAMB, the watershed management councils, the river councils, etc).

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REFERENCES Bagares, I. B. “Water Rights in the Uplands: Policy and Practice.” Master in Public Affairs field study report. University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, 2009. Bromley, D. W. Environment and Economy: Property Rights and Public Policy. Cambridge, MA, USA: Basil Blackwell, 1991. Catacutan pers com, 2007.

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Catacutan, D. C., C. E. Duque, D. P. Garrity, and F. S. Mirasol. The Preventive Systems Approach to Protected Area Management: The Case of Mt. Kitanglad Range Natural Park, Bukidnon, Philippines. Laurel, Batangas, Philippines International Center for Research in Agroforestry and the Integrated Protected Areas System for Mt. Kitanglad, 2001. Deutsch, W. G., A. L. Busby, J. L. Oprecio, J. P. Bago-Labis, and E. Y. Cequiña. “Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: From Data Collection to Sustainable Management of Water Resources.” In Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Natural Resource Management in a Philippine Watershed, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Buenavista, 138-160. Los Baños: Philippine Council on Agricultural Research, Natural Resources and Development, 2001b. Felix, Rocel. “Mindanao Veggie Farmers Target Asian Markets.” The Philippine Star, December 16, 2003. Malayang, B.S. “A Model of Water Governance in the Philippines.” In Winning the Water War: Watersheds, Water Policies and Water Institutions, edited by A. Rola, H. Francisco and J. Liguton, 59-84. Makati City: Philippine Institute for Development Studies, 2004. Knox, A. and R. Meinzen-Dick. “Collective Action, Property Rights and Devolution of Natural Resource Management: Exchange of Knowledge and Implications for Policy.” CAPRi Working Paper No. 11. Washington, DC, USA: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2000. Neef, A., L. Chamsai, and C. Sangkapitux. “Water Tenure in Highland Watersheds of Northern Thailand: Managing Legal Pluralism and Stakeholder Complexity.” In Institutional Dynamics and Statis: How Crises Alter the Way Common Pool Resources are Perceived, edited by L. Lebel, X. Jianchu, and A. Contreras, 6488. Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand: Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, 2006. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. “Sustainable Communities.” United Kingdom, 2003. Accessed May 3, 2009. http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/ communities/pdf/146289.pdf. Tabien, C.O. “Local Government Response to the Potential Environmental Impacts of Commercial Farms on the Water Resources of Lantapan, Bukidnon.” Master of Management (Development Management) field study report. University of the Philippines Los Baños, College, Laguna, 2000. Williamson, O. “The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking Ahead.” Journal of Economic Literature XXXVIII (2000): 595-613.

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Conclusions, Recommendations, and Lessons Learned

SUMMARY In this book, the sources and consequences of tensions between economic growth and agricultural commercialization, and the evolution of institutions and policies for the management of agricultural resources in the environmentally fragile upland community in the Philippines were explored. The historical, institutional, and economic context of upland farming were considered; and with almost a decade of data from farm households in a Philippine upland community, the drivers of the recent evolution of economic behavior and institutional arrangements in upland and forest margin areas were investigated. Three periods or stages of economic development were assumed: the prehistoric or subsistence economy, the early development period, and the late development period. Across the periods, the relationship between the use of resources and the influence of the institutions was studied. The approach that was used was a study of a single community for about a decade; the reason for this, as earlier mentioned, is that aggregate data cannot tell the whole story. Though Asia’s uplands share many features and undergo many common experiences, each place and experience is uniquely fashioned by the particulars of time, place, and context. Should one want to understand not just the big picture but

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also the details of how decisions are made—by the millions of individuals who make them—and why, one needs to match aggregate and quantitative studies with the kinds of evidence and personal testimony that reveal the considered interplay of motives, constraints, and choices that make up each individual decision. While this case study, by itself, cannot expect to produce fully generalizable findings, it could help broaden the understanding of the roles of institutions in attaining sustainable upland communities. Other upland communities that are now in the process of agricultural intensification can gain valuable insight from this study. The data set employed is unique: it is the only time series of farm and householdlevel data characterizing upland development in the Philippines; moreover, the data bracket a decade during which significant global economic and local institutional transformations took place. Plot, household, and community level data were generated to provide the empirical support to the interactions between and among environment, governance, and the economy and how these may have affected agriculture household decision making. In this book, discussion of decentralization was confined to the governing authority at the municipality level. Globalization effects were determined by analyzing the influence of prices and wages on household resource allocation decisions. An Upland Community in Transition The study community transformation was mainly and simultaneously driven by economic policy (globalization), governance change (devolution), and the impact of climate aberration, all of which occurred about the same time during 1996-1998. The current local policies and traditional institutional arrangements, especially to avert the effects of intensive agriculture, were not quick enough to adjust to these shocks. These led to observable environmental deterioration. Due to favorable relative prices, agricultural intensification in the uplands was witnessed. This involved the shift from the staple white corn and coffee to more profitable vegetables and yellow corn that were produced in short duration, and using high chemical inputs. In the later part of the study decade, land use shifted from the annual corn crop to bananas, brought about by the establishment of two banana plantations in early 2000 in the town. Lantapan is zoned as an agribusiness area within the province, and local government under the decentralization law had the power to extend incentives to external investors.

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The introduction of banana plantations was a major driver of land use change in the study site. Farmers with land tenure security and whose lands at the time were mortgaged to the local bank rented out their lands; in exchange, the plantation paid off their mortgage during 1997-1998, when most harvest was destroyed by the drought. Wage in plantation was higher than the current prevailing non-farm wage, and family members of those who rented out were prioritized in the plantation jobs. Eventually, these families realized that plantation work was seasonal and the worker has to be skilled; the needed skills were not automatically present among the farm family members. During the evaluation survey in 2002, it was found that some households who rented out were worse off than the landless workers and those who did not rent out their farms. Incidence of hunger was more intense during the later part of the study period, and there were beggars in the more populous town proper. This was not the case in 1994. Environmental Degradation and the Role of Property Rights Despite the relative progress of this community, environmental degradation was seen to hamper its growth. Earlier during the study period, river siltation was found; this was correlated highly with the open-space cultivation of annual crops (Deutsch and Oprecio 2005) and the infrastructure development activities (Paningbatan 2005). The establishment of commercial-scale piggery and poultry also contributed to water quality degradation. This surface water pollution affected the poorer members of the community, the ones using this water source for cooking, washing clothes, and drinking, and as a source of food (Rola and Tabien 1999). Water scarcity became more intense and resulted in conflicts when the banana plantation in the area diverted water in a dam for the plantation use. With this increasing competition, the issue of water rights in the uplands has never been as important as now. Conflicts occur because of the weaknesses in the institutional mechanisms conferring water rights, and the lack of its presence in the uplands. Evolution of Environmental Governance From the decade-long data, it was clear that the economic developmentenvironment tension in this community in transition is real. Decentralization did not seem to offer an easy solution. It was observed that despite the existing laws and rules, most local officials did not play a significant role in upland resource management;

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and the local government did not possess the requisite technical or managerial skills required to assume the devolved functions. Additionally, while decentralization has been considered a major breakthrough in Philippine legislature, the lack of clear guidelines caused some local-national, as well as inter-agency tension, because of unclear, limited, and often overlapping mandates. In the pre-development period, when customary rules prevailed, sustainability was maintained. In the early development period, as the economy progressed and population growth intensified, allocation of resources was mostly dictated by economic instruments, such as prices and wages. National policies influenced these decisions, as the findings revealed. In this late development period, where decentralization is the mode of governance, the local government’s role in safeguarding the economy and the environment becomes significant. In the study town, the collaboration of state with non-state actors in forest, watershed, and soil management is in its early stages. Multistakeholder cooperation and collaboration, i.e., interplay amongst the different actors in the development process, could be a magic formula in minimizing tensions between economy and the environment in this upland community in transition. CONCLUSIONS Given the insights from the study site, it is concluded that institutions can play a major role in attaining sustainable upland communities. Decentralization paradigm in its present form may not be the absolute answer to sustainable upland management in an era of globalization. There are tensions that need to be managed, and more innovative ways of resource governance will bring this community, and other similar communities, to a more sustainable development path. Agricultural externalities abound. Soil conservation measures are being practiced, but during the project duration, these were not very significant to reverse the degradation that was taking place. There must be some incentives for farmers to undertake timber plantations, especially since the market is so uncertain. In addition, the commercial banana, vegetables, and sugarcane are chemical-based; such inputs, if not properly regulated, can cause environmental and health hazards. Due to chemical use, the scarcity in water supply from the declining stream flow was not only because of competing demands, but also due to the pollution of the surface water from plantation agriculture, as perceived by residents. ”Globalization” or increasing integration with the world economy is seen to shift land use to more intensive agriculture. Without the related domestic policy

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reforms and governance of these resources, environmental degradation will occur, as reflected in the previous chapters. An enabling policy context and supportive institutions are preconditions for sustainable agricultural development and natural resource management under the globalization era. The policy context includes direct environmental measures, but experience demonstrates that economic policies apparently unrelated to environmental phenomena can have far-reaching, though indirect, environmental consequences. Coordination among national-level agencies is also essential to prevent environmental and economic policies from cancelling each other’s effects. These include, at national level, forums in which interagency coordination can occur; at local level, the definition of property rights in land and resources, unambiguous mandates for local government and community action, and less tangibly, “social capital” providing a basis for actions aimed at the common good. At the level of individual resource managers, particularly farmers in Lantapan, the forces unleashed by overall economic growth and the changes associated with globalization and decentralization are very likely to dominate the effects of any direct environmental policy or program. In other words, environmental policies and programs alone cannot hope to succeed in their goals without enabling institutions and complementary non-environmental policies. RECOMMENDATIONS The following are several recommendations that could help bring this community and other similar communities to a “stable” or sustainable state: 1. Enhance effectiveness of market-based instruments and institutions for sustainable resource use Price, wages, and interest rates are some of the market-based instruments that can sway farmers’ behavior towards sustainable resource use. To encourage the planting of perennials, favorable prices of trees may need to be assured. Wages can also be an instrument of sustainability. High non-farm wages can take labor out of agriculture and could then influence the planting of perennials. High non-farm wages can lead to high farm wages in the long term, as the agriculture market competes for this resource.

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Low interest rates can also be given as a premium to farmers practicing soil conservation measures or other sustainable practices. Short- term loans can make farmers vulnerable to weather patterns and economic conditions. Credit should be accessible and perhaps payable in a more long-term basis. Furthermore, for scale efficiency, there may be a need to organize farmers to pursue group credit or devise arrangements for a “plantation-managed” upland agriculture. As a complement measure, marketing cooperatives will be a good strategy if farmers seek urban markets and formal establishments. 2. Promote sustainability through clear property rights assignments Those who would like to have access to upland resources should secure the following instruments: the ECC that is issued by the national DENR; the FPIC that is issued by the NCIP; and the permits or titles from the resourcespecific agencies (i.e., the NWRB for water, the FMB for forest resource use, and the DAR for A and D lands) for specific resource use. The successful projects are those that can obtain permits both in support of the state and the customary rules. There are instances that development projects can be pursued because the proponents cater to both the ECC and the FPIC. With the latter, mutual trust is much needed for agreements to take place. But the transactions costs are high. To resolve this, the provisions of such laws have to be examined and revised should there be conflicts. The DENR and the NCIP, together with the other agencies, will have to examine their instruments for consistency. The rise of private property rights during the late development period made the upland farmer and/or big corporation an important decision-maker in upland land use. Security of tenure can either be environmentally degrading, as when the land is rented out for very exploitative activity, or conserving, with tenured farmers practicing sustainable agriculture technologies. On the other hand, a land title can also make the farmer an effective resource manager. These young farmers need supportive agricultural extension services to train them on sustainable agriculture, such as nutrient and pest management. In other words, support services that can improve farmers’ knowledge on sustainable farm management should accompany security of tenure. The involvement of local communities in resource management and promoting sustainable practices should be solicited. Community groups

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could be deputized as guardians; they should have strong community property rights to be such. Protected area management projects were successful when locals were deputized as guardians. The State can indeed work with communities in managing resources if instruments are in place and mutual trust is recognized. In terms of water, conflicts occur because of the weaknesses in the institutions conferring water rights. The national regulatory body is located far from these water sources to be able to validate claims, monitor use, and measure the extent of societal costs due to the issuance of permits. Locallevel regulatory agencies may be more effective in monitoring the actual water extraction, as stipulated in the water permit. 3. Provide enabling mechanisms for environmental governance This can be done in three–fold manner: 1)

Building capacities for upland resource management Local administrators have specialized knowledge of environmental and economic conditions; therefore, they should also have the ability to fine-tune policy. However, there is a need to assess the capacity needs of these local administrators to forge partnerships with central governments, other local governments sharing a watershed, and other entities like NGOs. Provision of technical expertise to local officials by agencies of the central government will also be a welcome effort. The successful acquisition of capacity and information at the local level takes more than simple availability; it also requires incentives on the part of the local government or community. Environmental awareness breeds a demand for knowledge, methods, and policy support.

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Establishing local data bases for environmental planning, management and policy One advantage of this long-term study is that it was able to generate a longer data base for use in measuring sustainability indicators. Local governments need to invest in the database collection, as well as strengthen capacities of municipal officials to analyze economic and

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environmental outcomes. This information can then guide the policy maker for both its development and regulatory functions. 3)

Developing capacities for environmental regulatory function of local governments Certain sanctions must be in place to sway behavior of both corporate entities planting plantation crops and small farmers who, collectively, also pollute the environment. The LGU can strengthen its regulatory role in the stewardship of soil and water quality through use of economic instruments, such as user fees. The regulatory roles of the LGU will be a new initiative, and the challenges include developing capacities and evolving an administrative set-up. In all of these recommendations, an important issue is to define a strategy that can balance the benefits of upland agricultural growth and the environmental costs it brings. Additional studies on the environmental implications of livestock-income sourcing, plantation agriculture in the fragile uplands, and other non-farm employment will be interesting, to say the least. The future role of the local government is critical, as it regulates the economic progress taking place in the upland communities.

A RESEACHER’S PERSPECTIVE This story of an upland community in transition was chronicled through the aegis of the USAID-sponsored project, SANREM CRSP SEA. It started its field operation in the Philippines in 1994, and 2009 will be the last year of its third phase of implementation. It had four cornerstones or research design principles (Coxhead and Buenavista 2001): a landscape approach, interdisciplinarity, inter-institutional collaboration and participation. In its inception paper, it was also recognized that “no single model exists for the successful conduct of the integrated, multidisciplinary research and development efforts that the SANREM program would require. The grant program should be designed so that maximum reliance is placed on the ingenuity of the researchers who will do the work” (NRC 1991:5, as cited in Coxhead and Buenavista 2001). This “lack of blueprint” set the pace for a more process-oriented innovative

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work, long range, and with multiple actors (Northern scientists, Southern scientists, national officials, local officials, indigenous communities, men and women farmers, and so on) having one goal in mind: to attain sustainability in upland communities amidst economic and political development. Looking back after about 15 years since the SANREM CRSP SEA first operated in the Philippines, valuable lessons can be learned. Trans-disciplinary Approach in Action Before trans-disciplinary research (TR) as a platform became in vogue, SANREM CRSP SEA, in retrospect, was a model of practice. TR makes possible the collaboration among the scientific and other scholarly work, with that of practice. One common application of the TR is the science-policy interface. In other words, TR complements applied research in problem fields characterized by complexity and uncertainty (Hirsch-Hadom et al. 2008), as in SANREM CRSP SEA research. SANREM CRSP SEA utilized a landscape ecology approach to the study of sustainable agriculture and natural resource management in the tropics. In its inception document, SANREM’ s approach was described as follows: “We use the term landscape to indicate the appropriate scale of our approach which emphasizes interactions between ecosystems. The landscape is a mosaic of interacting ecosystems with both commonalities such as soils, climate, and natural vegetation; and uniqueness, such as biodiversity, land use patterns, and socio-economic structure. The landscape is a niche with the human being as the inhabitants, and, more significantly, as manipulators of the component ecosystems. In this way, these end-users become the lifescape that is superimposed onto the landscape. By definition, agricultural sustainability requires recognition of not only the complex array of interactive processes ongoing within the ecosystem, but also of the interactions among ecosystems on a landscape scale…. Additional requirements of this approach include integrating scientific disciplines more fully than the traditional agricultural, ecological and the social science approaches, and inclusion and integration of service groups, such as private voluntary organizations, into the research process” (SANREM CRSP 1992:1 as cited in Coxhead and Buenavista 2001).

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What were some of the lessons learned from this approach? There was the involvement of the community members including the governance sector in the research process, not just as recipients but also as active partners. Having community members report to the local executives, who are also cognizant of the project results, made the follow-up action more prompt. It was also recognized that this approach facilitated the translation of research language into the ordinary language that local leaders and farmers were able to understand. As such, researchers were on their toes to not only make their work rigorous but also relevant to the needs of the community. Researchers were aware of the annual reporting to the local community members, who understood the issues being studied, i.e., water pollution and its causes and consequences, soil erosion, and its causes and consequences. Beyond Farmer Participation In the traditional agricultural development research, farmers were the primary beneficiaries, not even treated as partners. In this SANREM CRSP SEA research, the research team was made accountable to the farmers by undergoing a process. Before the start of the project implementation, the proposals of the team were presented to the community leaders for assessment of relevance. Community leaders commented on the said proposals and even suggested on the more problematic concerns, such as bacterial wilt. There was an annual event where the community would learn about the progress of the research. It was not difficult to generate monitoring data from farm households because of the information freely flowing from the research team. The partners felt that they were part of the project, even anticipating the socio-economics team’s twice-a-year return and being friends with the on-site research assistant, also a native of the town. Over and above the technological issues as subject of research, the lifescape was certainly a focus of the study. Aside from households, there were at least three groups who dealt with development activities for natural resource management: the formation of the water watch group; the grassroots empowerment through the ATSAL; and Landcare, who promoted soil conservation techniques through farmer groups. These different models were attempts to engage the local community to monitor and manage water and soil resources. The groups also explored opportunities for offering their services outside of the municipality.

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However, sustainability was still a concern, and some groups folded up after the project. Thus, future research work can identify the factors to sustain these various natural resources management groups. Partnerships for Governance One of the unique features of the SANREM project was the formal way of engaging the local government officials in the project activities. The mayor, chair of the environment committee of the municipal legislative body, municipal planning and development officer, and provincial planning and development officer were all part of the project staff. In this arrangement, the mayor had a clear understanding of the purposes of the project. The local government officials were also amenable to the research recommendations. If feasible, immediate actions were taken to address these. For instance, deteriorating water quality indicators were presented to the mayor, who immediately convened the LWMC to take care of this problem. Early in the project, the local officials were also very cooperative in the design of the NRMP, as stipulated in the LGC. Their plan became a model for other nearby communities. The secret of this successful research alliance with the local government was the “trust and confidence” that linked the local communities and the research group. The research team made great effort to integrate itself to the community, and to partake of the local customs, as expected of strangers coming to the place. There was also a strategic choice of local partners—leaders and credible community members—who wielded power. The researchers needed the “stroke of the pen” of the mayor, for instance, to get through to the ultimate beneficiaries: the farmers. Once the local government became comfortable with the set-up, the partnership flourished. Some of the accomplishments of the project due to the partnership with the local government were the assistance in the drafting of the municipal ordinances for the adoption of soil conservation measures, banning of the pesticide aerial spray in the banana plantation, and design of the CLUP. SANREM research data were also used in the preparation of the WMP, earlier known as the NRMP. Local Policy Analysis Capacity Building Hand in hand with the research and development partnership with the various sectors of the community was the conduct of the local capacity building not just for

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agricultural technologies information and natural resources management, but also for policy analysis for environmental management. This was actually the beauty of this project, “its lack of a blueprint” made it possible for the researchers to conduct activities which were felt important to put added value to the legitimate activities, and thus make the project more effective. One of the limitations identified early on was the lack of local capacities for environmental management, not just at the town level but also at the provincial level. There was also lack of information on the various national policies that can be used at the local level to manage water and soil. One of these policies was the Water Code of the Philippines, introduced to the province and the town by project staff. This was an important piece of policy information for the local policy-making body that can help them decide on the land area to commit for agribusiness purposes. Likewise, knowledge about the provisions of the Code would help the local government advise the national regulatory agency on the limits of water permits to issue for the extraction of Bukidnon’s water resources. Both provincial and municipal governments’ elective and appointed officials were trained on policy analysis for environmental management. The knowledge from the training was important for their subsequent policy-making efforts for environmental management. What remains as an issue was that trained elective officials retired or were not re-elected. Therefore, a continuous training may be needed, and to be preferably conducted by the Local Government Academy (LGA) of the Philippines’ Department of Interior and Local Government. Research on sustainable communities should have a long term perspective Aside from its lack of blueprint, the long-term nature of the SANREM CRSP SEA has allowed researchers to quantify impact of the introduced natural resource management strategies. Now, with confidence, one can say that indeed soil conservation has maintained soil quality, and farmers who practiced soil conservation had lower use of inorganic fertilizer (Rola et al. 2009), a goal of sustainable agriculture programs. This result would not have been arrived at with confidence in a short-term research scenario. This supports the fact that sustainability impacts are generally imperceptible in the short term. In addition, research on organizations and their behavior would also need a long-term perspective. A design for a cost-effective, long-term research will be a welcome recommendation.

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REFERENCES Coxhead, I. and G. Buenavista. Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Natural Resource Management in a Philippine Watershed. Los Baños: Philippine Council on Agricultural Research, Natural Resources and Development, 2001. Deutsch, W. G. and J. L. Oprecio. “Water Quality Changes in the Manupali River Watershed: Evidence from a Community-based Water Monitoring Project.” In Land Use Change in Tropical Watersheds: Evidence, Causes and Remedies, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Shively, 37-57. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, 2005. Hirsch Hadom, G., H. Hoffmann-Riem, S. Biber-Klemm, W. Grossenbacher-Mansuy, D. Joye, C. Pohl, U. Wiesmann, and E. Zemp, eds. Handbook of Transdisciplinary Research. Switzerland: Springer, 2008. Accessed June 4, 2009. http://www.springer.com/ environment/book/978-1-4020-6698-6?cm_mmc=Google-_-Book%20Search-_Springer-_-0. Paningbatan, E. “Identifying Soil Erosion Strategies in Manupali River Watershed.” In Land Use Change in Tropical Watersheds: Evidence, Costs and Remedies, edited by I. Coxhead and G. Shively, 126-132. Cambridge, MA, USA: CABI Publishing, 2005. Rola, A. C. and C. O. Tabien. “Saving a River: Why Do Local Governments Matter?” Journal of Environmental Science and Management, Vol. 4 Nos. 1-2 (2001): 5767 Rola, A. C., A. J. U. Sajise, D. S. Harder, and J. M. Alpuerto. “Agricultural Growth and Environmental Externalities in the Philippines.” Paper presented at the Western Economic Association International Pacific Rim Conference, Kyoto, Japan, March 24-27, 2009.

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Epilogue: Lantapan, circa 2010

Is Lantapan treading the path to sustainability? A glimpse at the 2010 data showed that economic growth is still triggered by agriculture, such as expanded yellow corn and vegetable lands. Farmer cooperatives now produce high valued vegetables which they themselves market to institutional buyers. As members of the Landcare group, these farmers use land-conserving technologies. While it is observed that water pollution may not have subsided, this could be due to factors other than the total suspended solids that the project had documented earlier. The planting of trees along the river banks as initiated by the local government, the agroforestry farms, and the adoption of the natural vegetative strips have certainly reduced soil erosion and sedimentation from agriculture. Most of the water pollution was perceived to be due to population increase and agro-industries. What has the local government done to balance the tension between economic growth and environmental integrity? For one, some current high-level municipal government officials were previously trained in policy analysis and are aware of the goals of SANREM CRSP SEA. It is because of this awareness, that they have been particularly receptive of current research undertakings by the other outfits, such as Trees in Multi use Landscape in Southeast Asia (TULSEA). Lantapan was the pilot area of the research where five tools were tested: Participatory Landscape Approach

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(PLA), Rapid Tenure Appraisal (RTA), Rapid Market Appraisal (RMA), Rapid Carbon Stock Appraisal (RACSA), Rapid Biodiversity Appraisal (RABA), and Rapid Hydrological Appraisal (RHA). The abundance of data from these research projects and the political will of the officials currently in power can surely place Lantapan in its sustainable development pathway. Beyond Lantapan municipality, it was also observed that the PAMB, together with the Council of Elders of the IPs, is still very much active in policing the resource use in the buffer zones around Mt. Kitanglad. Many programs are being pursued so that the forest will not be encroached upon. Indeed, sustainable communities will need to grow, not just in the economic and environmental sense but especially in the political and cultural sense. Lantapan is still in the process of growing up—an upland community in transition.

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About the Author

Agnes Casiple-Rola is Professor at the Institute of Strategic Planning and Policy Studies and Dean of the College of Public Affairs at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). She currently holds a UP Science Productivity Award as UP Scientist II and teaches policy analysis and quantitative methods courses. She has written vastly on the economics, institutional, and policy aspects of sustainable agriculture. She has served as member of board of trustees of international and national agencies; editor, member of the editorial board, and journal reviewer for several journals locally and abroad; and member of a number of professional societies. She has also acted as consultant to various international and national agencies. Her recent international stints include being one of the lead authors and chapter reviewers of the global Millennium Ecosystems Assessment (MEA) report and the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). She was one of the Principal Investigators of SANREM CRSP SEA Phases I and II from 1994 to 2004, and project personnel of Phase III that began in 2006. That year was also the start of her long-term involvement with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) of Columbia University, USA, in a project about climate risk management. She earned her PhD degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, MS degree also in Agricultural Economics from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, and Bachelor of Science degree in Statistics from the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is also an alumna of the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) of the University of California-Berkeley. She lives in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines with her husband, Walfredo R. Rola, PhD, and their four children: Aileen Roselle, Wilbert Allan, Armand Christopher, and Alyssa Marie. In 2008, she became grandmother to a beautiful baby boy, Andrei Martin Nevado- Rola.

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