Modalities of Scaling-up Landcare and NRM in the Philippines: creating space for public-private partnerships at the local level

The debate about sustainable development brought profound challenges in bridging the gaps between science and development. While technological advancement has been successfully generated from scientific research, it continues to face the great diversity of circumstances constraining the delivery of potential benefits. This constraint requires institutional and methodological innovations where development-oriented research can be anchored. Moreover, this debate is constructed from a combination of participants, structures, cultures and processes— hence, it has become more contestable, dynamic and complex. The complex nature of this debate necessitates the construction of social systems, capable of strengthening the orientation by which research and development have to be implemented. This experience is supported by the theories of Funtowicz and Ravetz in their propositions to develop a new “post-normal” science based on extended peer communities and extended facts (Funtowicz and Ravetz, 1993). ICRAF’s Research and Development Programme is now focused at developing technical, institutional and policy innovations, in an Integrated Natural Resource Management Research (INRM) Framework. The scale of analysis of our work begins at the farm and household level—to the village and municipal levels—and, to the provincial and national levels (annex 1). The links at various levels are clearly defined along with the strategic interplay of technical and social researches at each level. This Research and Development Framework illustrates a multi-tiered stakeholder interaction in building relationships and partnerships, in project implementation, and in project evaluation. The Landcare Program is a specific example of a partnership initiative at the local level, and is the subject of this case study.

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