Serious methodological and policy hurdles constrain effective natural resource management thatalleviates poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watersheds. We review the development ofan approach that integrates biodiversity conservation with agroforestry development through the activeinvolvement of communities and their local governments near the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupaliwatershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysicaland socioeconomic conditions of the buffer zone. These included practices for tree farming and conservationfarming for annual cropping on slopes. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in aneffective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity of the park. The production of fruit and timber treesdramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. Natural vegetative contour strips wereinstalled on several hundred sloping farms. Soil erosion and runoff declined, and the buffer strips increased maizeyields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill-slope farms. The scientific knowledge base guided the development andimplementation of a natural resource management plan for the municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grass-rootsmovement of farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary, which had a significantimpact on conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystems. Encroachment in the natural park wasreduced by 95% in 3 yr. The local Landcare groups also restored stream-corridor vegetation. This integratedapproach has been recognized as a national model for the local management of natural resources and watershedsin the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolvethe interactions between the three management domains: the park, the ancestral domain claim, and themunicipalities. This integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggestingthat commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a "drip-feed" approach rather than by large, externallyfunded efforts.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-00402-060112Altmetric score:
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Publication year
2002
Authors
Garrity, D.P.; Amoroso V B; Koffa S N; Catacutan D C; Buenavista G; Fay P; Williams D
Language
English
Keywords
land conservation, soil conservation, poverty, watersheds
Geographic
Indonesia
