Back | Programme Area: Environment, Sustainable Development and Social Change
Forest Policy and Politics in the Philippines: The Dynamics of Participatory Conservation
Edited volume by Peter Utting.
This book assesses the achievements, complexities and limitations of attempts to promote forest protection and people’s participation in natural resource management. After the People Power Revolution of 1986, the Philippines gained international recognition as a country actively pursuing an agenda of people-centred sustainable development. The book asks how successful these attempts have been in reversing decades of plunder of the country’s forest resources. The contributors use case studies of policies, programmes and projects to examine the ways in which participatory approaches to natural resource management might be implemented. The book concludes that progress in participatory conservation will depend not only on the presence of supportive institutions and strucutres at local, national and international levels, but also on the existence of a coalition of social and political forces that can mobilize and maintain such a presence.
Contents: Towards Participatory Conservation: An Introduction—Peter Utting ▪ Forest Policy and National Politics—Marites Dañguilan Vitug ▪ The Changing Role of Government in Forest Protection—Ben S. Malayang III ▪ NGO Influence on Environmental Policy—Marvic M.V.F. Leonen ▪ The Role of Local Stakeholders in Forest Protection—Howie G. Severino ▪ Social and Political Determinants of Successful Community-Based Forestry—Benjamin C. Bagadion, Jr. ▪ Rethinking Participation and Empowerment in the Uplands—Antonio P. Contreras ▪ An Overview of the Potential and Pitfalls of Participatory Conservation—Peter Utting