The Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park

To avert the continuous loss of forest resources in the NSMNP, various programs were initiated in the watershed. These include the NSMNP-Conservation cum Development Project11, funded by the Dutch Government and managed by Plan International. There were also the community based forest management (CBFM) projects under the Natural Resources Management Program (NRMP) funded by USAID - established mostly in designated buffer zones to protect the area's remaining residual and old growth forests. In addition, there was also the Community-based Forestland Regeneration and Related Research Project - jointly undertaken by Plan International and Cagayan Valley Program of Environment and Development (CVPED) with funding also from USAID. In addition, the LGU was also tapped to provide funding for resource management initiatives. In 1996, LGU counterpart funding to the USAID-funded project was P625,000. This increased to P1,907,000 in 1997 and to more than P2M in 1998. These are spent mostly for supplies and meals for preparatory activities such as perimeter survey, resource inventory, training activities, nursery establishment, and other livelihood activities. Communities' counterpart takes the form of labor or in-service while private sector investment in CBFM sites was estimated to amount to P1.72 M in 1997.