Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Agricultural Development and Environmental Management in a Philippine Watershed
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Seeking Sustainability: Challenges of Agricultural Development and Environmental Management in a Philippine Watershed Edited by Ian Coxhead and Gladys Buenavista PHILIPPINE COUNCIL FOR AGRICULTURE, FORESTRY AND NATURAL RESOURCES R ESEARCH AND D EVELOPMENT Department of Science and Technology Los Baños, Laguna 2001 First Edition 2001 ISBN 971-20-0483-X Bibliographic Citation: Coxhead, I.; Buenavista, G. (Eds.) Seeking sustainability: Challenges of agricultural development and environmental management in a Philippine watershed. Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines: PCARRD, 2001. 267p. Editorial Assistants: Brian Wiley University of Wisconsin Marina T. de Ramos PCARRD Cover Designer: Ingrid Slamer ii Foreword he Philippine uplands comprise more than half the country’s total land area. The nation’s forests and watersheds, overwhelmingly Tlocated in uplands, play vital environmental roles. At the same time, the upland natural resource base also serves an important economic function, supporting about 20 million Filipinos engaged primarily in agriculture. Population growth, commercial opportunity, and the promise of “open access” resources continue to draw Filipinos to uplands. As a result, their natural resource wealth and environmental quality is under threat from logging, grazing, urbanization and the spread of upland agriculture. Since 1993, the Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Collaborative Research Support Program (SANREM CRSP/ Southeast Asia) has addressed the issue of sustainable development in Philippine uplands through a participatory program of research, outreach, and capacity building. SANREM, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), brings U.S. and international scientists together with their Philippine counterparts in universities, government, NGOs and local communities, with the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) as the national host institution. This book features the innovative strategies and technologies that evolved in SANREM research on sustainable development in the fragile uplands. It is based on work at the project’s primary research site in the Municipality of Lantapan, in the headwaters of the Upper Manupali River in Bukidnon Province, Northern Mindanao. It showcases the project’s adherence to the principles of participation, interdisciplinary and intersectoral collaboration, and a landscape approach to resource and environmental issues. It reports on research and outreach work that is motivated by the need to balance economic aspirations with the need for environmental and natural resource conservation. It discusses lessons learned regarding the nature and degree of participation in the design and implementation of site-based research. It stresses the need for an approach to sustainable development that is cognizant of local as well as national conditions, markets and policies. The book highlights the iii importance of building strong partnerships among scientists, farmers and community groups, and local government in the pursuit of sustainable upland development. It is hoped that this book will serve as useful reference to development workers, planners, policy makers as well as other researchers not only in the Philippines but also in other Asian countries where similar problems of development in upland watersheds and forest areas are encountered. Lastly, we wish to acknowledge our strong partnership and collaboration with both Philippine and United States institutions in the successful implementation of the SANREM program under the joint coordination of the University of Wisconsin and PCARRD. PATRICIO S. FAYLON Executive Director PCARRD iv Acknowledgment his monograph and the research that it reports have been made possible with the assistance, support and encouragement of a large Tand diverse group of institutions and people. We wish to thank the people of the municipality of Lantapan, their community organizations, and their representatives in local and provincial government for their continuing support, cooperation and participation in the SANREM CRSP project. The authors of the contributed chapters, all of whom have long been involved in the project, deserve thanks for their efforts in preparing and revising manuscripts. The coordinating institutions of the project, especially PCARRD, Auburn University and the University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Office of International Agricultural Programs, have provided essential organizational and institutional backup. Production and editorial assistance were very capably handled by PCARRD’s SANREM staff and the staff of its Applied Communication Division, as well as by the staff of the SANREM site coordination office. At the University of Wisconsin, Brian Wiley provided valuable and dedicated assistance in making the manuscripts ready for publication. Also, this publication was made possible through the support provided by the Office of Agriculture and Food Security, Bureau for Global Programs, U.S. Agency for International Development, under the terms of Award No. PCE-A-00-98-00019-00. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Agency for International Development. v Contents Foreword ..................................................................................... iii Acknowledgment ........................................................................ iv About the Contributors .............................................................. xi Chapter 1: Seeking Sustainability Ian Coxhead and Gladys Buenavista Origins of the SANREM CRSP.................................................. 1 The SANREM Approach to Agricultural Development ......... 4 The Southeast Asia Site ............................................................. 6 Baseline: Lantapan ..................................................................... 11 SANREM Research, Findings and Impacts ............................. 18 Chapter 2: Demographic Development of Lantapan Merlyne M. Paunlagui and Vel Suminguit Introduction ……………………………… ................................... 31 Sources of Data …………………………. .................................... 31 Size, Growth and Composition …………. ................................. 32 Population Distribution…………………. .................................. 34 Sources of Population Growth ………….................................. 35 Projections of Population Growth and Pressure on Land Resources............................................................................... 40 Summary and Conclusion …………………. .............................. 42 Chapter 3: Philippine Development Strategies, Price Policies and National Markets: Growth, Policies and Upland Resource Use Ian Coxhead, Agnes Rola and Kwansoo Kim Introduction …………………………….. ..................................... 47 Growth, Policies, and Upland Resource Use in the Philippines….............................................................. 50 vi Markets, Prices and Land Use Decisions … ............................ 54 Conclusions ……………………………… .................................... 63 Chapter 4: Soil Conservation Decisions and Non-Farm Economic Conditions: A Study of the Rural Labor Market in the Philippine Uplands of Bukidnon Agnes C. Rola and Ian Coxhead Introduction ……………………………… ................................... 69 Economic Growth and Labor Market Trends Since the 1970s . .............................................................................. 72 Non-farm Employment and Changes in Agricultural Techniques............................................................................. 81 A Policy Scenario for Sustainable Resource Management in the Commercial Highlands ….................. 89 Concluding Remarks ……………………………………… .......... 90 Chapter 5: Making A Living Out of Agriculture: Some Reflections on Vegetable Production Systems in the Manupali Watershed David J. Midmore, Todd M. Nissen and Durga D. Poudel Introduction ……………………………………….. ...................... 94 Farm and Crop Level Analyses in Relation to Sustainability .................................................................... 95 Digressions Into Fallowing ....................................................... 98 Conservation Practices Acceptable to Farmers ...................... 100 Some Exercises with EPIC Modelling ..................................... 104 Compatibility of Trees with Vegetables................................... 106 Conclusions ................................................................................. 109 Chapter 6: Innovations in Participatory Watershed Resource Management to Conserve Tropical Biodiversity Dennis P. Garrity, Victor B. Amoroso, Samuel Koffa and Delia Catacutan Introduction …………………………………….. .......................... 112 The Global Experience …………………………. ........................ 114 vii Integrating Conservation and Development in the Manupali Watershed ................................................. 117 Enhancing Agrodiversity ……………………….. ....................... 119 Assembling the Elements of a Social Contract …. .................. 124 Conclusion: Putting the Pieces Together ………..................... 132 Acknowledgment ........................................................................ 134 Chapter 7: Community-based Water Quality Monitoring: From Data Collection to Sustainable Management of Water Resources William G. Deutsch, Allison L. Busby, Jim L. Orprecio, Janeth P. Bago-Labis and