Browsing by Author "Dar, W."
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- Integrated natural resources management on the poverty-protection interface in an Asian watershedGarrity, Dennis P.; Amoroso, V.; Koffa, Samuel; Catacutan, Delia C.; Buenavista, Gladys; Fay, P.; Dar, W. (2001)There are serious methodological and policy hurdles to be overcome in effective integrated natural resource management that alleviated poverty while protecting environmental services in tropical watershed. We review the development of an approach to integrate biodiversity conservation and agroforestry development through the active involvement of communities and their local governments. The work focused on the Kitangaland Range Nature Park in the upper reaches of the Manuplai watershed in central Mindanao, Philippines. Agroforestry innovations were developed to suit the biophysical and socio-economic conditions off the buffer zone, including practices for tree farming and conservation farming with annual crops. Institutional innovations improved resource management, resulting in an effective social contract to protect the natural biodiversity of the Park. Natural vegetative contour strips were installed on several hundred sloping farms. Stream corridor vegetation was restored by the local Landcare groups. The practices decreased soil erosion and runoff, while the buffer strips increased maize yields by an average of 0.5 t/ha on hill slope farms. Fruit and timber tree production dramatically increased, re-establishing tree cover in the buffer zone. The scientific knowledge base guided the development and implementation of a natural resource management plan for the Municipality of Lantapan. A dynamic grassroots movement of farmer-led Landcare groups evolved in the villages near the park boundary. It has had significant impact on natural resource conservation in both the natural and managed ecosystem. Encroachment in the natural park has been rescued 95% in the past four years. This integrated approach has been recognized as a national model for local natural resource management planning and watershed management in the Philippines. Currently, the collaborating institutions are evolving a negotiation support system to resolve the interactions between the three management domains: The park: the ancestral domain claim, and the municipalities. The consortium that evolved this integrated systems approach operated effectively with highly constrained funding, suggesting that commitment and impact may best be stimulated by a drip-feed approach rather than by large, externally funded efforts.
- Landcare on the poverty-protection interface in an Asian watershedGarrity, Dennis P.; Amoroso, V.; Koffa, Samuel; Catacutan, Delia C.; Buenavista, Gladys; Fay, C.; Dar, W. (Waterloo, Ont.: Resilience Alliance Publications, 2002)This paper presents an integrated approach to natural resource management (INRM) that addresses both conservation of biodiversity and development to increase incomes and well-being in impoverished, fragile regions. The new approach suggested by the authors focuses on grass-roots movements to increase sustainable development. In the case study region, which is situated in the buffer zone of the Kitanglad Range Natural Park in the Manupali watershed, central Mindanao, the Philippines, there was successful widespread implementation of tree farming and conservation farming agroforestry techniques. The growth of fruit tree and timber farming increased tree cover in the buffer zone, and the use of buffer strips both decreased soil erosion and runoff and increased crop productivity. Local farmer-led Landcare groups helped to enhance conservation, restoring stream-corridor vegetation and contributing significantly to the 95% decrease of encroachment in the national park over three years. To resolve the overlapping, sometimes conflicting, management roles of the park, the ancestral domain claims of the indigenous people, and the local governments, the involved institutions are now developing a negotiation support system. The INRM applied to this region can serve as a national model for sustainable local natural resource and watershed management. The success of this approach, which worked with a very limited budget, suggests that projects based on high local commitment and involvement with "drip-feed" funding are preferable to large projects with generous external funding.