European Tropical Forest Research Network

Organisations - Institutions - Programmes

Table of contents

FACILITATING COLLABORATION AND PARTNERSHIPS: LESSONS FROM ADAPTIVE COLLABORATIVE MANAGEMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES

By Herlina Hartanto

Community forestry has a long history in the Philippines. It began as early as in the 1970s, when the government started a people-oriented forestry initiative in the country. Three decades of experience have led to the creation of a flagship programme called Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) in 1995. CBFM puts local communities at the heart of CBFM management as stated in its slogan: 'People first, then sustainable forests will follow'. The Philippines also has an impressive record with regard to decentralisation. The 1991 Local Government Code authorises local government units to take part in implementing social forestry and reforestation programmes, managing communal forests less than 5,000 hectares, protecting watersheds and enforcing forest laws.

Nevertheless, devolution and decentralisation also create complexity and confusion. With authorities, rights and responsibilities being shared among various government agencies and communities, a greater number of 'groups' emerged with different and sometimes conflicting interests, objectives, mandates and values. Furthermore, devolution and decentralisation are often conditional and partial, with control still being retained by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), which is responsible for overseeing CBFM in the Philippines. The situation is further exacerbated by a lack of communication and information flow, a lack of institutional mechanisms for engaging in partnerships and a lack of trust among the stakeholders. As a result of all these constraints, there are few genuine partnerships among and between People's Organisations, DENR and Local Government Units.

ACM approach and processes
In the midst of these institutional and management complexities we carried out a research project on Adaptive Collaborative Management (ACM) in two CBFM sites in the Philippines. One site was located in Bukidnon province (Mindanao) and the other one was in Palawan province (Luzon). Similar research projects are underway in other countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The ACM approach, which focuses on social learning, communication and collective action among diverse stakeholders, was used to facilitate collaboration and learning among the People's Organisations (PO), DENR and other local stakeholders in the Philippines.

In order to strengthen collaboration and partnerships in action and learning, and using participatory action research as the main research methodology, we facilitated the use of the following ACM approach and processes in the two sites:

• Effective participatory stakeholder identification processes and deliberate conscious efforts of engagement among these different stakeholders based on trust, common interests and objectives. Analysis of their mandates, interests, strengths and weaknesses allowed related institutions to identify areas that need collaborative efforts, and how their resources and capacities can be used more effectively, so that they can work together with mutual understanding and respects.
• Enhanced information sharing and communication horizontally (internally within the members of their PO and externally with other organisations and institutions), and vertically (to policy makers).
• Formation of different platforms that bring different stakeholders together for information sharing, the discussion of challenges and negotiations, conflict resolution, and to learn jointly from experience.
• Strengthening the skills, capacities, awareness, behaviour and attitude that would allow the PO and local stakeholders to engage effectively in partnerships.

Outcomes
Our three years of work on ACM implementation revealed improvements in human and social capital, as shown below, that indicate increased collaboration and partnerships in action and learning within and across stakeholders:

• Increased joint action by PO members (in establishing nurseries, herb gardens, newsletter production and proposal making) and across different stakeholders (controlling illegal activities, resolving boundary dispute, developing local monitoring system and exploring livelihood options for the PO).
• Increased communication and feedback provided by the PO to policy makers, identifying policies that hinder effective CBFM implementation and recommending alternatives.
• Increased level of trust between the PO and key government institutions, which lead to increased transparency and increased resource sharing.
• Increased participation and support from various government institutions to the PO in implementing CBFM.
• More active PO and community members and more functional committees participating in forest resource management.
• More democratic decision-making and planning processes that engaged more PO members, different community groups and other key stakeholders.
• Improved skills of several PO members in proper documentation, expressing and communicating their views and opinions, effectively using different mechanisms for information sharing (billboards, bulletin boards, newsletters, radio programmes, different forums) so that information reached the intended target audience through different channels.
• Improved capacities of the PO to link up with various government institutions and NGOs who have the skills, knowledge and financial resources to assist them.
• PO members reflected on their actions and experience in a more structured and conscious way, based on observations and monitoring and adjusted their management strategies accordingly.

Conditions
Our study also revealed that facilitating collaboration and partnerships in a multi-stakeholder situation would only be effective if:

• the process is facilitated by someone who is perceived to be relatively 'neutral' and can gain the confidence of related stakeholders;
• there is a willingness of the stakeholders to discuss, negotiate and work together towards common goals;
• the level of skills, capacities, confidence and awareness of local people to reach out and reach up to their members and other stakeholders is sufficient.

While is it too early to know the long-term outcomes of the ACM approach, results from the two sites in the Philippines and other ACM sites all over the world indicated that ACM is a potentially useful approach to enhancing collaboration and learning in the management of community forests.

Further information:
Herlina Hartanto
Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
P.O. Box 6596, JKPWB, Jakarta 10065, Indonesia
E-mail: h.hartanto@cgiar.org

Top of page