Stakeholder dialogue as a forum for community engagement in the upland forestry projects in the Philippines

Abstract

A key attribute of an integrated approach to forestry management is one which accords adequate consideration to bio-economic and social imperatives. The recent literature, dealing with such complex and multi-faceted resource management and development problems, calls for an approach that puts emphasis on community engagement. The government of the Philippines has adopted the Community-Based Forest Management (CBFM) programme as an innovative national forestry management strategy based on community engagement. It is believed that sustainable upland development can be more effectively achieved when the diverse voices of local communities are heard. While there has been widespread research on different aspects of forestry management in the Philippines, there is a notable absence of theoretically informed analysis of the role of stakeholder dialogue as a forum for community engagement. The aim of this research was to critically evaluate this identified gap using two upland communities in Cagayan Valley in the Philippines as case studies. In addition, the institutional and related socio-political factors that have facilitated or acted as barriers to stakeholder dialogue were examined.

Qualitative research techniques were used to examine the role of stakeholder dialogue in the Villa Ventura and Sangbay CBFM projects. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 85 respondents including: the local inhabitants (direct and indirect CBFM participants), the key central government agency, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Local Government Units (LGUs), and the non-government organisations (NGOs).

A multi-theoretic, two-pronged analytical framework was developed for this study. The first leg of the analytical framework focussed on examining the attributes of successful stakeholder dialogue in terms of the five key framework elements: actors, methods, structures, processes, and outcomes. The second leg of the framework focussed on examining the contextual institutional and related socio-political factors which could explain the underlying reasons that enabled or hindered stakeholder dialogue.

The research findings were that there were significant shortcomings in the process of stakeholder dialogue in relation to the five key elements in both projects. Stakeholder dialogue overall has been more relatively more effective in the Villa Ventura CBFM project compared with the Sangbay CBFM project. The contextual institutional arrangements and related socio-political factors found to have facilitated stakeholder dialogue in the two CBFM projects were: land tenure security, the perceived benefits of the project, strong People Organisation (PO) leadership, trust and confidence in the Project Management Officer (PMO), recognising the importance of informal and continuous dialogue, cooperative endeavour, the provision of extension education, and behaviour and attitude change. The barriers identified as hindering the achievement of effective community engagement included: the devolution of authority from DENR to the LGUs, the limited nature of land tenure, the participants’ high dependency on DENR; the hierarchical top-down structure of stakeholder dialogue; political patronage and favouritism; and the limited involvement of women in stakeholder dialogue. This study has made an important theoretically informed contribution to understanding the factors for effectively making the transition to participatory forestry governance in the Philippines. The findings suggest that properly executed stakeholder dialogue can bring about greater community participation in the management of forests, which in turn can improve support and commitment from the participants. Incorporating the enabling institutional and related contextual socio-political factors in examining stakeholder dialogue complement the insights garnered through the lenses of the five key elements.