Resource control and environmental change in the Philippines : a case study in the Province of Bohol / Peter Brandt Urich
Creators: name: Urich, Peter Brandt
Publisher: name: The Australian National University
Year: 1995
Subjects: subject: Environmental policy Philippines
subject: Natural resources Philippines
subject: Environmental degradation Philippines

description: This thesis examines the relationships between society, politics and economy and environmental degradation. The study area on the central Philippine island of Bohol has experienced a reduction in agricultural productivity and sustainability, and acute social upheaval. Critical to our understanding of the process of eco-social change are patterns of transformation in landholding patterns in concert with change in the quality (productivity) of land owned both locally and in absentia. In concert with these are issues of population change and shifts in characteristics of land management under continued ecological transformation. An historical perspective is used to embody pre-colonial, colonial, early independent and contemporary periods. In the pre-colonial period there is evidence of a sophisticated Boholano culture. This period underpinned contemporary agroecological, social and political development. During the colonial period Hispanization of the local culture was not complete because of periodic revolts-one extending for 85 years. The pace of change increased during the American colonial period. Settlement patterns were disrupted during the conflict between the United States and the Philippines at the turn of the century. Again during World War Two and in the recent conflict between the peasantry and the state displaced persons migrated to fragile environments. Besides the impact of war there were changes in land ownership and demographic patterns. Throughout the twentieth century a large percentage of land was transferred to absentee (coastal) ownership. Population pressure on resources has ebbed and flowed throughout this period. These complex issues are in a constant state of flux and result in both ecological and social decline. ‘Downstream’ environmental (hydrological) change associated with conversion of upland forested to agricultural land became evident in the early 1950s. A dramatic rise in out-migration coincided with this period of environmental decline, as did rates of conversion of land from local to absentee ownership. Pressure on local forest resources increased in the 1970s. By the mid- 1980s the local peasantry and the state were in armed conflict. A new period of heavy out-migration occurred in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The study concludes that local social, political and economic issues are intimately related to eco-social sustainability, and are strongly correlated with the rapid transformation of the complex eco-social situation. Therefore, one policy, programme or social construct cannot be conclusively implicated, i.e. ‘reduced’, as the cause of eco-social degradation. Prospects for improvement in the local eco-social situation are poor in the short to medium-term. Various time related issues of environmental rehabilitation and the human perception of change will militate against concerted social action. Structures of power, resource ownership and cultural dominance will need to be addressed at the micro level. Therefore, only direct intervention in the social, political and economic way of life, with an emphasis on poverty alleviation in the most marginal areas, could possibly mitigate further human suffering.
description: v.1. [Main work] -- v.2. Appendices