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PAST AND PRESENT FORESTRY SUPPORT

PROGRAMS IN THE PHILIPPINES, AND
LESSONS FOR THE FUTURE1
Steve R. Harrison, Nick F. Emtage and Bert E. Nasayao

A variety of government programs have been implemented to support smallholder forestry

for production and conservation purposes in the Philippines. This paper briefly outlines the
arrangements of the past and current programs, notes how they have evolved over time, and
provides some comments on their performance. Over about 30 years, as weaknesses have
been identified in programs, the program designs have been modified. For most of this time,
there has been an increasing emphasis on community involvement as distinct from industrial
or individual farmer forestry. However, some of the intractable constraints on community
planting have led to recent interest in individual property rights.

INTRODUCTION

Much has been written about the severe deforestation which has taken place in the
Philippines, particularly since World War 2, and of the dire need for reforestation for welfare
and livelihood purposes (Kummer and Sham 1994, Pulhin 1998, Utting 2000, Guiang 2001,
UNFAO and FMBDENR 2003). Large areas of forest were felled under timber license
agreements in earlier years, and more recently kaingin farming (shifting cultivation) and
illegal logging have taken place on remnant and logged over areas. While the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and smallholder communities attempt to
control illegal logging, this remains a difficult challenge, and in insurgency areas the
government has limited control over forest exploitation.

In order to replace lost trees, protect watersheds, produce timber and non-wood forest
products, and gain community involvement in protection of forests, a number of forestry
assistance programs have been introduced by the Philippines government, drawing on
financial assistance from domestic and foreign governments and non-government
organisations (NGOs). The number of programs which have been instituted is surprisingly
large, and program arrangements many and varied. One of the objectives of the Australian
Centre for International Research (ACIAR) Smallholder Forestry Project has been to review
the past programs and the lessons they provide.

The objective of this paper is to examine what forestry support measures have been the
most effective, and hence what lessons can be learned for future programs. The paper first
reviews details of the various programs which have been introduced in the past. The scope
is limited to government administered and mainly national programs for smallholders, and
does not cover industrial forestry nor the many smaller programs supported primarily by
NGOs and other private agents. The Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) and
Community-Based Resource Management (CBRM) programs are then examined in more
detail. Next, a synthesis is made of the reported experiences and some personal
observations, of the strengths and weaknesses of the various programs. Concluding
comments follow.

1
This paper was published in Small-scale Forest Economics, Management and Policy, 3(3): 303-317.

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 Past and Present Forestry Support Programs in the Philippines

BACKGROUND TO FORESTRY SUPPORT PROGRAMS

Concern arose in the 1960s and 1970s over rapid deforestation of the Philippine uplands. As
noted by Gerrits (1996), the government and urban population place much of the blame on
squatters or slash and burn cultivators or kaingineros. The Revised Forestry Code legislation
in 1975 strengthened state control over native forests and remains the basis of current
forestry regulations. The government claimed all lands with a slope of 18% or more,
including mountainous land over 600 m in altitude, as public domain under the control of the
Forest Management Bureau of the DENR (Gerrits 1996).

Reforestation2 in the Philippines has been promoted by a number of laws and support
programs. Notable among the laws have been (PCARR 1982, p. 4):

1. PD (Presidential Decree) 705, requiring timber licensees to undertake reforestation

on their concessions;
2. LOI (Letter of Instruction) 423, directing active cooperation and participation of
government agencies in government reforestation programs3;
3. PD 1153, requiring every citizen 10 years of age or above to plant one tree every
month for five consecutive years;
4. Memo. Circular 985, requiring local governments to establish and maintain seedling
nurseries.

These laws were relatively widely implemented but were later repealed or amended to keep
up with demands of the times and with technological advances.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has the responsibility of
managing all the forestlands in the Philippines, or about 16m ha (Bisson and Wijangco
1997). As noted by these authors (p. 1), the DENR has achieved this through a variety of
schemes, including

• awarding forestlands to the private sector in the form of leases and agreements, e.g.
timber license agreements (TLAs), pasture lease agreements (PLAs), and industrial
forest management agreements;
• declaring forestlands as civil or military reservations;
• proclaiming particular forestlands as protected area systems, watershed reservations
or special use zones;
• allocating forestlands as communal forests;
• awarding forestlands to individuals, families and local communities who are found to
be qualified to receive long-term stewardships and agreements; and
• recognising claims of indigenous people to ancestral domains.

EARLIER FORESTRY SUPPORT PROGRAMS

Reforestation programs have been introduced in the Philippines since the early 1970s. The
Kaingin Management and Land Settlement Regulation was introduced under Administrative
Order No. 62, in 1971, with an aim to integrate kaingineros into the government forest
conservation programs and prevent further encroachment of shifting cultivation into
forestlands. Introduced about 1974, the Forest Occupancy Management Program further
aimed at settling kaingineros and stabilising their farming systems as well as improving their
2
PCARR (1982, p.1) made a distinction between establishing forests on areas not previously forested
(aforestation) and on areas ‘recently cleared of forest or with insufficient vegetative or forest cover’
(reforestation). Both will be referred to as reforestation here.
3
LOI 423 also set up one of the support programs, viz. the Program for Forest Ecosystem
Management.

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 ACIAR Smallholder Forestry Project

socioeconomic condition. There was an amnesty from prosecutions, and permits were given
to occupy up to 7 ha of land for a period of two years, renewable for another two years
(Gerrits 1996).

The Family Approach to Reforestation (FAR) program, which was also part of the Program
for Forest Ecosystem Management I (PROFEM 1), was introduced in 1979. It was modified
in 1989 under the contract reforestation scheme. This program was designed as a cost-
effective means of accelerating reforestation on denuded areas by participation of local
families. The Forest Management Bureau entered into 2-3 year contacts with families to
establish trees on public lands, with a maximum area of 5 ha. Financial support and training
were provided but not equity in the trees, with the participants expected to move to new sites
after completing the establishment.

The Communal Tree Farming Program or Citizen Tree Planting Program, was introduced in
1979 (Gerrits 1996). This was designed to establish tree farms or plantations on open or
denuded public forestlands and idle private lands, and make upland farmers and
communities the protectors of forestlands. Maximum land areas ranged from two to 20 ha.
Families were provided with a one-year provisional title, which could be converted to a 25-
year title, renewable for another 25 years, if performance of the participant was satisfactory.

PROGRAMS OF THE 1980s AND 1990s

The early reforestation programs provided experience for improved program design. In the late
1980s, there was a major shift from reforestation strategies conducted by the administration to
contracting schemes (Groetschel et al. 2001, p. 61).

The National Forestation Program (NFP)

The NFP, which ran from 1986 to 2000, provided a broad policy framework towards
sustained and comprehensive efforts to rehabilitate and conserve the country’s forest
resources. The program was supported by loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB),
and the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF) of Japan, and a five-year Forest
Sector Program (FSP) was undertaken over 1988-92 to accelerate reforestation, repair
environmental degradation from past logging and strengthen policies and institutions
concerned with forest resources. The NFP had three main components, namely Contract
Reforestation, Watershed Rehabilitation and Timber Stand Improvement. Sy (1998, p. 9) has
noted that this program undertook ‘reforestation of open and degraded areas and
rehabilitation of critical watersheds. Rehabilitation work includes construction of silt retention
dams, groins, spurs and retaining walls to stabilise streambanks; plugging of gullies with
brushwood and stones; and plantation establishment’.

In the first of these programs, contracts were awarded to corporations, communities and
families. Communities were paid by DENR for three years for the establishment of tree and
rattan plantations, the government providing a subsidy of 20,000 pesos/ha4. Financial
support was obtained through by an ADB loan. The intention was to turn the forests over to
the DENR after three years, but this gave rise to concern over management costs by DENR.
Subsequently, the land was allocated under Forestland Management Agreements (FLMAs).
The FAR program was modified under the contract reforestation scheme.

Low Income Upland Communities Project (LIUCP)

This project was implemented by the DENR to restore and sustainably manage upland forest
resources and alleviate rural poverty. About 15,000 ha in eight major watersheds were

4
$US1.00 = approximately 50 Philippine pesos (PhP).

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 Past and Present Forestry Support Programs in the Philippines

treated through contract reforestation, to the benefit of about 7000 tribal and lowland migrant
families.

Coastal Environment Program (CEP)

This program commenced in 1993, with a focus on habitat and ecological support systems of
coastal communities and fisheries, and ‘specifically their productivity, biodiversity, integrity,
sustainability and equitability of access and use’ (Sy 1998, p. 9).

The Community Forestry Program (CFP)

This program operated over the period 1989 to 1999, with funds from ADB and the US
Agency for International Development (USAID). It aimed to provide upland residents with an
alternative source of livelihood to shifting cultivation. The communities formed People’s
Organisations (POs), and obtained a Community Forest Management Agreement (CFMA)
issued for a 25-year term, renewable for another 25 years. They were allowed to utilise and
sell products from within the residual forest, and establish plantations.

The Integrated Social Forestry Program (ISFP)

This national program commenced in 1982, as a major initiative in upland development,

designed to maximise land productivity, enhance ecological stability and improve
socioeconomic conditions of forest occupants and communities. The ISFP ‘was launched to
consolidate all previous people oriented programmes’ (Groetschel et al. 2001, p. 61), and
was to be the major support program for people-oriented forestry. For example, in the
Master Plan for Forestry Development, the DENR (1990, p. 116) projected an expenditure in
year 2005 of 1371m pesos for the ISFP. It covered communities in open and deforested
upland areas, and also mangrove areas. As noted by Gerrits (1996), ISFP offered two forms
of stewardship arrangement to upland communities. These were the Certificate of
Stewardship Contract (CSC) for households and the Certificate of Community Forestry
Stewardship (CCFS) for community organisations, the latter being originally known as the
Community Forestry Stewardship Agreement (CFSA). These agreements were issued for a
25-year term, renewable for another 25 years. The program required the retention or
establishment of 20% of the area awarded as permanent forest cover and planting of fruit
trees and crops and installing soil and water conservation measures. With devolution in the
Philippines, responsibility for ISFP was transferred in 1994 from the DENR to local
government units (LGUs), except for one model site in each province. The DENR
subsequently encouraged ISFP sites to integrate with CBFM (Groetschel et al. 2001).

Forestland Management Agreement (FLMA)

During the period 1989 to 19955, FLMAs were provided as sharing agreements between the
government and individuals, communities and corporations, for plantations that were
previously established under the short-term contract reforestation program, on a 25 plus 25
year tenure basis (Groetschel et al. 2001). This allowed family and community contractors to
continue to benefit from the areas they reforested. Lacuna-Richman (2001, p. 168) argued
that ‘[I]n essence, FLMA are 25-year plantation leases’.

Industrial Forest Management Agreement (IFMA)

Industrial Forest Management Agreements were initiated under Department Administrative

Order 60, series of 1993 (FMB 1994), to support timber production when Timber License
Agreements (TLAs) were being phased out. TLA holders could apply to have their license

5
Sy (1998) reported that this program was launched in 1993.

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 ACIAR Smallholder Forestry Project

converted to an IFMA, subject to negotiations on equity shares with the DENR. IFMAs were
‘designed to ensure adequate supply of timber and other forest products for domestic and
export markets on a sustainable basis, while also promoting the well-being of forest-dependent
communities’ (FMB 1994, p. 1). The program was designed to provide a domestic supply of
timber and other forest products from denuded and open forestland. Two variants of the
program were introduced, depending on whether the area contained residual production forest
(IFMA 2) or not (IFMA 1). IFMA were issued to private companies for relatively large areas
(500 to 20,000 ha), under a land lease for growing trees, for 25 years, renewable for another
25 years. An example is that at Babatnon near Tacloban in Leyte Province.

Socialised Industrial Forest Management Agreement (SIFMA)

Introduced in 1994, SIFMA were agreements between the DENR and individuals and single
families for areas of one to 10 ha, and for associations and cooperatives for areas of 11 to
500 ha (DENR c1998). Agreements for a 25-year tenure, renewable for a further 25 years,
covered the development, use and sustainable management of plantation forests, with a
primary objective of producing wood and non-wood forest products. SIFMA holders paid
annual rentals, the amount varying with number of hectares and duration of the instrument
(DENR 1998).

THE MAJOR CURRENT PROGRAMS

Two major national programs were introduced during the last decade, namely the CBFM
program and CBRM program. These are in fact groups of programs rather than single
arrangements.

The Community-Based Forest Management Program

CBFM was established under Executive Order No. 263 promulgated by President Ramos in
July 1995, as a national strategy to ensure the sustainable development of the Philippines’
forest resources. The strategy ‘is the organised efforts of the government to work with
communities in and near public forests aimed to protect, rehabilitate, manage, conserve and
utilise the resources. The CBFM program integrates and unifies all current people-oriented
forestry programs of the government’ (Sy 1998, p. 9). The ISFP now falls within the CBFM
umbrella (DENR c1998). Other programs coordinated within CBFM include the Forest
Occupancy Management Program, FAR, CFP, CEP, FLMA, NFP, FSP, LIUCP and
Recognition of Ancestral Domains (Sy 1998, DENR c1998). Groetschel et al. (2001) noted
20 CBFM projects in Leyte Province and 13 in Southern Leyte. Current Philippine forestry
support programs within the CBFM umbrella are listed in Table 1.

A CBFMA entitles the community legal access to occupy, possess, use and develop an area
of up to more than 1000 ha of forestland and its resources. CBFM participants are expected
to produce food, cash crops, and wood for domestic and industrial uses. Local communities
are organised by Community Organisers (COs) of contracted NGOs into People’s
Organisations to participate in the program. The Community Environment and Natural
Resource Officer (CENRO) validates the application for endorsement with the Regional
Executive Director of DENR.

There were initially three tenurial instruments under CBFM (DENR c1998):

1. CBFMA between DENR and the participating PO, with a duration of 25 years,
renewable for another 25 years, provides tenurial security to develop, use and
manage specific portions of forestlands. It is awarded in place of the various land
tenure instruments, such as FLMA and CFMA.

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 Past and Present Forestry Support Programs in the Philippines

2. Certificate of Stewardship Contract (CSC), is awarded to individuals or families

occupying or tilling portions of forestland, for up to a maximum of 5 ha, and has 25
plus 25 years duration.
3. CADC or Certificate of Ancestral Land Claim (CALC), applies to holders of these
claims who opt to enter a CBFMA covering a forested portion of their claim.

Table 1. Types of community-based forest management programs currently operating in the

Philippines

Program name and commencement date Type of tenure instrument used

Rehabilitation, protection and adoption of Previously Certificates of Stewardship and
agroforestry in occupied public forestlands Communal Forest Stewardship Agreements;
(1982) now under Community-Based Forest
Management Agreements (CBFMAs)
Rehabilitation, protection and management of Previously CFMA, now CBFMAs.
Fragmented Natural Forests by communities
(1989)
Rehabilitation, protection and management of Previously FLMAs, now CBFMAs
reforested areas by communities (1990)
Protection and management of indigenous Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims
peoples’ claims – alienable and disposable (CADC)
areas, public lands with or without forests
(1993)
Rehabilitation, protection, improvement and Industrial Forest Management Agreement or
management of natural forests by qualified Environmental Protection and Management
organisations with the incorporation of Agreement
communities in the overall management
(1991)
Protection and management of buffer and CBFMAs
multiple-use zones in protected area systems
(2000)

As of 2001, the number and areas of agreements under these three instruments were:
Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claims (181, 2.546m ha); Community-Based Forest
Management Agreements (666, 1.971m ha); and Certificate of Stewardship and Certificate
of Forest Stewardship Agreements (442,124, 0.815m ha) (Guiang 2001b, p. 10-11).

In CBFM, the property rights to a forest are normally shared by many members of a
community. An impressive example is the forestry operation at Alcoy in Cebu, visited by one
of the authors in 2000, where over 100 farmers devoted at least one day a week to the
community forest, to grow lumber and rattan. The group had further plans to develop value-
adding activities. This community program, which had a high profile and attracts various
overseas visitors, received considerable external funding.

The CADC is offered to ‘tribal’ or ‘indigenous’ communities that have a long history of living
and working in forest areas. These agreements, established following the passage of the
Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act in 1997, give communities permanent resource use rights,
and cover relatively large areas.

CBFM continues to evolve. A recent change has been greater emphasis on individual
property rights (IPR) agreements whereby individual landholders can manage and market
trees, within the CBFM agreement. There appears to be some acceptance that communities
may utilise some remnant timber to support their livelihoods while their common-property
plantings are being established.

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 ACIAR Smallholder Forestry Project

The Community-Based Resource Management Program

The CBRM program is designed to reduce rural poverty and environmental degradation
through support for locally generated and implemented natural resource management
projects (Department of Finance 1999). This $US50M project was launched in 1998 for an
initial five-year period, with the Department of Finance (DOF) as overseeing agency. An
innovative financing facility was adopted, though the Municipal Development Fund concept,
with a loan from the World Bank. The program provides resources to local government units
to finance natural resource management projects. In particular, it enhances the capacity of
low-income LGUs and communities to plan, implement and sustain priority natural resource
management projects. At the same time, the program strengthens central government
systems to transfer finance (as financial intermediaries) and environmental technology, and
improves the implementation of environmental policies (Osita 2001).

Financial support is provided for upland resource development (including agroforestry,

community-based reforestation, seedling nursery development, riverbank stabilisation and
industrial tree plantations), coastal and near-shore resource development, resort
development, livelihood projects, small-scale infrastructure, bridges and drainage, and water
supply.

As a pilot project, CBRM operated initially in Regions 5, 7, 8 and 13. LGUs are placed in six
classes; class 1 representing the highest per capita incomes and class six being the weakest
financially. CBRM program offers a loan-grant-equity mix of financing to jumpstart LGU
development efforts, recognising that fourth to sixth class LGUs have limited repayment
capacity. For environmental projects, class 4-6 LGUs are provided with 70% grant and 20%
loan and required to have equity finance of 10%. In contrast, the levels for a class 1 LGU are
20%, 60% and 20%. The finance mix is less generous for infrastructure and revenue
generating projects.

The approval process is time consuming, and requires a detailed proposal document.
Groetschel et al. (2001) noted the implementation of CBRM programs by about 20 LGUs in
Region 8, most in Samar.

THE EVOLUTION OF SUPPORT PROGRAMS

The review reveals that forestry support programs have progressed through a number of
stages, with polices changing on the basis of experience and perceptions of needs. Some of
the major impressions are:

• initially, command and control forest laws were introduced, but did not succeed;
• programs were introduced in 1970s as cost-effective measures to settle shifting
cultivators, generally by means of short-term agreements (although the one-year
provisional titles under the Communal Tree Farming Program had an option for
conversion to 25 year leases);
• contract reforestation was introduced in the mid-1980s with involvement of private
sector, for timber production and watershed rehabilitation, but areas treated proved
costly to maintain;
• the current community forestry model effectively commenced with the Community
Forestry Program in 1989, including involvement of community organisation and 25 +
25 year tenure duration; and
• there were stages of consolidation of programs, including those under the Integrated
Social Forestry Program in the 1980s and CBFM in the 1990s;

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 Past and Present Forestry Support Programs in the Philippines

• in the last decade there has been continuing refinement of the flagship CBFM
program, with increased emphasis on tree growing by individual smallholders, and
introduction of the Community-Based Resource Management Program with its wider
stakeholder involvement and resource management objectives.

While problems continue to exist in forestry support programs, this progressive refinement
marks the Philippine arrangements as progressive and innovative, and provides lessons for
forestry programs in other developing countries.

CRITICAL REVIEW OF FORESTRY SUPPORT PROGRAMS

How successful have the forestry support programs been, and what lessons can be learnt
for fine tuning of current programs or planning of future programs? Some tentative
conclusions can be drawn from consideration of the program arrangements, critical reviews
in the literature, and on-site observations.

Specific Performance Indicators

A number of criteria or indicators could be devised by which to evaluate the performance of

the various forestry support programs, such as:

• area planted, number of trees planted, number of trees surviving;

• degree of satisfaction by participants;
• cost-effectiveness of tree planting or of timber production;
• quality of silviculture, including pruning, thinning and weed control ;
• amount of timber produced ;
• amount of non-wood forest products produced;
• quality of timber produced;
• extent of community value-adding to timber harvested;
• improvement in livelihood of households in community forestry areas;
• extent of on-farm independent planting stimulated by the programs;
• extent to which communities have become protectors of the forest, and illegal logging
has been reduced in community forestry areas; and
• long-term sustainability of community organisations and reforestation activity.

While an evaluation in terms of these indicators would be highly informative, and partial
information is available on some of the indicators listed here, a comprehensive evaluation
would be extremely difficult to perform. Some information about areas planted is available from
web sources, as reported in Tables 2 to 4. The total CBFM area is approximately 1.5 M ha,
while IFMAs account for over 0.9 M ha (almost all in agreements of over 200 ha) and SIFMAs
account for only 0.035 M ha. Three quarters of the SIFMA planting area is in agreements of
100 ha or more, but more than 90% of the agreements are for areas of less than 10 ha.

Qualitative Review of Program Performance

Literature review and field observation provide some insights into program performance.

Capacity to overcome constraints to tree growing

Various research projects have identified a wide range of constraints on smallholder forestry.
In this context, from a household survey in four communities Emtage (2004) noted the
following constraints in order of importance: lack of access to land for tree planting; lack of
finance to pay for tree growing needs; concern over security of tenure; unavailability of
seedlings; policies related to tree harvesting; lack of labour to tend trees and risk of

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 ACIAR Smallholder Forestry Project

additional fees. In focus group discussions reviewing the survey findings, the issue of the
lack of markets for tree products was also highlighted. Other constraints are listed by Venn
et al. (2001) and by other papers in this issue. Community forestry programs do to some
extent overcome the major constraints of access to land, tenure security and finance.

Relationships between stakeholder groups

One criterion of performance is the quality of relationships between communities and

government, NGOs and other agents involved in smallholder forestry, in terms of trust,
service quality, approval processes and consistency across programs. The various forestry
stakeholder groups and their roles and inter-relationships have recently been examined by
Emtage (2004a, and this issue). It is apparent that some tensions have arisen between
stakeholder groups. Difficulties and delays in obtaining tree registration and harvest approval
would appear to be a major issue of concern of smallholders. Lack of government support
for communities in the control of illegal logging appears to be a source of frustration for
community organisations (Emtage this issue, Tarun-Acay 2004).

Table 2. Area planted in Philippine CBFM programs, by size class, 20036

Size Number of Number of Average number Average area Total area Share of
class agreements households of households per household per class total
(ha) per agreement (ha) (ha) area by
class
(%)
≥10,000 13 23,799 1,831 8.69 206,928 13
5,000 - 42 41,483 988 6.41 266,108 17
9,999
2,000 - 154 67,598 439 7.09 479,220 30
4,999
1,000 - 192 47,650 248 5.57 265,564 17
1,999
500 - 264 38,763 147 4.63 179,341 11
999
200 - 405 44,890 111 2.95 132,516 8
499
100- 225 18,525 82 1.69 31,396 2
199 ha
50 - 99 148 12,700 86 0.81 10,308 1
ha
20 - 49 87 6,115 70 0.48 2,959 0.2
ha
< 20 ha 44 2,208 50 0.21 472 0.0
Missing 3 219 73 0.00 0 0.0
size
All 1,577 303,950 5.18 1,574,813 100
BFMAs

Source: DENR (2004).

Perspectives presented in commentaries on programs

Many reports and articles have been written about CBFM and its predecessors in the
Philippines. Gerrits noted that there had been widespread criticism of the ISFP, observing that:

6
These figures include 55 CBFMAs in Leyte and Biliran Islands with a total area of 42,296 ha which
involve 6,092 households.

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 Past and Present Forestry Support Programs in the Philippines

two criticisms of the program stand out. First was the failure to utilise a bottom-up,
participatory, flexible, and responsive extension system, although the diversity of the
Philippine upland environment clearly required such an approach. Second was the inability to
recognise and respond to the failure of the program caused by the lack of a farming systems
approach and the widespread promotion of technologies with narrow recommendation
domains. (Gerrits 1996, pp. 25-26).

Gibbs et al. (1990, cited by Gerrits 1996, p. 5) characterised ISFP as ‘a premature attempt to
create a national program when the factors causing the lack of success of programs introduced
in the 1970s had not been removed and the capacity and resources for a major new program
were unavailable’.

Table 3. Areas planted under Industrial Forest Management Agreements (IFMAs)

Size class (ha) Number of Total area of Share of total Share of class
agreements class (ha) area by class cancelled or
(%) suspended (%)
≥20,000 10 315,386 34 19
10,000 - 19,999 16 211,843 23 10
5,000 - 9,999 14 98,050 11 29
2,000 - 4,999 33 109,074 12 40
1,000 - 1,999 35 49,671 5 42
500 - 999 127 109,403 12 38
200 - 499 61 19,021 2 57
100- 199 27 3,415 0 56
Less than 100 1 49 0 0
All IFMAs 324 915,913 100 41

Source: DENR (2004).

In general, program evolution has been in the direction of greater community participation,
and ‘bottom-up’ program design. However, some observers remain critical of the
achievements in this respect. According to Lacuna-Richman:

Despite large infusions of monetary incentives and widespread agreement on the benefits
of such [reforestation] programs, very few could be considered worth the investment. One
of the main reasons for this lack of success is the absence of participation at the local
level. Another reason is the difficulty of ensuring that this participation, if established,
contributes perceptibly to achieving program goals. (Lacuna-Richman 2001, p. 163).

In terms of production forestry, IFMAs followed the Timber License Agreements, and appear
to have been a step towards more sustainable forest utilisation. Their introduction does not
appear to have been trouble free, however, Saastamoinen (2001) noting suspension of
agreements due to the unauthorised logging in areas intended for forest protection.

Duration of property rights in IFMAs and now in CBFM has presented some concern to
smallholders. According to Bernas (2000, as quoted by Saastamoinen 2001, p. 99), ‘the
present tenurial systems do not assure stakeholders and investors of a long-term or semi-
permanent arrangement. The present systems can accommodate one-cutting, possibly two-
cutting systems only’. This comment would appear to be particularly pertinent with regard to
the planting of slow growing high-value indigenous tree species, including molave and lauan.
There are environmental reasons why these native species should be promoted, and if the
uptake rate is high then there would be reason to review the tenure duration arrangement.

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Table 4. Areas planted under Socialised Industrial Forest Management Agreements (SIFMAs)

Size class Number of Cumulative Total ha per Percent of total area

agreements total ha class by class
500 - 999 ha 25 12,500 12,500 35
200 - 499 ha 31 23,675 11,175 32
100- 199 ha 20 26,345 2,669 8
50 - 99 ha 6 26,716 371 1
20 - 49 ha 2 26,797 81 0
10 - 20 ha 2 30,655 3,858 11
5 - 10 ha 637 33,929 3,273 9
2 - 5 ha 625 35,195 1,266 4
< 2 ha 208 35,368 173 0
All SIFMAs 1,556 35,368 100

Source: DENR (2004).

The sustainability of CBFM remains open to question. It is not clear whether international
agencies including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank will continue to make
substantial amounts of funding available to assist the program, and whether the program
would be more or less successful without this funding. Lacuna-Richman (2001, p. 170)
argued that it is the external agent (e.g. government and NGOs) and requirement for
‘increased funding from multilateral agencies that destroys the cohesiveness necessary for
participatory [forest] management to work’. Various other issues concerning the performance
of CBFM in the Philippines are raised in the following papers in this volume.

CONCLUDING COMMENTS

A plethora of measures have been introduced by the Department of Environment and

Natural Resources and other agencies in the Philippines to promote reforestation for
increased timber resource availability, improved livelihoods of smallholders and
environmental protection. These have placed priority on smallholder (community and farm)
forestry.

Current forestry support programs in the Philippines draw on extensive experience, from
implementation of a substantial number of programs over about 30 years. As programs have
been implemented and then replaced, the DENR and other agencies have no doubt gained
substantial insights into identifying arrangements which work and those which fail. National
government administrations and the DENR executive have attempted to refine the programs
by revising the regulations covering CBFM and CBRM through issuing a series of Executive
and Administrative Orders. This has improved the operation of the programs but has
increased the complexity of interpreting the regulations. Unfortunately, national government
administrations since 1990 have been unable to pass much-needed revisions to national
forest and other natural resources management legislation that would correct the
inconsistencies and inadequacies of the existing regulations (UNFAO and FMBDENR 2003).
Community forestry programs appear to require substantial organisational and financial
support to become established. Low incomes of smallholders and shortage of funds by
government agencies have constrained the options available for smallholder forestry
programs. There has been high optimism but some unfulfilled expectations and
disappointment associated with these programs. On Leyte Island in particular, the degree of
success has been mixed and it is not yet clear to what extent smallholder reforestation
objectives will be achieved. There is a need for further research into the level of success of
forestry support program, including identification of constraints and avenues for cost-
effective targeting of the limited funds available for support programs. It is becoming
apparent that there are some advantages in adopting a policy to support individual property

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rights to tree planting, as distinct from common property planting, for example with respect to
tree protection (e.g. weed control and surveillance).

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This review of forestry support programs forms part of the objectives of Australian Centre for
International Agricultural Research Project ASEM/2000/088, and the financial assistance of
ACIAR is gratefully acknowledged.

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