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Co-management of renewable natural resource on a coastal
zone
Background
Rural communities in the Philippines are faced with problems related to the
use of their natural resources. Over time, resources have become scarcer while
the number of resource-dependent people and sectors increased. Conflicts have
grown among these stakeholders who want to have a share in the benefits. These
stakeholders are often at loggerheads with each other on issues such as how, how
much, what and when to use the natural resources and who should have access to
them.
The Palawan case study addressed this problem and designed various approaches
to enable the discussion about proper management of natural resources and to
create arrangements for the fair enjoyment of the resources available to the
different stakeholders.
About the Palawan site
In Palawan, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is one
of the prominent government agencies. The project site is under the political
jurisdiction of three Barangays (villages), i.e.: San Rafael, Tanabag and
Concepcion. The area consists of a mosaic of varying landscapes from the coast
at one side and forested mountains at the other, with settlement and
agricultural areas in between.
About 5,000 ha of forest are being managed by the community under the
community based forest management (CBFM) agreement. CBFM, a socially oriented
forest management program, forms the cornerstone of the national forest policy
in the Philippines. It involves the transfer of management responsibilities of
forest areas to organized local communities. The program is adopted by the
government as the national strategy for sustainable forest development and
social equity.
Figure 1: location of Palawan
The stakeholders in Palawan are the following groups:
- Batak people (indigenous people)
- Local communities (migrants)
- Local government units
- Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR)
- Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD)
- Other governmental organizations
- Non-governmental organizations
The Batak people are a marginalized minority group, who greatly rely on the
natural resources for their livelihood. They have a strong sense of ownership on
their traditional lands, and have developed a complex relationship with the
migrants settling on the coast in terms of power, dependency and business.
For the migrants who are mostly located in the lowlands of the Barangays,
their major sources of income are fishing and farming. The bulk of the family
income is derived from fishing. Very little income is derived from handicrafts
and processing of minor forest products. Community forestry activities were at
one time a major source of income for the communities when governmental funding
was available. Commercial logging existed in the past. The last was conducted by
a concessionaire in 1985.
The management of the CBFMA site is being undertaken by a cooperative named
San Rafael Tanabag Concepcion Multipurpose Cooperative (STCMPC). This is a
cooperative registered with the Cooperative Development Authority of the
Philippines. Its membership, which consists of cooperators, comes from the three
villages.
Challenge
Numerous governmental and non-governmental agencies have provided assistance
aimed at improving the socio-economic condition of the communities, and
improving the conditions of natural resources through proper management and
protection of those resources.
Yet, the challenge was far from being met as the community was still
grappling with the various processes that they had to undergo to become
effective in their new roles as forest managers. The same developments were
occurring in the lowland and the coastal areas as the same CBFM principles were
being applied in these resources.
The role of LPF was to facilitate the communities to obtain technical and/or
financial support from different institutions and agencies by entering into
contracts or agreements with those institutions.
To summarize, the context where this LPF study worked in Palawan was
characterized by:
- The local people were given rights and access to natural resource
through various tenurial arrangements;
- The stakeholders grappled with the various processes to be effective in
implementing their different rules and performing their responsibilities;
and
- Mechanisms and tools to improve the relationship among the stakeholders,
the livelihoods of the community and the management of natural resources
were made available.
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