Chapter: Landcare on the Poverty-Protection Interface in an Asian Watershed

Garrity, D P and Amoroso, V B and Koffa, S and Catacutan, D and Buenavista, G and Fay, P and Dar, W D (2003) Chapter: Landcare on the Poverty-Protection Interface in an Asian Watershed. In: Integrated natural resource management: linking productivity, the environment and development. CABI Publishing in association with CIFOR, Oxon, UK, pp. 195-210. ISBN 0-85199-731-7

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Abstract

Serious methodological and policy hurdles constrain effective natural resource management that alleviates poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watersheds. We review the development of an approach to integrate biodiversity conservation and agroforestry development through the active involvement of communities and their local governments near the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupali watershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysical and socioeconomic conditions of the buffer zone. These included practices for tree farming, and conservation farming for annual cropping on slopes. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in an effective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity o f the park. Fruit and timber tree production dramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. Natural vegetative contour strips were installed on several hundred sloping farms. Soil erosion and runoff declined, while the buffer strips increased maize yields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill-slope farms. The scientific knowledge base guided the development and implementation of a natural resource management plan for the municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grassroots movement o f farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary, which had significant impact on conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystems. Encroachment in the natural park was reduced 95% in three years. The local Landcare groups also restored stream corridor vegetation. This integrated approach has been recognized as a national model for local natural resource and watershed management in the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolve the interactions between the three management domains: the park, the ancestral domain claim, and the municipalities. This integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggesting that commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a “drip-feed” approach rather than by large, externally funded efforts.

Item Type:	Book Section
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Others > Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
Depositing User:	Mr Sanat Kumar Behera
Date Deposited:	02 Aug 2013 05:04
Last Modified:	02 Aug 2013 05:04
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/7028
Acknowledgement:	UNSPECIFIED
Links:	Google Scholar

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