Socio-Economic Pressures on Forest Management: An Insight from the Philippines

Abstract

"This paper attempts to analyze the pressures posed by the socio-economic realities of local people in the management of forest lands which are integral parts of their communities.

"The setting is the two contiguous upland communities of the UP Mindanao land reservation, which geographically belong to the so-called 'Timber Corridor of the Philippines'. About 80% of the total land area of these two communities is classified as forest land. In the context of the Philippine setting, this means that the area is a public land.

"These communities are faced with grim socio-economic realities: normal mode of transport is motorbike through dilapidated logging road, farming is the major source of livelihood, more than 60% of the households live below the poverty line, about 50% of the total population is below 15 years old, the nearest hospital is about 100 kilometers away and the local health centres only have first-aid kit, and until the end of 2007, nobody from the community had finished college education. Similar realities abound in many other upland areas in the country.

"Probably because of the above realities, the conservation and management of the environment (which they equate to the surrounding forest) is not a priority for the local communities. Rather, their main concern is the attainment of sustainable livelihood, improvement of the road condition, acquisition of health facilities, and upliftment of the residents level of education. These concerns are not mutually exclusive, and in fact, are interrelated. This shows that socio-economic realities in the communities pose great challenge for the management and conservation of the area. This is particularly significant in the light of community perception that the government gives greater importance to the protection and conservation of the protection and conservation of the environment than the welfare of the local people."