-93 regarding Certificate of Ancestral Land Claim (CALC); DENR DILG Joint Memorandum Circular 2013-03 regarding a Barangay Forest Program under the NGP; and DENR Memorandum Circular 2013-06 regarding plantation development under the NGP (Guiang and Castillo 2006; GOP 2013a; GOP 2013b).
In the past, forest rights granted by the government to the private sector were principally for forest-resource utilization and commercial exploitation (concessions, licenses or permits). Prior to the 1987 Constitution, logging rights were often granted to the elite. All tenure rights are granted for a 25-year period, renewable for the same period. State tenure, notably in protected areas and watershed reservations, are generally for purposes such as biodiversity conservation, education and research. In the past 25 years, CBFM (and various joint venture, co-production and production-sharing instruments) has been viewed as the most effective strategy for achieving sustainable forest management and for addressing the problems plaguing the Philippine forestry industry. As a result, CBFM programs have received substantial donor support. The evolution of CBFM has developed in parallel with the emergence of the government decentralization program that began in the 1980s. Because the Constitution prohibits disposition of forestlands, DENR provides oversight of the activities of the community organizations, especially with respect to harvesting forest resources (GOP 2003; Pulhin and Dizon 2003; Clausen et al. 2003; Rebugio et al 2007; Eleazar et al 2013).
Communal Forests are forestlands not exceeding 5000 hectares set aside by the government for local government use and subject to an approved sustainable operations plan. Community Watersheds are forestlands set aside for communities to use as a source of water supply in accordance with a sustainable development plan (GOP 2003).
Thirty-three percent of classified forests are under the management of communities. According to USAID, community forest rights are often awarded by the government to address equity issues (e.g., marginalization of indigenous peoples and preservation of socio-cultural/ethnic values and indigenous knowledge), but also convey the rights to use the forest for other purposes, including production, conservation, development, food production and environmental services for a fee. Production is often not the primary purpose of Community-managed Forests and, per Executive Order No. 263 of 1995, must be based on a DENR-approved management plan or ancestral domain plan (Quieta 2013).
Community-Based Forest Management Agreements (CBFMAs) permit communities and peoples’ organizations in forested areas to occupy and use forest lands for agroforestry, for harvesting of timber and non-timber products, and for forest protection and reforestation. As of 2010 more than 11 million hectares of forestland were subject to some sort of community-based forest management. Communities have complained that they are often granted poor-quality lands and denuded areas, and are expected to rehabilitate forest lands without adequate technical and financial support. Annual harvesting permits are required but often delayed and costly and DENR suffers from institutional and capacity limitations in administering the program due in part to an inadequate budget (Pulhin and Dizon 2003; Larson and Pulhin 2012; Aquino and Daquio 2014).
CBFMAs cannot be used as collateral with financial institutions as the lands covered by the agreement remain under the jurisdiction of the State (Clausen et al. 2003; Israel and Lintag 2013).
Certificates of Ancestral Domain Claim (CADCs) are issued by DENR and can be converted by the NCIP to Certificates of Ancestral Domain Title (CADTs) under the 1997 Indigenous People’s Rights Act. There is some overlap among these and CBFMAs – of the 4.9 million hectares of land allocated to communities, at least 2.5 million hectares are under CADCs, some of which have CADTs. The remaining land is covered by CBFMAs or related tenure instruments (Guiang and Castillo 2006; PTFCF 2015).
CBFM has been shown to be effective in several areas, especially in Luzon and northern Mindanao. In these places, CBFM has productively built upon indigenous knowledge and traditional land use systems practiced by groups that include the Ifugao, Bontoc, Sagada, Ikalahan and Higanonon. In other areas where communities are more heterogeneous, CBFM has been more dependent upon outside projects and agencies to move the process forward. Even in areas where there have been no projects established to promote CBFM, the initiative has benefited and prospered from the presence of programs designed to decentralize government, although it certainly has not yet achieved all its economic, social equity and sustainability goals (Clausen et al. 2003; Rebugio et al 2007).
Protected Area Community-Based Resource Management Agreements permit migrant communities living in protected areas to use forest products, but not to log or cut timber. Other concessions granted in forestlands (outside of protected areas) are Production Sharing Agreements, granted to private-sector investors, and Industrial Forest Management Agreements and Socialized Industrial Forest Management Agreements, which grant rights to harvest timber and non-timber products with the obligation of reforestation. Forest Land Grazing Management Agreements permit use for grazing purposes (GOP 2003).
More men than women are employed in logging and other forest-based industries. More women are involved in wood-based products manufacturing (saw milling, veneer and plywood manufacturing) than in logging. The DENR CBFM strategy requires that women comprise at least 30 percent of CBFM management committees. The DENR has committed to incorporating gender considerations in its forest policies and programs. There is pressure to convert forest areas to non-forest uses (e.g., mangrove forests are cleared for prawn farming and natural forests are converted to biofuel plantations). Illegal logging persists; there is weak enforcement of forestry laws, and human resource skills to implement forestry programs are lacking (FAO 2005b; GOP 2009a; Catindig 2002). Many protected areas, watershed reservations and community forests are not well managed, leading to open-access conditions and to forest loss or degradation (Guiang and Castillo 2006; RECOFTC 2015).
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is responsible for the management, development and conservation of forest and grazing lands. Relevant DENR bureaus include the Forest Management Bureau, Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, and Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau. The Natural Resources Development Corporation (attached to DENR) is responsible for promoting and pioneering production, use and marketing ventures.
DENR is frequently mentioned as a major obstacle to successful CBFM. DENR has made compliance with the rules and regulations for CBFM certification difficult. The stated obstacles (voiced by communities, NGOs, LGUs and some DENR personnel) include felling and transport requirements (communities are not allowed to use modern equipment), excessive taxes on forest products, complex permit systems, and onerous management plan requirements. DENR check points have become synonymous with bribes and shake down points. Further, DENR did not meet its reforestation targets under the Revised Master Plan for Forestry Development and its predecessor plan, both of which were in effect from 1990-2012 (Clausen et al. 2003; Israel and Lintag 2013).
The National Greening Program is administered jointly by DENR, the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform. DENR is the lead agency (Israel and Lintag 2013).
Terrestrial protected areas cover almost 11 percent of the total land area of the Philippines. Many such areas are forest protected areas (PAs) which fall under the jurisdiction of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau of DENR. Each PA has a Management Board that is chaired by DENR and has members from LGUs, NGOs, and other stakeholders. The Boards are responsible for setting up multiple-use access zones for the collection of select forest products (e.g., vines, medicinal plants, and other traditional uses). They also collect revenue from entrance fees, research fees, telecommunications (user fees where radio towers/stations are located in a PA), water user fees and ecotourism (where it is developed). A share of the revenue is distributed to the local People’s Organization (PO) for community development. This system has been credited with improving PA protection (Clausen et al. 2003; Israel and Lintag 2013).
Other forest-relevant agencies include: The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, the National Power Corporation and the Philippine National Oil Corporation. Local Government Units assist in forest law enforcement within their jurisdictions.
Despite progress, national-level support for CBFM may be ebbing. CBFM is gaining critics because it has not produced results as quickly or as widely as originally envisioned. There appear to have been unrealistic expectations for CBFM – in the early 1990 during the Ramos administration, many people viewed it as the quick answer to the Philippine’s forestry problems. However, many CBFM assessments conclude that the program was pushed forward too quickly, and that communities have not been adequately prepared to take charge of the responsibilities associated with CBFM. There are also concerns about onerous administrative requirements, bureaucratic delays and inadequate budgets at DENR (Clausen et al. 2003; Israel and Lintag 2013).
A key early reform was the policy shift from resource exploitation to sustainable forest management and CBFM under Executive Order 263 in 1995, updated under the 2003 Revised Master Plan for Forestry Development and Environment and Natural Resources Framework Plan for 2003–2012. The Philippine Development Plan 2011– 2016 targets include increasing forest cover by 600,000 by 2016, completing the delineation of all forestland boundaries, developing forest land use and watershed management plans