Engaging local people in forest landscape restoration: Case Studies in Eastern Visayas (the Philippines) and Ramu-Markham Valley (Papua New Guinea)
Creators: name: Wiset, Kanchana
Publisher: name: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland
Year: 2022
Subjects: community engagement
local participation
forest landscape restoration
reforestation
small-scale tree planting
landscape visualization
local interests an decisons
forest and land tenure
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
Forestry sciences
Environmental management
Pacific Peoples environmental knowledges

description: Forest landscape restoration (FLR) is recognized widely as an approach to addressing deforestation and forest degradation for ecological and livelihoods outcomes. The engagement of local people is essential for the FLR process because they rely on forest products and natural resources within a forest landscape and may be affected by FLR implementation. However, most FLR projects are driven by national targets and a top-down approach, ignoring the needs and decisions of local people. Lack of understanding and recognition of context are a major problem recognised in the FLR literature, but in-depth analysis is lacking. This research aims to build a better understanding of context, which can affect decisions of people to either engage or not in FLR. The key focus was on: (1) the interests of local people on whether to engage or not engage in FLR; (2) the influence of tenure and governance on decision-making by local people about land use; and (3) strategies enabling the engagement of local people in FLR. The research was based on case studies in Leyte and Biliran provinces of the Eastern Visayas Region in the Philippines, and the Ramu-Markham Valley (RMV) in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The study adopted a qualitative methodology involving individual and group interviews, landscape visualization exercises, and participant observation to obtain an overview of land use activities.
description: In the Philippines, reforestation projects have been imposed in the state-owned forestlands which communities occupy. The participation of communities in reforestation projects is highly influenced by direct payment for project services. Communal reforestation projects often fail and access to forest products is not guaranteed. Communities have difficulty in negotiating for their desired land use because the government retains the power and authority in decision-making. In PNG, almost all lands are held under customary tenure by clans. In the RMV, customary land tenure and social institutions govern land use decision-making. While clans own the land, their main function is to allocate land to male clan members, not to undertake joint activities. Traditional land use focuses on daily living, not commercial purposes or large-scale action. The patrilineal system in the RMV influences the different involvement of men and women in land use decisions at various levels. Small scale action and site-level activity at the family level are preferred. Gender roles influence preferred species and land use practices.
description: The overall findings reveal specific factors influencing the level of engagement in each case. In the Eastern Visayas case study, communities implemented reforestation activities based on contractual agreements in which national interests do not closely align with local interests. Limited devolution of decision-making power favours national objectives over local interests. In the RMV, while local people hold strong rights to make decisions over land use, their interests and decisions are focused on family-level livelihoods related to their gardens, not landscape-scale activities. As clan lands are dispersed and overlapping across the landscape, clans do not have the mandate or role of managing land use at a landscape level. There is no government agency which currently takes that role. Neither a negotiated nor centrally planned approach at landscape level is practical in the RMV.
description: The thesis clearly demonstrates the way even subtle aspects of context can affect the viability of FLR interventions. The implication of this is that detailed preliminary work to investigate local context is required before FLR programs are implemented. The thesis did not aim to recommend guidelines for FLR engagement with local people. Analysis of the case studies was intended to provide insights that may be useful for interventions in FLR in other contexts.