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Abstract:
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"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."
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