Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2020
Tree farming is becoming infamous among smallholders in the Caraga Administrative Region, the acc... more Tree farming is becoming infamous among smallholders in the Caraga Administrative Region, the acclaimed “timber corridor” of the Philippines. Despite the region’s favorable bio-physical condition to tree farming, attractive cash benefits, and market availability compared to other regions of the country, tree farming has become less attractive to smallholders. The smallholders remained poor and marginalized even as the region’s poverty incidence continually declined in the last three decades. This study seeks to determine the socioeconomic impacts of smallholder tree farming in the region. Using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, the study revealed that tree and non-tree farmers alike perceived positive and statistically significant changes on livelihood sources, income, equity, asset accumulation, education, level of trust, reciprocity and cohesiveness in the community as a result of tree farming. However, although income was improved with tree farming, benefits were consid...
ABSTRACT No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of ... more ABSTRACT No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
In the Philippines, as in most tropical regions, all lands in the “public domain”, otherwise know... more In the Philippines, as in most tropical regions, all lands in the “public domain”, otherwise known as “forest lands” are owned by the state. This framework of state ownership was inherited from former colonial states, since the independent Philippine government relied on colonial legal systems of forestland management in order to use forest resources for national interests (Lynch and Talbott 1995). The centralized control over all forest lands and resources has contributed to grave inequity in terms of distribution of benefits to a privileged few and to the onslaught of these resources on which livelihood of millions of forest communities depend (Broad and Cavanagh 1993; Peluso 1992;Vitug 1993; Pulhin 1996).
Despite efforts and investments to integrate weather and climate knowledges, often dichotomized i... more Despite efforts and investments to integrate weather and climate knowledges, often dichotomized into the scientific and the local, a top-down practice of science communication that tends to ignore cultural consensus knowledge still prevails. This paper presents an empirical application of cultural consensus analysis for climate risk management. It uses mixed methods such as focus groups, freelisting, pilesorting, and rapid ethnographic assessment to understand farmers’ knowledge of weather and climate conditions in Barangay Biga, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Multi-dimensional scaling and aggregate proximity matrix of items are generated to assess the similarity among the different locally perceived weather and climate conditions. Farmers’ knowledge is then qualitatively compared with the technical classification from the government’s weather bureau. There is cultural agreement among farmers that the weather and climate conditions can be generally grouped into wet, dry, and unpredi...
The environment-poverty connection has been the subject of recent discourse in environmental mana... more The environment-poverty connection has been the subject of recent discourse in environmental management. Despite this, there seems to be limited understanding and appreciation on the intricacies of this connection in the Philippine context. This paper is written to fill this gap. It aims to explore deeper the environment-poverty interlink by offering some explanations to the following questions: 1. What are the recently documented environmental changes in the Philippines and how are these impacting on the vulnerability of the poor? 2. How do environmental changes affect the population movements especially among the poor? 3. What are the strategies employed by the different sectors, especially the government, to reduce impacts of adverse environmental changes? 4. Which strategies seem to be more effective in reducing the vulnerability of the poor and how can they be improved? The paper centers on five central messages. First, the Philippines' environmental situation, has reached ...
This paper analyses the dynamics of devolution process in the management of the Philippine forest... more This paper analyses the dynamics of devolution process in the management of the Philippine forestry sector over the last few decades. It synthesizes relevant policy documents, grey and published literature, results of multi-stakeholder consultations and interviews with selected people instrumental in the forestry devolution process. The study reveals that the forest devolution process is driven by a combination of environmental, socio-economic, and political factors both at the national and international levels. The dynamics, forms and effects of the devolution process are shaped by the interaction of multiple stakeholders and their varying interests and priorities thus making it a very complicated process, difficult to predict, and its outcomes, hard to control. Despite wide coverage of areas devolved to local communities totaling to close to 6 million hectares, the paper concludes that current nationwide outcomes of statesponsored forest devolution in the Philippines is yet far fr...
AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Chan... more AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC), is a series of papers and paper abstracts written by researchers participating in the AIACC project. Papers published in AIACC Working Papers have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the on-line series as being (i) fundamentally sound in their methods and implementation, (ii) informative about the methods and/or findings of new research, and (iii) clearly written for a broad, multidisciplinary audience. The purpose of the series is to circulate results and descriptions of methodologies from the AIACC project and elicit feedback to the authors.
Slow onset processes were investigated in five pilot areas in Southeast Asia, i.e., Kampong Speu ... more Slow onset processes were investigated in five pilot areas in Southeast Asia, i.e., Kampong Speu Province (Cambodia), Selangor State (Malaysia), Thatdama Kyun Village (Myanmar), Kanan Watershed (Philippines), and Quang Ngai Province (Vietnam). Pilot areas with low-lying coasts are exposed to floods, saline intrusion and sea-level rise while some are also affected by storms and typhoons. Floodplains are exposed to floods and river bank erosion while highlands are affected by flash floods, mudslides, landslides and forest degradation. Dry conditions and high temperatures are not confined to a specific geomorphological setting. The assessment of L+D is a challenge as many impacts are not directly attributed to anthropogenic climate change. However, where science has clearly linked global warming and sea-level rise to anthropogenic causes, and human influence in a particular area is minimal, L+D assessments are relevant to policy platforms such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The land use planning system is a potential entry point for integrating DRR, CCA and L+D.
Forest tenure reform has no doubt attained significant gains in promoting social justice and equi... more Forest tenure reform has no doubt attained significant gains in promoting social justice and equity in the forest sector, through legal recognition of the communities' property rights over forest lands in many developing countries. This includes the right to harvest and market trees that the communities planted. Along these lines, the Philippines' community-based forest management (CBFM) and smallholder forestry have the potential to meet the country's wood demand and contribute to its poverty alleviation goal. Realities on the ground, however, make this lofty aspiration seems too far-fetched. Formal and informal barriers along the timber value chain restrict the growth and obstruct opportunities for community-based timber enterprises (CBTEs) and smallholder forestry. Using the case of CBFM and smallholder forestry in the Visayas and Mindanao Islands in the Philippines, respectively, this paper examines the hurdles posed by regulations and informal practices, such as restrictive policies and increased transaction costs, through a segment analysis of the timber value chain. It argues that failure to address these barriers would lead to the decline of CBTEs and smallholder enterprises, thus undermining the merits of the forest tenure reform.
This paper examines the characteristics of communities in Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM... more This paper examines the characteristics of communities in Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) and analyzes their attributes that promote collective actions. It presents a brief history of community, its emergence as the central figure in natural resource management and conservation, and how it evolved as a sociological concept which gave birth to the idea of the "mythic community".
Aim of study: To facilitate REDD+ implementation and identify relevant attributes for robust REDD... more Aim of study: To facilitate REDD+ implementation and identify relevant attributes for robust REDD+ policies, this study evaluated and synthesized information from national forest programs in South and Southeast Asian countries.Area of study: Data was collected from six countries: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, India and Thailand.Methods: The data sources for the evaluation was an in-depth desk review of relevant documents and focus group discussion among experts from each study country. Main Results: We found out that diverse factors may influence program feasibility and the ability to achieve ‘triple benefits’: the nature of the forest targeted by the policy, the characteristics of the population affected by the policy, attributes of the policy instrument and the different actors involved.Research highlights: We argue that national policies and programs targeted for REDD+ implementation should focus on the identified features to achieve REDD+ goals.Keywords: policy...
AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Chan... more AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC), is a series of papers and paper abstracts written by researchers participating in the AIACC project. Papers published in AIACC Working Papers have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the on-line series as being (i) fundamentally sound in their methods and implementation, (ii) informative about the methods and/or findings of new research, and (iii) clearly written for a broad, multi-disciplinary audience. The purpose of the series is to circulate results and descriptions of methodologies from the AIACC project and elicit feedback to the authors.
ABSTRACT "From the colonial period until the early 1980s, the Philippine forest policies... more ABSTRACT "From the colonial period until the early 1980s, the Philippine forest policies had promoted a highly regulatory, centrally controlled and industry-biased approach to forest management. Such policies placed the access and control of the country's forest resources into the hands of the elite who have the resources and political connections to commercially exploit theses resources for their own personal gains. Consequently, the uneducated and the less privileged majority particularly most of the upland communities have been barred from enjoying the benefits of the utilization of the nations patrimony. Furthermore, ruthless commercial forest exploitation had totally disregarded the principles of sustainable management that had contributed to one of the greatest forest plunder in the tropical world. "To address the twin problems of inequitable access to forest resources and massive forest depletion, major policy and forest management reforms were undertaken, particularly after the end of Marcos dictatorial rule in 1986. At the core of these reforms was the democratization of access to forest land and resources through the Community-Based Forest Management program or CBFM. Through the issuance of Community-Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA), the CBFM program provides land tenure to organized upland groups (Peoples Organization) that entitles them to benefit from a given forest land for a period of 25 years renewable for another 25 years subject to certain conditions. "At the central policy level, the reform towards democratization of forest resources through the issuance of CBFMA is considered by some as both radical and progressive. Under the government Strategic Plan for CBFM, 9 million hectares of the country's classified forest lands totaling to 15.8 million hectares have been earmarked for community management by the year 2008. This totally departs from the traditional forest management approach which had placed 8-10 million hectares of forest lands around one-third of the country's total land area of 30 million hectares under the control of the elite sector particularly the few timber license operators. To date, a total of around 5.7 million hectares have been awarded to thousands of POs nationwide through the issuance of CBFMAs. "This paper traces the evolution of forest policies in the Philippines from the colonial period to the present. The analysis focuses on the tenure reform in the forest land over the last two decades or so and its initial impacts in addressing the problems of social inequity and forest depletion. The paper argues that despite the seemingly progressive policies and recent government accomplishments in terms of the number of tenure instruments awarded to local communities, the anticipated positive impacts of the tenure reform are yet to be seen on the ground. The combined effects of politics at the national and local levels, declining quality of the forests, and the instrumentalist nature of the tenure instrument prohibit genuine tenure reform to take place. This in turn thwarts the accruing of benefits to the upland poor and impedes the promotion of sustainable forest management in CBFMA areas."
Journal of Environmental Science and Management, 2020
Tree farming is becoming infamous among smallholders in the Caraga Administrative Region, the acc... more Tree farming is becoming infamous among smallholders in the Caraga Administrative Region, the acclaimed “timber corridor” of the Philippines. Despite the region’s favorable bio-physical condition to tree farming, attractive cash benefits, and market availability compared to other regions of the country, tree farming has become less attractive to smallholders. The smallholders remained poor and marginalized even as the region’s poverty incidence continually declined in the last three decades. This study seeks to determine the socioeconomic impacts of smallholder tree farming in the region. Using both qualitative and quantitative analyses, the study revealed that tree and non-tree farmers alike perceived positive and statistically significant changes on livelihood sources, income, equity, asset accumulation, education, level of trust, reciprocity and cohesiveness in the community as a result of tree farming. However, although income was improved with tree farming, benefits were consid...
ABSTRACT No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of ... more ABSTRACT No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
In the Philippines, as in most tropical regions, all lands in the “public domain”, otherwise know... more In the Philippines, as in most tropical regions, all lands in the “public domain”, otherwise known as “forest lands” are owned by the state. This framework of state ownership was inherited from former colonial states, since the independent Philippine government relied on colonial legal systems of forestland management in order to use forest resources for national interests (Lynch and Talbott 1995). The centralized control over all forest lands and resources has contributed to grave inequity in terms of distribution of benefits to a privileged few and to the onslaught of these resources on which livelihood of millions of forest communities depend (Broad and Cavanagh 1993; Peluso 1992;Vitug 1993; Pulhin 1996).
Despite efforts and investments to integrate weather and climate knowledges, often dichotomized i... more Despite efforts and investments to integrate weather and climate knowledges, often dichotomized into the scientific and the local, a top-down practice of science communication that tends to ignore cultural consensus knowledge still prevails. This paper presents an empirical application of cultural consensus analysis for climate risk management. It uses mixed methods such as focus groups, freelisting, pilesorting, and rapid ethnographic assessment to understand farmers’ knowledge of weather and climate conditions in Barangay Biga, Oriental Mindoro, Philippines. Multi-dimensional scaling and aggregate proximity matrix of items are generated to assess the similarity among the different locally perceived weather and climate conditions. Farmers’ knowledge is then qualitatively compared with the technical classification from the government’s weather bureau. There is cultural agreement among farmers that the weather and climate conditions can be generally grouped into wet, dry, and unpredi...
The environment-poverty connection has been the subject of recent discourse in environmental mana... more The environment-poverty connection has been the subject of recent discourse in environmental management. Despite this, there seems to be limited understanding and appreciation on the intricacies of this connection in the Philippine context. This paper is written to fill this gap. It aims to explore deeper the environment-poverty interlink by offering some explanations to the following questions: 1. What are the recently documented environmental changes in the Philippines and how are these impacting on the vulnerability of the poor? 2. How do environmental changes affect the population movements especially among the poor? 3. What are the strategies employed by the different sectors, especially the government, to reduce impacts of adverse environmental changes? 4. Which strategies seem to be more effective in reducing the vulnerability of the poor and how can they be improved? The paper centers on five central messages. First, the Philippines' environmental situation, has reached ...
This paper analyses the dynamics of devolution process in the management of the Philippine forest... more This paper analyses the dynamics of devolution process in the management of the Philippine forestry sector over the last few decades. It synthesizes relevant policy documents, grey and published literature, results of multi-stakeholder consultations and interviews with selected people instrumental in the forestry devolution process. The study reveals that the forest devolution process is driven by a combination of environmental, socio-economic, and political factors both at the national and international levels. The dynamics, forms and effects of the devolution process are shaped by the interaction of multiple stakeholders and their varying interests and priorities thus making it a very complicated process, difficult to predict, and its outcomes, hard to control. Despite wide coverage of areas devolved to local communities totaling to close to 6 million hectares, the paper concludes that current nationwide outcomes of statesponsored forest devolution in the Philippines is yet far fr...
AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Chan... more AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC), is a series of papers and paper abstracts written by researchers participating in the AIACC project. Papers published in AIACC Working Papers have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the on-line series as being (i) fundamentally sound in their methods and implementation, (ii) informative about the methods and/or findings of new research, and (iii) clearly written for a broad, multidisciplinary audience. The purpose of the series is to circulate results and descriptions of methodologies from the AIACC project and elicit feedback to the authors.
Slow onset processes were investigated in five pilot areas in Southeast Asia, i.e., Kampong Speu ... more Slow onset processes were investigated in five pilot areas in Southeast Asia, i.e., Kampong Speu Province (Cambodia), Selangor State (Malaysia), Thatdama Kyun Village (Myanmar), Kanan Watershed (Philippines), and Quang Ngai Province (Vietnam). Pilot areas with low-lying coasts are exposed to floods, saline intrusion and sea-level rise while some are also affected by storms and typhoons. Floodplains are exposed to floods and river bank erosion while highlands are affected by flash floods, mudslides, landslides and forest degradation. Dry conditions and high temperatures are not confined to a specific geomorphological setting. The assessment of L+D is a challenge as many impacts are not directly attributed to anthropogenic climate change. However, where science has clearly linked global warming and sea-level rise to anthropogenic causes, and human influence in a particular area is minimal, L+D assessments are relevant to policy platforms such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The land use planning system is a potential entry point for integrating DRR, CCA and L+D.
Forest tenure reform has no doubt attained significant gains in promoting social justice and equi... more Forest tenure reform has no doubt attained significant gains in promoting social justice and equity in the forest sector, through legal recognition of the communities' property rights over forest lands in many developing countries. This includes the right to harvest and market trees that the communities planted. Along these lines, the Philippines' community-based forest management (CBFM) and smallholder forestry have the potential to meet the country's wood demand and contribute to its poverty alleviation goal. Realities on the ground, however, make this lofty aspiration seems too far-fetched. Formal and informal barriers along the timber value chain restrict the growth and obstruct opportunities for community-based timber enterprises (CBTEs) and smallholder forestry. Using the case of CBFM and smallholder forestry in the Visayas and Mindanao Islands in the Philippines, respectively, this paper examines the hurdles posed by regulations and informal practices, such as restrictive policies and increased transaction costs, through a segment analysis of the timber value chain. It argues that failure to address these barriers would lead to the decline of CBTEs and smallholder enterprises, thus undermining the merits of the forest tenure reform.
This paper examines the characteristics of communities in Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM... more This paper examines the characteristics of communities in Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) and analyzes their attributes that promote collective actions. It presents a brief history of community, its emergence as the central figure in natural resource management and conservation, and how it evolved as a sociological concept which gave birth to the idea of the "mythic community".
Aim of study: To facilitate REDD+ implementation and identify relevant attributes for robust REDD... more Aim of study: To facilitate REDD+ implementation and identify relevant attributes for robust REDD+ policies, this study evaluated and synthesized information from national forest programs in South and Southeast Asian countries.Area of study: Data was collected from six countries: Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Philippines, India and Thailand.Methods: The data sources for the evaluation was an in-depth desk review of relevant documents and focus group discussion among experts from each study country. Main Results: We found out that diverse factors may influence program feasibility and the ability to achieve ‘triple benefits’: the nature of the forest targeted by the policy, the characteristics of the population affected by the policy, attributes of the policy instrument and the different actors involved.Research highlights: We argue that national policies and programs targeted for REDD+ implementation should focus on the identified features to achieve REDD+ goals.Keywords: policy...
AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Chan... more AIACC Working Papers, published on-line by Assessments of Impacts and Adaptations to Climate Change (AIACC), is a series of papers and paper abstracts written by researchers participating in the AIACC project. Papers published in AIACC Working Papers have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in the on-line series as being (i) fundamentally sound in their methods and implementation, (ii) informative about the methods and/or findings of new research, and (iii) clearly written for a broad, multi-disciplinary audience. The purpose of the series is to circulate results and descriptions of methodologies from the AIACC project and elicit feedback to the authors.
ABSTRACT "From the colonial period until the early 1980s, the Philippine forest policies... more ABSTRACT "From the colonial period until the early 1980s, the Philippine forest policies had promoted a highly regulatory, centrally controlled and industry-biased approach to forest management. Such policies placed the access and control of the country's forest resources into the hands of the elite who have the resources and political connections to commercially exploit theses resources for their own personal gains. Consequently, the uneducated and the less privileged majority particularly most of the upland communities have been barred from enjoying the benefits of the utilization of the nations patrimony. Furthermore, ruthless commercial forest exploitation had totally disregarded the principles of sustainable management that had contributed to one of the greatest forest plunder in the tropical world. "To address the twin problems of inequitable access to forest resources and massive forest depletion, major policy and forest management reforms were undertaken, particularly after the end of Marcos dictatorial rule in 1986. At the core of these reforms was the democratization of access to forest land and resources through the Community-Based Forest Management program or CBFM. Through the issuance of Community-Based Forest Management Agreement (CBFMA), the CBFM program provides land tenure to organized upland groups (Peoples Organization) that entitles them to benefit from a given forest land for a period of 25 years renewable for another 25 years subject to certain conditions. "At the central policy level, the reform towards democratization of forest resources through the issuance of CBFMA is considered by some as both radical and progressive. Under the government Strategic Plan for CBFM, 9 million hectares of the country's classified forest lands totaling to 15.8 million hectares have been earmarked for community management by the year 2008. This totally departs from the traditional forest management approach which had placed 8-10 million hectares of forest lands around one-third of the country's total land area of 30 million hectares under the control of the elite sector particularly the few timber license operators. To date, a total of around 5.7 million hectares have been awarded to thousands of POs nationwide through the issuance of CBFMAs. "This paper traces the evolution of forest policies in the Philippines from the colonial period to the present. The analysis focuses on the tenure reform in the forest land over the last two decades or so and its initial impacts in addressing the problems of social inequity and forest depletion. The paper argues that despite the seemingly progressive policies and recent government accomplishments in terms of the number of tenure instruments awarded to local communities, the anticipated positive impacts of the tenure reform are yet to be seen on the ground. The combined effects of politics at the national and local levels, declining quality of the forests, and the instrumentalist nature of the tenure instrument prohibit genuine tenure reform to take place. This in turn thwarts the accruing of benefits to the upland poor and impedes the promotion of sustainable forest management in CBFMA areas."
Vulnerability and adaptation of aquaculture and inland fisheries to climate change in the coastal... more Vulnerability and adaptation of aquaculture and inland fisheries to climate change in the coastal zone
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Papers by Juan Pulhin