Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2:137-183 (2010)
Nena O. Espiritu1, Juan M. Pulhin2, Ma. Cynthia S. Casin1 and Eumelia B. Corpuz1
Forestry Development Center, 2Department of Social Forestry and Forest Governance, College of
Forestry and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines Los Baos, College, Laguna
CBFM as a strategy refers to all organized efforts of the government to work with local
communities in and adjacent to public forestlands. It underscores the principles of social equity,
sustainability and community participation in forest management and biodiversity conservation.
Through the CBFM strategy, the government empowers and allocates to local communities portions
of the forestlands for development, protection, management, conservation and further grants them
access to utilize forest resources. Thus, CBFM is seen as a key forestry program that can meet the
challenges associated with climate change. The various CBFM activities including natural forests
management, degraded lands rehabilitation and agroforestry are supportive of the objectives of
promoting ecological stability and promoting livelihood opportunities for upland communities. This
study assessed the readiness of the CBFM program to meet the challenges of climate change by doing
a content analysis of its various policy issuances and by looking into the actual bio-physical and
socio-economic accomplishments of CBFM program. Different sets of criteria and indicators were
formulated and tested to determine its contribution in reducing the impacts of climate change and
whether the CBFM program adds to the resiliency of the forests and forest communities to adapt to
climate change. Content analysis showed that climate change concerns are not mainstreamed in the
various CBFM policy issuances, as these concerns are not explicitly mentioned in the policies.
Despite this, CBFM policies are directed towards forest conservation, sustainable resource
management and the enhancement of socioeconomic welfare of forest-dependent communities that
have the potential to reduce current vulnerability of forests and upland communities. Review and
analysis of the accomplishments of CBFM on ground revealed that: (1) current CBFM programs and
projects help improve forest condition in a number of places; (2) CBFM may not have significantly
reduced current vulnerability of communities to climate-related and other socioeconomic stressors
considering the limited livelihood opportunities developed by the project.
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