[2] The scheme stresses the importance of involving communities in sustaining the forest through projects such as timber harvesting, agro-forestry and livestock raising.
[3] CBFM therefore advocates an increasingly ‘bottom up’ – as opposed to the historically ‘top down’ and centralised - approach to sustainable forest governance involving a variety of stakeholders.
[5] In addition, uncontrollable levels of deforestation remains a problem in the Philippines, with current forest cover at 25.7% [10] and many rural and upland communities still well under the poverty line.
[6] The Ngan, Panansalan, Pagsabangan Forest Resources Development Cooperative (NPPFRDC) emerged from CBFM as a scheme to promote the sustainable harvest of timber and improve social justice.
[8] NPPFRC is located in Compostela in Southern Philippines which was awarded CBFM in 1996, giving them “the rights and responsibilities to manage and protect 14,800 ha of forest land”.
The entitlement of land to manage has successfully altered the mindset of the communities involved to care more for the importance of the forests in which they live instead of degrading them.
[6] The YISEDA managed to overcome economic hardship in the beginning due to lack of government funding to maintain protection of the forest.
[6] Development funding of P5 million from GIZ played a big part in the long term success of YISEDA [9] who, by 2001 started to reap the rewards of their hardship with a harvest of 66 hardwoods at a cost of P5,000 each.
[5] The NPPFRDCs success is dependent on these developments in the near future [8] Governments must allow CBFMs to have increased formal involvement in the decision-making process and policy changes that can impact positively on their lives.
[4] Additionally, at a local level “strategic interventions are still needed to achieve the social justice and equality objectives of CBFM” thus addressing the observation in some projects that the community elites and educated are benefiting the most.